VoR does RHOBH

S01E09 - The Dinner Party from Hell :disco:

How amazingly fitting that they waited until episode 9 to air the RHOBH equivalent of the RED WEDDING :D

Camille (featuring ALISON DUBOIS)
Seriously, HOW was Camille considered the hate figure of this season?! I stan her so hard I can barely breathe at this point. Watching her is like watching an actual reality TV masterclass.

As soon as Kylie mentioned she was bringing a friend to the party, you just KNOW that Camille jumped straight on Google and hatched a plot to OBLITERATE her. Poor morally corrupt Faye Resnick never stood a chance. The condescending, half-bored tones! "Is that why you're herrrrre, Faye?" Absolutely savage.

And of course, her greatest triumph - at the moment when she's clearly on the cusp of being frozen out entirely by the other women, rather than grovel or try to make alliances, she triples down and throws a bona fide CHAOS DEMON into the mix :D

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I don't know how much she's going to recur, but I feel strongly that on the strength of this episode alone Alison deserved a place of her own on @AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA's celebrated top 32. (BRING IT BACK!)

You all know the hits so I won't go over them, but I love that by the end even Camille was slightly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the monster she'd unleashed. :D When all the other women have fled into the night and Alison is still sat there necking cocktails and making increasingly WILD statements about people's children being kidnapped and wanting to sexually assault Kyle with an E-cigarette. Terrifying!

Kyle & Kim
I feel like we saw the best and worst of Kyle this week. She held her own as well as could be expected against the psychotic medium and some of her observations about Camille's house being like a horror movie mansion genuinely made me LOL. But Alison did have the measure of her fundamental meanness, which was on full display when she basically shoved poor Kim into a car and went partying with the other girls.

As for Kim, I enjoyed her commentary too. She can be quite witty when she's not a shivering ball of coked up anxiety. Less interested in the random second blow out with Taylor which felt very manufactured to give them both something to do. That was 30 seconds we could have spent on more Alison, people!

Lisa
Obsessed that the nightmarish descent of that dinner party was almost entirely engineered by Lisa, who then sat back and watched it all burn without taking a lick herself. She really IS Machiavellic! :D

Her palpable disdain for Alison was hysterical from the off:

"I inspired the TV show Medium. I'm played by Patricia Arquette!"
"Oh... I really must watch it :rolleyes:"

I also love the way she proceeded to grab Alison by the throat at the dinner table and absolutely refused to let go, without ever raising her voice above a polite murmur. She's such a smiling assassin! The whole "Is my grandmother here? :)" conversation was just top-tier passive aggression.

Taylor and Adrienne
Neither really deserve their own write up as they were completely overshadowed, but the shot of a visibly uncomfortable Adrienne being aggressively shoved by a tipsy Alison was great 'shit is about to go down' moment, and I did enjoy the occasional shots of her quietly fuming at the chaos that was surrounding her. She just doesn't seem to like being on the show! But as a wise mystic once said...

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I love that by the end even Camille was slightly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the monster she'd unleashed. :D When all the other women have fled into the night and Alison is still sat there necking cocktails and making increasingly WILD statements about people's children being kidnapped and wanting to sexually assault Kyle with an E-cigarette
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Dying! :D
 
By the way, I don’t think this is a spoiler per se, but it’s interesting what you say about Kim vs Taylor being manufactured, because I’d invite you to review what you really think is going on there later down the line. In retrospect I think it’s quite complicated and sort of a lost discussion amongst the other storylines.
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The occasional Taylor-Kim blowups just seem like they come out of nowhere so far, but maybe something's being lost in the edit. I look forward to reporting back!

I find myself worryingly relating to Kim the most out of all the women, which might slightly colour my view of her. :D Probably a good thing I've mostly stayed clear of drugs.
 
