Another double bill because neither of these episodes was enormously interesting
S01 E07 & E08 - Kim Needs a Man
Kim & Kyle
It seems to me that of the Richards sisters, Kyle is much better equipped to be a reality TV personality. She annoys the fuck out of me, but she clearly knows how to stir the pot and generate drama, and can probably create a fairly healthy mental separation between the show and her real life. I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers, but I do know she's the only OG still in the cast and her marriage seems to have endured, so I guess that's probably a testament to her resilience.
I do not think the same is true for poor Kim. With that in mind, watching her struggling to navigate the horribly awkward 'blind date' (at a huge party hosted by somebody she seemed to barely know, populated by judgemental witches, with TV cameras rolling) was excruciating. Any other member of the cast would probably have embraced the unreality of it all and laughed it off, but Kim kept doing clearly un-TV friendly things like showing up dressed like an actual prostitute and then vanishing to the bathroom for long stretches of time (

).
I felt bad for her, even moreso on the following episode where she meets another guy and impulsively invites him over to meet her terrifying brood of children and comes off completely desperate and unhinged. It's undeniably compelling, but I kind of wish somebody (not Kyle) would take her under their wing a bit.
On a lighter note, this scene of Kim being unwillingly strapped into what appears to be a medieval torture device masquerading as a beauty spa treatment while Kyle smirks impassively from the sidelines is a moment of high camp that probably sums up their relationship better than any moment I've seen so far.
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Oh, and I have nowhere else to put it, but the offhand reveal that Kyle's live-in nanny appears to have FLED INTO THE NIGHT the day before her cycling trip really cracked me up.
Taylor
Did Taylor give her daughter Munchausen syndrome by proxy as an excuse to get rid of that dog? Because I feel like that's what happened.
There's a more subtle shade of crazy emanating from her compared to the open wound that is Kim, but it's really starting to come through as the weeks go by. That said, the revelation that she's a child of domestic abuse and now hosts fundraiser's for a women's shelter was actually genuinely touching, and her breaking down while talking about it felt very real for this show. The husband still gives me the absolute creeps.
Lisa
Lisa seems to have settled in nicely as the comic relief/narrator of the show. Still living for her catty one-liners, but there's not much else to say at this point. I feel she took a slightly MALICIOUS JOY in setting Kim up with a guy who was patently unsuitable for her, and I could probably have watched an entire episode of her torturing her house gay and being openly hostile to commoners during the whole driving licence B-plot.
Camille
OK so she is 100% on the outs with the other women after the New York fight, then? It was like every 20 minutes or so the producers would be like "Oh yeah, Camille is contracted on this show!" and cut to her randomly twirling in ball gowns and recapping scenes from previous episodes with un-named hangers on.
Adrienne
What the fuck was this outfit?
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That's all I've got really. She had an anniversary dinner? She got a dog? I dunno, she just seems grumpy and over it the whole time.
Next up... the Dinner Party from Hell