Cat

RHOM It was a slowish but relatively non-toxic episode, and these days I'm appreciating the latter more and more. Even Julia's Tiffany-box proposal wasn't nearly as 'scandalous' as it appeared in the trailer -- instead, it was quite sweet, if a little weird. I was mean about Julia last week, saying she didn't seem very bright, but actually she comes across a sweet, soft-hearted individual, if a little naive. Marysol was the comic queen of the one-liners this episode, in her array of stylish, poolside bathing suits and big sunglasses. Marysol has leaned into her own glamour recently. I really felt her "I'd rather starve than step on a treadmill" -- me in my 20s, basically. Larsa is nobody's fool and sees Nicole clearly. This was the first episode I really 'got' her as a person with a nose for who exactlyis bullshitting her. Nice to have Guerdy back, and Kiki was fun too. I think Kiki may be the best attired of all the women. That's right -- the case hasn't been dismissed, but is instead refiled in a different jurisdiction: the state of California, instead of Illinois. Erika is by no means off the hook.

LOL i love Teresa! Andy tried it, though.

Thanks! I knew that Bill Bell made his name with Days especially, but couldn't remember the AW details. Interesting that it was Agnes who stabilised AW and took it to the next level. (My core memories of AW are mostly from the 80s and Donna Swajeski years, and of course Harding Lemay's AW work on YouTube).

Exactly this! I was transported to another world watching Y&R where uncertainty, anxiety and shadows lurked on the edges of the WASPy, midwestern privilege it showcased (BTW, wasn't Bill Bell hired by Irna Phillips to write for AW way back in the day?). There is no doubt that Bill and Lee Bell had a very specific world in mind when they created Y&R in 1973.... and when they had to reboot Y&R in 1981 (I think) when the Brooks family mostly left and the Abbotts/Newmans were phased in.... and again when they created B&B in 1987. Despite similar lush production styles and some shared SL tropes, B&B's world felt distinct from Y&R, dreamily soaked in 80s LA sunlight and sensuality. At least to me it felt different.

They really haven't.

Sometimes, people lose creative inspiration, or get writers block. I honestly think that is what has happened with Josh Griffith. And maybe that's why everything is in a giant holding pattern. As for the Bill Bell 'debate', no HW is perfect and everybody's cup of tea. It is a question of taste. My personal preference is for Bill Bell's slow, psychologically ambivalent/downbeat, film-noiresque style, but I have loved all kinds of soaps (including Days, GH, Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach, AW, etc). Even at a cool distance, though, Bill Bell's ability to map out a story (based in part on a character's psychological ticks), play the beats, or develop an umbrella story featuring 3/4 of the cast, was masterful. He also had an eye for picking talented EPs and co-writers. His technical prowess in writing/producing/envisioning a soap's look & feel lifted the genre -- I don't think it is 'biased' or 'stanning' to acknowledge that.

Exactly! The cast remained true to their own personal style, and while it may not be my style, I can't deny that someone like Nicole really pulls off her outfit. Yellow is not an easy color! Also -- the women are wearing the clothes, the clothes are not wearing them (like we had with the SLC and BH reunion looks). Marysol's outfit suits her so well and gives her an almost regal vibe. Versace, patron saint of Miami Beach. Love that a reunion decided to pay tribute to a top designer so closely associated with Miami. I think that might be a RH's first. Transitional also because more RH viewers are streaming the shows, so the TV ratings won't reflect the numbers migrating online. I do think RH viewership has gone down compared with the glory days of RHOA, but I don't think it has collapsed to the extent seen in some of the 'TV ratings only' numbers. It's crazy to me that Carlos King, who discovered Nene Leakes and is the RH's biggest fan, hasn't been kept on by Bravo or spun to another show. Honestly, BH could do with a Carlos King sometimes (and yes, I know BH along with RHOA, pulls in the biggest audience. I'm saying that BH doesn't always deserve those numbers). I would love to see what he would do with RHONY! Given the careful attention setting up RHONJ, with the ties between the women and the sense of a very specific location, I think he would breathe fresh air into a franchise that really needs the help. So why hasn't he been given those opportunities? I have to imagine that the break-up between CK and Bravo was not amicable. It occurred during/after S9 RHOA reunion. TT at the time inferred that Phaedra got the Kandi/Porsha rumor from CK, and this was brought up at reunion but then cut. Kandi put her foot down and said CK must leave, and honestly, I can see why she would insist on that. Nene backed Kandi because she felt CK had given her a 'bad edit' in S7 and S8 and wanted him gone too.