One of the things I'm finding most interesting about Camille is that despite being a bizarre Hollywood flake who lives in a total bubble, she seems to be a VERY good judge of character - with the glaring exception of her husband, obviously. :D

But it seems like she got a read on Lisa and Kyle very quickly, and clearly she's taking great pleasure in tormenting the latter. I'll be interested to see if she ever goes in on Lisa in a similar way, although I suspect she might be tougher to draw into open conflict considering her weapon of choice is SCHEMING. :disco:
 
VoR said:
Camille (featuring ALISON DUBOIS)
Seriously, HOW was Camille considered the hate figure of this season?! I stan her so hard I can barely breathe at this point. Watching her is like watching an actual reality TV masterclass.

As soon as Kylie mentioned she was bringing a friend to the party, you just KNOW that Camille jumped straight on Google and hatched a plot to OBLITERATE her. Poor morally corrupt Faye Resnick never stood a chance. The condescending, half-bored tones! "Is that why you're herrrrre, Faye?" Absolutely savage.

And of course, her greatest triumph - at the moment when she's clearly on the cusp of being frozen out entirely by the other women, rather than grovel or try to make alliances, she triples down and throws a bona fide CHAOS DEMON into the mix :D

martini-cocktail.gif


I don't know how much she's going to recur, but I feel strongly that on the strength of this episode alone Alison deserved a place of her own on @AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA's celebrated top 32. (BRING IT BACK!)

You all know the hits so I won't go over them, but I love that by the end even Camille was slightly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the monster she'd unleashed. :D When all the other women have fled into the night and Alison is still sat there necking cocktails and making increasingly WILD statements about people's children being kidnapped and wanting to sexually assault Kyle with an E-cigarette. Terrifying!
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Omg SCREAMING at all of this. Not @VoR choosing the CORRECT side of history in regards to Camille vs Kyle :disco: I always sensed some PERNICIOUS energy seeping from their posts :disco:

The Dinner Party From Hell is just gay history 101 camp classic at this point. It can be watched as a completely standalone experience. SO many quotes. SO much horror and cringe that you think it's peaked and then just KEEPS ON GIVING. There''s an extended version of the episode on Hayu that focuses just on the footage from the dinner party and aftermath because it was just THAT GOOD.

I cannot WAIT to delve into @VoR's musings further. I'd also suggest starting New York season 3 after you've torn through the first couple of seasons of Beverley Hills. The Scary Island run of episodes are another show peak that equals The Dinner Party From Hell in regards to high-camp HORROR!
 
Did we know acclaimed creature of chaos ALLISON DUBOIS is a successful published author? :disco: I actually own this one, which was bought as a gift (THANKS! JUST WHAT I WANTED :) )
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The cover of this one is certainly serving...something? I think it's called Just May :eyes:
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I'd love to know the real story as to how she came on the show and acted that way. There's been fragments come out over the years, but the whole scenario is just TOO BIZARRE to be explained with "Camille gave me too much to drink" which has generally been Allison's standard response when asked.
 
well if you listen to this interview you’ll learn the extent to which she was essentially set up by Camille (from misleading her about the type of event it was to advice on what she should wear) She ended up moving her family out of California and back to Arizona :D

 
VoR said:
Lisa
I've noticed Lisa V doesn't factor much in Moopy discussion of Beverley Hills and was a notable absence from wurst's top 50. Which is puzzling because she really feels like the lead character so far, and the most likable. I'm guessing a fall from grace is coming? Anyway, she was in voice of reason mode this week, I enjoyed her read of Taylor's horrible party, and her relationship with her own kids seems relatively healthy. There was too much of it, but her touring the music college with a face of thunder did tickle me. :D
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LVP is an amazing Housewife and an undisputed Housewives icon, probably the most popular Housewife of ALL TIME with the general public too....but I find her such a frustrating watch.
She can spit a one liner and chew the scenery like nobody else, but she's also frustratingly guarded and manipulative - and unlike Housewives' other master manipulator (Heather Dubrow from the OC franchise) LVP does a lot of it OFF SCREEN which in later seasons leads to episodes and episodes of the cast talking about something that occurred OFF CAMERA which doesn't make the best viewing experience.

