Bravo's The Real Housewives of....

[Antoyne]

Real Housewives started about the women and their families, is Teresa not supposed to feature her kids? Kids have always been part of the show.

[chrisml]

Of course but there are times this season when I felt Teresa was actively exploiting her children's emotions for the camera. A case could be made that the girls should have been able to visit their father for the first time without the cameras but then there would have been no paycheck or end of season wrap up. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by chrisml

[DynamiteKiddo]

Joe & Teresa have been exploiting their family for $$ for a long, long time... remember all that magazine sh!t?  It's unfortunately probably the only way they've gotten out of their horrible legal/financial mess. Teresa is going to need to keep hustling to put her daughters through college, maintain their lifestyle, and God knows what Joe will try to "negotiate" if and when they get divorced.

 

But no one in that whole Gorga family is any better.  These are people who wrecked their whole family on/for television.  Seasons 3-5 are heartbreaking, and more than the christening or retreat, the scene that really stays with me is Tre & Ro screaming about their parents in that bar.  Teresa, Melissa, Kathy, and their families have no scruples.

[DynamiteKiddo]

Anything with Danielle in the first two years was very, very sad.

 

S2 Posche fashion show is stunning.  It's easy to overlook her, but from the beginning of that confrontation after there was no turning back, you can see Jacqueline come into the side of the frame to back up Teresa with that "her house is not in foreclosure!" and then she follows them... and then the "I read your court records Danielle!... that you beat someone with a 9 millimeter pistol..." And then when she's folding her arms across her chest outside of the car!!!  And Daniel's hysterically screaming and crying on 911, "and Jacqueline Laurita's WAITIN' for me owtside mYY car!"  And notice how she refers to Ashlee as "Jacqueline Laurita's daughter" to the police.  OMG s2 gives me life!!!  But I overlooked how harrowing it all was (for Danielle and what it said about all of them as people) and it laid the groundwork for the sicko show NJ became from seasons 3-5, and even season 6 with those ratchet twins and demonic Jim & Amber.

 

I really enjoy Margaret.  I kinda didn't like her at first because Siggy self destructed like a very defective robot because of her... but that was on Siggy and her weird, ultimately fragile self-image she felt she had to maintain (still love Siggy, though).  But The Marge is so fun, but she misguidedly aligned herself with Danielle in the first place and problems follow her wherever she goes.  Usually at a certain point, that stops being coincidence.

[Cat]

@DynamiteKiddo I thought I was the only one who missed Siggy Flicker! I mean, she was crazy and obsessive and it was exhausting to watch how obsessed she was with punishing Marge. But the season she self-destructed was one of NJ's best. I still wish she hadn't been fired. After all, she had ok relationships with Teresa and Melissa, and of course Dolores. That Marge-Siggy rivalry could have been one for the ages, especially adding Danielle and Jennifer to that crazy mix!

 

S1 NJ imo was already toxic but S2 ramped it up another level and set the template for years to come. Melissa basically owes her entire TV career to Danielle uttering those famous words to Teresa at S2 reunion: "Did you acknowledge your nephew?" Andy's eyes lit up interestedly, and when Teresa shoved Andy to get to Danielle, production knew they had found Tre's hot button for S3 onwards. Danielle and Melissa apparently corresponded throughout S2 on Facebook, so she'd better watch out because something tells me Danielle still has those messages saved somewhere.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Danielle needs to just expose Melissa's a** already. 

 

RHOA: 

 

Marc Daly has to be the worst house-husband of all time. Tonight's episode was just painful to watch. 

[Cheap21]

IA. Marc was terrible and I think this was Bravo's payback on him for the crap he said last year. I bet he regrets doing the show now.

 

Nene STAY pressed about Kenya. She barely has anyone to film with so she has recruited Wendy Williams just so she can complain about Keny paying her dust

[NothinButAttitude]

 

That whole convo was telling. Wendy was clearly pumping Nene for info on the show for her hot topics segment. Wendy doesn't give 2 sh*ts about Nene. 