All week the interwebs were saying that Tiffany 'New York' Pollard, Nene Leakes and Erika Jayne were joining. Can you imagine how let down CBB viewers must feeling right now? Adriana is not the best dressed in this reunion line-up, but she does look better than she has on the show. IMO Lisa is the standout look here. Total facts. I know Carlos King has an ego on him, but RHOA has not touched greatness since he left.

Real Housewives of Miami reunion looks! Very Miami, but way better than SLC. This is also the best Adriana has looked all season.

If it is plastic surgery, she really had a lot of it because this seriously looks like a completely different person. The chin alone.... Whitney Rose today

😬 Whitney before the plastic surgery?

👀

I couldn't stand Pettifleur either, and found S2 a slower watch as a result (also it had a LOT of Jackie and her business ventures). However, there was one amazing scene where Pettifleur hosted a Winter Wonderland party in her apartment and executed some kind of interpretive dance routine which has to be seen to be believed! The HWs watching were like 😬 Other than that -- S3 (even though it featured Pettifleur) is better than S2. "I'm in the best shape of my life! Who begs to differ?"

The Movie Star and Me: https://medium.com/@domenicamferaud/the-movie-star-and-me-5d711ee661e3

Oh, this guy exudes 'Black Friend For Hire.' I'm assuming he thought this would raise his podcast's profile. Wonder if he was flown to Utah for this mess or already lives there. Well, not really wondering. Wondering implies that I care about this person's backstory! Her smirk in this screenshot. It's fine -- you weren't co-opting it as your own, you were pointing out that someone on the thread said it. Some of these Tweets are gold. And some of them say he looks like Kanye too but honestly that was my first thought before I even read the comments.

Guys, Jennie kidnapped Kanye and won't release him until she's back on the show. 👀

Agreed about Bravo getting caught out by fan reaction. Andy was practically sleepy when he 'addressed' this on WWHL on Sunday (taped last Wednesday)! He and Bravo had no clue this would explode like it did, and he and Lisa paid some corporate lip service to "doing better" and thought that would be it. Even as the issue built up over the weekend, Andy was all "It will get addressed on WWHL" as his sole response. Monday on his radio show he finally caught a clue and said "The posts were disgusting. OK?" like "Are you happy now?" The ratings for SLC came in below par and that was confirmation that Bravo needed to make a definitive statement. As Lea Black said in a recent interview, production (as she experienced it) cares about the product, but Bravo only cares about the transactional. And ratings = money. (My speculation: Bravo thought the scandal would actually boost Sunday's ratings). Most of the cast (except maybe Lisa Barlow) understood the seriousness and their statements as of Thursday onward reflect that. As @DaytimeFan said, Heather and Meredith's statements made it clear they would refuse to work with Jennie, so Bravo would have to make a choice: back up the racist, or back up the OGs. I haven't watched Sunday's episode yet (feel a little exhausted by all things SLC recently!), but I understand some of Meredith's anger, especially re: attacks against her son on Twitter, as stirred up by Jen Shah. Also, the accusation that Meredith and Mary got Jen arrested is ridiculous and pure deflection by Bad Weather away from Jen's actual (prosecuted) crimes -- these have been barely mentioned on the show. This must make Meredith livid. She is calm and cautious and rational until everything builds up and then there is a volcanic explosion. OMG I love that you have been watching Melbourne S1. Queen Giner (one of my top tier HWs across any franchise) really got the women in a tizzy! Shine-Shine-Shine was OK first season, but I felt her bitterness S2 onwards that she wasn't the breakout star like Gina. Janet plays the game and flip-flops based on her own assessment of what would be good for Janet. At the end of the day, I can't fault her for it. Andrea was SO AWFUL but for that reason she was entertaining. Those scenes telling exhausted 'working mums' that they were lazy and had to organise themselves better were cringetastically entertaining, and production must have been thrilled. You cannot buy that kind of blind condescension. Lydia is a big dumb villain. She thought she was playing Gina and the women so well -- it was hilarious how proud she was of her own 'smarts.' She basically tried to do what Janet was doing, and it flopped hard, but her deluded view of her own powers of bitchiness is what kept her on the show. She is also a big gossip, and sloppy in her own private life -- production likely knew all this would bite her in the ass in S2/S3. I like that Melbourne doesn't take itself too seriously when all is said and done. Giner's "You're an insignificant arse-hair" to Andrea still resonates.

The backlash must have been FIERCE because the network is pretty much acknowledging that its due diligence procedures are sub-par.