She also left with a bit of a whimper for such a legendary figure, and was treated by the show in quite a strange way considering her personal circumstances at the time (her brother died and she asked for time out, which they refused) which muddies the water a little bit. She'd probably be in my personal better graces if she'd left a couple of seasons earlier on a high - not that it was her fault how she left, just that the way she departed didn't really fit her legacy.

This moment obviously iconic -
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as is the chilling and unforgettable "GOODBYE KYLE"

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It's been SO LONG since I've watched the early Beverley Hills seasons so I can't remember where this occurs in the run (I think its season 2).
But Camille's reaction to the mermaid is EVERYTHING I love about her as a character distilled into a chaotic 17 seconds :disco:



This needs re-uploading in HD!
 
Suomi said:
Kim is my favourite of all time, make of that what you will :D

(And Kyle is @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid ‘s favourite of all time… make of THAT what you will…:D )
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OK so the thing is @VoR I really love Kim but I REALLY love Kyle. And @Suomi loves Kyle but REALLY loves Kim, who is no doubt way more chaotically iconic than Kyle and has some of the greatest lines and scenes in reality history.

But Kyle has always been my lens on everything and I just have a very different view of their dynamic than most people: my dad was functionally stoned for my teenage years partly as a coping mechanism for my mum having PTSD - so I massively identify with Kyle with having the burden of having to manage other people and navigate their behaviour/mental health/altered existence.

I don’t think a lot of people read Kyle’s behaviour fairly or consider the impact that UNSTABLE GAY ICON/NIGHTMARE ADDICT SIBLING KIM has on her. Living with the acute anxiety of other people’s behaviour while maintaining an idea of normality is quite A LOT and Kyle shows totally normal responses to Kim that I understand firsthand - sometimes she defends, sometimes she’s exhausted, sometimes she can’t deal with her iconic wreck of a child star sister and flees a restaurant/shoves her in a car/****** her goddamned ***** :disco:

Also Kyle converted to Judaism for Mauricio and I converted to Melodifestivalen for @Suomi so it’s basically like watching myself on tv but with better kaftans.
 
Taylor is one of the darkest and most interesting Housewives castings of all time. She has a really interesting (Oklahoma) life PRE Housewives and her journey on the show and post is pretty unprecedented.
She's about to pop up again on the OC franchise as the first Housewife to switch cities! Will be interesting to see how much she's changed (we saw glimpses on the latest Ultimate Girls Trip series, where she mainly came across as THIRSTY, a little unstable and MORE than happy to dredge up old ground :disco: )
 
S01E10 - Roaring Twenties

A bit of a cooldown after the high drama of TDPFH, but still quite a fun episode!

Camille
Basking in the glow of victory, Camille spends the entirety of this episode yammering to anyone who'll listen about how EVIL, DERANGED KYLE VERBALLY ASSAULTED HER IN HER OWN HOME. The scene where she traps poor Adrienne at a restaurant and proceeds to talk at her for what may have been anything from 20 minutes to 3 hours is probably the most I've sympathised with the latter so far. :D

Dropping Mauricio as a client is a fabulously cunty escalation though.

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Kyle & Kim
Kyle spends this episode shellshocked, mortified and licking her wounds. :disco: Kim is barely there, as she swerves both of the group events, spends a bit of time making peace with Taylor and mourning the imminent departure of her daughter. I do weirdly like the dynamic between those two though. Their scene in the nail salon is quite sweet and fun, makes me sad that they appear to keep butting heads.

I also just want to call out a tiny moment that made me laugh - the way Kyle and Mauricio greet each other over breakfast is so hilariously inauthentic.

"Morning!"
"How are you?"
"I'm good thanks, how are you? :)"

What married couple talks like that?! Did they not just wake up in the same bed together minutes earlier?

Lisa
Despite her charming, mildly daffy persona, I get the vibe that you would not want to be on the wrong side of Lisa Vanderpump :D. This episode her lazy house gay gets a dressing down for not showing due deference while she's planning some fundraiser, and it's mildly terrifying. (That said, he is clearly a total parasite).

They do make up in time to create this rather iconic moment though.