 

[Gray Bunny]

 

Hahaha I thought the same thing... awfully presumptuous lyrics!  And yes, there'll always be that dark cloud over Melissa regarding how she got on the show in the first place. Damn, if only Danielle had finally spilled the tea onscreen (i.e. "did you acknowledge your nephew?") 

[DynamiteKiddo]

I agree that Danielle has the Facebook messages saved.  Once Bravo and Teresa decided to stop the Gorga feud as the centerpiece of the show after "camp," Melissa got off so easy with everyone just "forgetting" about seasons 3-5.  The only reason I can think why Jacqueline and Kathy aren't exposing her (because they have to know EVERYthing, esp. Kathy and Rosie) is because they'd be seriously implicating themselves in God knows what.  And hopefully after everything, Kathy and Rosie don't want to further disrupt their broken family, esp. while Teresa&Joey1.0 (K&R's mom and Teresa & Joey's dad) are still alive. And Dina knows a lot more than she's saying, as we saw in the S6 reunion.  But she likely wants to keep her self-proclaimed "moral high ground" and even more likely doesn't want Melissa to spill what she knows about her/Caroline/Chris.  And unless she really blows her top sky high one day, Dolores isn't going to say anything.  But Danielle has nothing left to lose--show the messages!  But Danielle doesn't even have the later information like the others, though.

 

After all these years as a viewer, I just really, really, really want Melissa to be exposed for the grimey, disloyal snake that she is.  And I'm not a Teresa fan.  This is just about justice, and show-wise, Melissa (and Joey) came out of this pretty unscathed while Teresa (and Joe) were characterized as very evil people and Jacqueline and Kathy ultimately lost all their face and their jobs.  I wonder if Melissa even fully understands how lucky she is and how quickly she could still lose everything??

[Gray Bunny]

 

Whoops, should've continued catching up on this thread before chiming in. Yep, Melissa has never gotten the comeuppance she deserved for how she wormed her way onto the show. 

[chrisml]

Why does it matter how Melissa came onto the show? We're talking about a show where the main housewife is a convicted felon who hangs out with Danielle Staub (at least until Teresa threw her to the side when her own violence was exposed). Badmouthing Teresa and using Danielle to get on the show seems like child's play to me. It also seems like old news since this was discussed years ago. If anything, Melissa coming on the show gave Teresa more of a hold on the show since she now had her brother and the other relatives. Even in the pre-Italy part of the finale, Melissa was responsible for giving Teresa her big moment.

 

 

[DynamiteKiddo]

Melissa (and Joey) tried to dismantle Teresa's entire life because they were jealous of her fame and Joey wanted lash out at his sister and parents on tv where any of then can rewind this stuff for the rest of their lives.  Melissa & Joey successfully infiltrated Teresa's life and took most of her support, then disgustingly turned on all the people they enlisted to turn on her when Joey finally came to his senses that it was enough after Joe & Teresa wrecked their and their daughters' lives and Melissa decided it would suit her image to "let bygones be bygones."

 

I hate them because of their overwhelming hypocrisy and how they cowardly threw away their cousins like garbage.  And it was ultimately Jacqueline's fault for getting involved in someone else's family drama, but she turned on Teresa to defend Melissa to the death and Melissa didn't lift a finger for her in season 7.  It was stunning.

 

I do agree that Teresa owes her place as the star of NJ because of Bravo's decision to center the show around her family drama.  Interesting but very true take.

[rlj]

I think NJ can survive without Tre, like all the other franchises survived without their stalwarts, Tre knows this, hence y shes intimidated by Margaret!

 

Anyway

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Edited March 2, 2020 by rlj

[DaytimeFan]

ATL

 

I thought Marc and Kenya came off terribly last night. 

 

Marc is, of course, a total as$hole and clearly hates Kenya.

 

But Kenya also treated Marlo and her nephews carelessly and demonstrates a disregard for the very point of that charity event. That spoke volumes to me. For Kenya, it's all a show, not about reality and that is the same attitude she brought to her marriage.