I don't know... Is Jennie Nguyen worth the effort for Bravo? A Brandi Redmond season-long redemption arc? I do not understand it. What Jennie is bringing to the table here compared with the other 6 women? Bravo would be dumb AF to throw its support behind this easily-replaceable FOH. Judging by Andy's radio comments, I think it sounds like Bravo may now be trying to plan her exit. That false-advertising WWHL episode was NOT well-received at all. I cannot see Bravo keeping her on after the backlash of the last few days -- and people threatening to boycott Bravo completely. I know it's a skeleton at the moment, but Melissa's new house is def making space for a bunch of chateau windows and turrets of different shapes and sizes.

On a lighter note -- RHONJ. Melissa & Joe are building a new McMansion to replace their old McMansion. I wonder if this will be Melissa's SL this season? After 'marriage problems' and 'possible secret half-sister.' Remember when the real estate agent took clients through their old place, and they discovered that the bathroom 'marble' was actually wood?

RHONY got toxic in its third season and went really hardcore in S4. The thing about RHONY was that most of the women were legit friends in S1-S3. Ramona and Jill knew each other for at least a decade, Jill and Luann got close, Jill and Bethenny got REALLY close, Ramona and Sonja were longtime pals. The fact that these were real relationships resonated -- although that is not to say that Jill Zarin and others weren't strategizing and self-producing for the show, trying to win the audience on their side, because they were. It's why their RL relationships couldn't be sustained, because Jill was briefing Page Six against Ramona, and vice versa. With SLC, as Meredith referred to Jennie in her statement, these are 'co-workers.' The toxicity feels different as a result (and even contrived), and this has an impact on our investment in this cast.

Ugh, I feared WWHL would blow this. After all, the episode was taped last Wednesday, before this mess took a life of its own. But Andy and Lisa kept saying on Twitter "It will get addressed on Sunday's WWHL." I thought, given the gagging of the cast, that maybe Bravo was waiting for this moment to make a definitive announcement. It was worse than I feared -- Andy didn't even say anything on behalf of Bravo. Lisa simpered some empty words about "doing better." Andy has lost touch with the mood of the audience. Surely he saw the situation building with Tweets he was receiving Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Many of the Tweets were crying out for Bravo to break its silence -- which the network still has not done. I'll give it to Jen Shah, Heather, Whitney and Meredith -- they understood before Andy did that the audience wanted clarity. Meredith was prevented from talking from the jump. Her eventual statement was very clear on where she stands. It is telling that these women broke ranks with Bravo to issue statements, maybe to force Bravo's hand? Only Bravo (and Andy) do not want to make a move one way or another. This is an awful look for the network.

Rumor is Andy is going to talk about this tonight. Better not be a 10-second "We just want to reiterate that Bravo does not condone racism. And now it's time to play Gucci or Garbage!" https://twitter.com/ActressCRSmith/status/1485267321044221956

Finally watched RHOM, and it was a packed episode. First off, I agree that the women have plenty going on in their own lives that they don't need to be thrown together every episode for manufactured drama. I love seeing Guerdy doing her event planning, and Alexia basically breathing drama. She is a Bravo producer's dream in terms of her real life and her willingness to hold her own with the other women. She is the Alpha Dog. Secondly, I was ready to put Nicole in the one-and-done category, but she stepped it up this episode. First of all, the confrontation with her clearly-drunk dad which likely did not go the way she envisioned and was all the more organic because of it. Second, Nicole finally leaned into her inner Cubana -- you could hear it in her accent and greater use of Spanish with Alexia. I feel like this gave her toughness and allowed her to take on four women coming for her all dinner long. Now, do I think Marysol brought this up to thirstily keep the drama going and finally claim that mojito? Yes I do. Marysol is that HW. However, I 100% agree with you that Baby Nicole made a classic rookie mistake. She got involved in someone else's drama. And she talked out of turn about the women while Marysol took notes. She handled herself well but damage was done. Nicole did strike back with that 'Alexia talking about Marysol behind her back' comment. We will see how that shakes out next week, because Marysol looked like she believed it for a minute. Speaking of trying to land that mojito -- Adriana in the bath. Lord! And Julia soaping her back and ogling. I'm starting to think that Julia may not be very bright, although I did like her Voice of Reason throughout the dinner. Alexia spoke the Lord's Truth about Lisa bringing glam to the house. WTF? For a clambake where she wore jeans and a tank top? I love glamour and fashion and all that, but glam-with-no-place-to-go has completely overtaken these shows in lieu of actual SLs, and it is completely ridiculous. I love that Alexia and Marysol did their own looks together and we got to see it. And this just echoes what an empty vessel Lisa is. All looks and fillers and nothing else. At least Larsa has a jewellery line to promote. The only thing I disagree on with you is Kiki. I love her fashion and hair looks. But she is like a ghost floating through this pack of women. When she said she needed to "caca," literally nobody reacted and I was like 'Do they not see her standing right there?'