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Taylor
It's never explained exactly WHY she's randomly throwing a roaring twenties party this episode, but it's super fun - if not a little CRAMPED looking. It seems like the entire event takes place in the lobby of a mid-sized art gallery. :D

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Adrienne
I remain routinely agog that these two can have so much money (they seem like they're probably the richest couple on the show?) and yet appear completely incapable of not looking like absolute shit at all times. :D

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Adrienne herself comes from deep money and Paul is a very successful plastic surgeon. Unfortunately money can’t buy you class.

Also the housewives especially Beverly Hills love a roaring 20s party, so you’ll be getting one every other season. Flappers ahoy.
 
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S01E11 How To Behave

Oof, this one got a little heavy. :bruised: Let's start with the lighter plots...

Camille
I'm not sure how the timeframe of this show works exactly, but I love the ludicrousness that a character can be spitefully firing her frenemy's husband in one episode and then casually inviting her for a few rounds of tennis the next :D

I say casual, only on these ridiculous shows (and possibly at Mar-a-Lago) would an afternoon tennis date involve a four-course meal served by a butler. The show seems to be going full hatchet job on Camille for brazenly kissing other men on the lips which, yes, bit weird, but if anything I think she's the kind of person who thinks she's being elegantly European. :D The shots of her himbo friend Nick's poor plain-Jane wife looking on sadly from the sidelines while wearing a giant crucifix did really tickle me though.

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Anyway, at this point the frenemies are in sort of a ceasefire, and I love the way Camille clearly takes absolute delight in tormenting Kyle at every opportunity. She knows that thanks to her and Kelsey's pre-existing relationship with Mauricio, Kyle has much more of a stake in keeping things friendly. The white hot fury Kyle must have felt when she opened that 'How to Behave' book :D Oh Camille, queen of mind games!

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Kyle & Kim
Another refreshingly light episode on sisterly friction. Kyle's white party (aptly named in all respects) was obviously the centrepiece of this episode. Poor Kim once again shoved into an uncomfortable romantic situation with Lisa's friend, who clearly has absolutely no interest in her. :D

Lisa
Between Cedric the House Gay and her ridiculous bald Pomeranian, the theme of this episode for Lisa was her complicated relationship with her pets. Cedric having a full Roxxxy Andrews back story - right down to the bus stop! - marks him out as just another wounded rescue animal in her menagerie. "But who would I play with?" is such a telling line when she's contemplating whether to support her husband and kick Cedric out of the Vanderpump nest. :D Kyle's ominous ADR'd 'I just hope he's sincere' certainly doesn't bode well for his future.

Adrienne
Is Adrienne beating her husband? :D Not to make light of domestic violence, but that would be by far the most interesting thing she's done so far, and she certainly has an air of a woman you wouldn't want to meet down a darkened alley. That's all I've got as once again she had about 2 minutes of screen time. Was she even at the white party? NEXT!

Taylor
Taylor's story this week really got me thinking about the line between artifice and reality on this show. Obviously everything we're seeing is being set up to create a false sense of intimacy while they're actually surrounded by camera crews, but the Taylor/Russell rift felt pretty real, and it made me wonder why he'd even consent to being part of the show? There's a really sad moment when Kyle and Mauricio are dancing and it pans over to Taylor watching them, and she ever so briefly breaks the fourth wall, catches the camera and looks genuinely CRUSHED. :(

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When I'm through with all this I would definitely like a full @AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA write up on the enigma that is Taylor. There's already so much to say, and I get the feeling I haven't even scratched the surface yet.
 
I LOVE how @VoR is TEARING through this :D :disco: Interesting that you've noted the peaks and troughs of a Housewives season too. Inevitably there's always a climbdown after a big moment - but there's often quite a lot of fun/unintentional camp to be found in the filler (depending on Housewife too).
(An exception to this is an episode of season 5 of Beverley Hills which literally just has Kyle and Yolanda sending their daughters off to college for an ENTIRE EPISODE and crying. Possibly the worst Housewives episode of ALL TIME.)

Obsessed with the Taylor, Camille and to a lesser-degree LVP stanning :disco: Truly choosing the correct ships to SAIL (although I think @Phoenix is rather ANTI-Camille if I recall correctly). I feel like there's even a possible HATE-STAN brewing with Adrienne :D

I have to do my write ups only when the spirit MOVES ME (similar to a Quaker in that respect), but having basically ignored BH in my initial ranking there's certainly some GOLD to be dug out in those particular HILLS :disco:
 
S01E12: Graduation

Bit of a boring central premise to this one, with Kyle's eldest daughter graduating from college. ZZZZZ. Luckily there was a fair bit happening on the sidelines which I presume is going to pay off big time in the finale (which already looks insane from the 'next time on...' clips :disco:)

Kyle & Kim
So yes, Kyle spends most of this episode wanging on about her daughter, including an extended therapy session with some poor bitch behind the counter at a Jewellery store. :D We do get some interesting back story about the sisters' careers though - their mother definitely sounds like a right piece of work, although weirdly neither of them seem to acknowledge that their being hurled into the industry while they were literal babies to fulfil mommy dearest's own crushed dream of stardom might have been somewhat damaging for them.

There's also scene in which poor Kim attempts a comeback by doing an interview with some very creepy sounding adult male Disney fanatic who all but says out loud 'I used to jack off to you in Escape to Witch Mountain'. It was all very Baby Jane.

Also the first explicit reference to the OTHER SISTER, who I gather has graduated to main character status herself in the intervening years. Here she and the rotten Hilton clan swerve the graduation party but send a big fat cheque to make up for it, handily demonstrating the value system that has clearly run through this family for at least three generations now.

Lisa Vanderpump
The more Cedric the house gay elaborates on the Dickensian tragedy of his childhood, the more I suspect it's all going to turn out to be a complete CROCK. Lisa's dead-eyed reaction to his reveal that he was a child of rape and that's why he could never love himself, ergo he's simply too fragile to move out of Vanderpump Mansions anytime soon, makes me think she might also be connecting a few dots. "Maybe you should just... y'know... move on?" :square:

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Taylor
Following last week's drama, Taylor is fairly absent from this episode, with Russel's no-show at the graduation party suggesting that all is still not well in the most transparently doomed marriage in TV history. She does feature in one juicy scene at the beginning in which Lisa gets a case of the green eyed monsters around her close relationship with Kyle.

The Lisa/Kyle friendship has kind of been the unproblematic anchor of this season, and given what we learn about her background this week, it totally makes sense that Kyle would gravitate towards a relatively stable, maternal figure like Lisa. But evidently Mama Vanderpump does not appreciate sharing her toys, which leads to her shamelessly dredging up New York AGAIN to undermine Kyle's trust in her new bestie (which, interestingly, doesn't seem to work at all). She then tries to draw Taylor out on her marital issues, but Taylor is in full deflection mode and Lisa ends up leaving the restaurant in a huff. Set one for the young usurper, but I suspect the Queen of Beverly Hills has only just begun to fight. :disco:

Camille
As other plot threads start to gear up, Camille's finally comes home to roost as she's forced to admit that Kelsey has officially ditched her. Though not without dangling a hope of reconciliation to get her to show up to the Tonys with him. Classy guy! The brief scenes between the two are intensely awkward, and it's clear that the real drama was very much playing out off-camera.

Adrienne
In this episode, Adrienne bought a blouse. :)
 
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I've arrived...

S01E13: The Finale

Before I gave in to this show, my preconception was that the Housewives franchise would be full of failed actresses relentlessly screaming at each other in painfully inauthentic scenarios. The unexpectedly fascinating thing about this season of Beverley Hills is that that clearly is kind of the format, but the premeditated drama seem to have accidentally put some genuinely dark, bleak and real shit under the microscope. Are they all like this, or is it a unique quirk of BH? Because when I see out of context clips of, say, OC or New Jersey, they look closer to my preconceived notion of how the format would look and feel.

Long story short, I think I made the right choice to dip my toe in the waters here. There's a real narrative arc to this season which, while clumsy and definitely forced in places, is legitimately compelling, and looks to be having real-world consequences for its stars.

Let's work backwards...

Camille
Despite being a major protagonist in two of the show's most significant dramas this season, Camille has spent the full run as kind of an outsider figure, rarely sharing the screen with the other women outside a handful of obviously staged centrepiece 'events'. Her arc comes to a sad end this week, her marriage is in tatters, she was humiliated in New York (that story of being denied entry to Kelsey's apartment - ouch!), and she ends the show essentially alone, examining the wreckage of her once picture perfect life. And apparently the public decided that she was the villain of the piece? Yikes!

Adrienne
I won a newfound sliver of respect for boring old Adrienne this episode. Such is her superfluity and lack of impact that in this finale episode we get to minute 25 before she's ever seen or spoken of, and even then all the show can muster is her grumbling to Paul about GARLIC BREAD. But then when the shit hit the fan with Kyle and Kim, she emerged as the most sensible and empathetic grown up in the room, and I realised that Adrienne's weakness as a reality TV character might actually be that she's a somewhat emotionally intelligent human with healthy boundaries (Who may or may not occasionally punch her husband in the face offscreen).

Taylor
I guess I'll have to wait for Season 2 for whatever the BIG REVEAL around Taylor is (I literally twigged just this weekend that she was the woman screaming at cat meme lady :D) as her only notable role in this episode is as Lisa Vanderpump's unwitting(?) suicide bomber in the Kyle/Kim drama. More on that in Lisa's write-up. There is one intriguing talking head edit in which she's discussing her hopes of improving her marriage to the hideous Russell with a family trip to Mexico. The camera holds on her for a couple of seconds after she's finished talking and the light just completely dies from her eyes. That's kind of the arc of Taylor this season, outwardly bubbly and relatively drama-averse, but her rivers of sadness run deep.

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Lisa
I've enjoyed Lisa a lot this season, she's easily the wittiest and most fun-to-watch of the ladies. My God though, what an absolute snake. :D I don't think even Camille cares about New sodding York anymore, but somehow she still manages to weaponise it to send Taylor on a doomed suicide mission to 'clear the air' with Kim. In reality I suspect she's probably the cast member who best understands how to produce a storyline, but even she probably couldn't have predicted what she was about to unleash, as Taylor's friendship with Kyle seems to have emerged unscathed, for now...

There's a frustratingly brief glimpse of her arguing with Cedric which is given little or no context, followed by the reveal of a mysterious off-camera blow up that ended their friendship. I wonder if she already has enough influence over the producers to keep them from showing anything more, or whether there just wasn't enough time with the Kim/Kyle explosion? Either way, I'm now fully convinced that Cedric was a complete con artist from the get. I'm only surprised somebody as sharp as Lisa didn't twig to it a bit sooner.

Last thing on Lisa, my favourite moment of the whole episode is when Kim briefly tries to accuse her of being a shit-stirrer (ACCURATE) and she takes half a step forward, lowers her voice about half an octave and growls "EXCUSE ME?" to which Kim, wasted as she is, immediately apologises and backs down. Wise move Kim, I would *not* want to fuck with Lisa Vanderpump either!

Kyle & Kim
Oof, where to begin?

In light of @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid's recent comments, I've been trying to view Kyle with a slightly more sympathetic lens. But God it was hard work based on this episode. :D

I'll say this, there is definitely a LOT of unresolved trauma on both sides of the Richards' sister's relationship, and I suspect it would take many years of intensive counselling to even scratch the surface. But instead they chose to sign up to a reality TV show and potentially destroy their relationship forever. That's Hollywood, baby!

From the ridiculously on-the-nose opener of Kyle literally dragging her dead mothers' ashes and hair to a session with her medium, it's clear that the spectre of the evil Mama Richards is at the root of virtually all of their family dysfunction. Both sisters have spent the season reflecting on the fact that they were each robbed of a stable childhood, but frustratingly neither of them seem to connect the dots that this should be something that unifies them rather than setting them against each other.

Kim also, while a compelling character, is clearly not emotionally equipped for the rigours of reality TV. Turning up wasted at Taylor's party suggests she's already in a not-great place, and the show's insistence on forcing her into uncomfortable situations obviously isn't helping. I felt so bad for her when the New York thing blew up again because she did NOTHING WRONG. But while the argument is entirely manufactured by the producers, I get the sense that Kim can't make the distinction, so when she's being ganged up on by the other women, she takes it deeply personally and totally spins out, leading to her tearful exit and the confrontation in the limo.

This fight, God. Once again, Adrienne emerges as the unlikely hero as she attempts to mediate, but whatever barely suppressed resentments Kyle has been carrying all season long explode into something deeply ugly. When she snaps at Kim that their mother died worrying about her - I mean, how can you ever come back from that? That's the kind of shit that you can never, ever un-say. She outs her on camera as an alcoholic, tells her she's insane. It's a jaw-droppingly cruel display. Kim has one of those moments of drunken lucidity when she seems to see Kyle for the first time and realise that her sister is a monster. And then she drops the bombshell. Kyle stole her God Damn house.

There's zero context for this and I'm sure more will be revealed, but even so the depth of what it implies is clear when Kyle loses all composure and physically assaults her. Weirdly, it was at this moment that I felt a sliver of empathy for Kyle as well, as out of line as she is. Beneath her Kaftan bedecked Beverley Hills socialite veneer, she's just as much of a broken child as her sister is.

And so a series that I expected to consist of little more than wine-throwing and scripted zingers ends with an emotionally devastated former child star crying alone in the back of a limo, days away from being forcibly checked into rehab. Meanwhile her sister and the remaining housewives dust themselves off and pose for one last rooftop selfie, the perfect picture of carefree Beverley Hills glamour.

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So fucking good.

I would like to clarify as a Kyle stan that she did not steal Kim’s house. She probably got Mauricio to sell it for her because of her dire financial situation (a situation that her much richer millionaire sister Kathy could have helped but that’s not for many more seasons to come).
 
I think you’re right VOR in that while watching Youtube compilations gives you the best bits and the fabulousness and the drama, there actually is a lot more to it, to an extent in all the franchises, than that. You do usually get to know the women in each series and there is much more to it than just drunk white tarts splashing wine and insults at each other.

Please pick up Melbourne next, I would love to hear your take on that bunch :D Whereas Sydney might just KILL YOU OFF
 
Happy Xmas (VoR is Over!) said:
I've arrived...

S01E13: The Finale

Before I gave in to this show, my preconception was that the Housewives franchise would be full of failed actresses relentlessly screaming at each other in painfully inauthentic scenarios. The unexpectedly fascinating thing about this season of Beverley Hills is that that clearly is kind of the format, but the premeditated drama seem to have accidentally put some genuinely dark, bleak and real shit under the microscope. Are they all like this, or is it a unique quirk of BH? Because when I see out of context clips of, say, OC or New Jersey, they look closer to my preconceived notion of how the format would look and feel.

Long story short, I think I made the right choice to dip my toe in the waters here. There's a real narrative arc to this season which, while clumsy and definitely forced in places, is legitimately compelling, and looks to be having real-world consequences for its stars.
Click to expand...

Not read the rest yet but this is exactly why I campaigned for you to start with Beverley Hills - by far the most authentic and compelling of all of the American editions of the franchise.
 
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Happy Xmas (VoR is Over!) said:
When she snaps at Kim that their mother died worrying about her - I mean, how can you ever come back from that? That's the kind of shit that you can never, ever un-say. She outs her on camera as an alcoholic, tells her she's insane. It's a jaw-droppingly cruel display. Kim has one of those moments of drunken lucidity when she seems to see Kyle for the first time and realise that her sister is a monster.
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This is what me and the wife keep coming back to when debating this show, but I’ll leave it to @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid to have Kyle’s back again, like a real sister
 
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Oh Kyle stole her goddamned house alright. You’ll see the truth in Season 5 :basil:

One of my favourite things about Housewives is seeing people experience it for the first time and realising it isn’t what pop culture sells it as, and this has been great :disco:
 
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