[S13.E04: Judge, Jury and Gina]

9 hours ago, Fiero425 said:

Kelly's putting herself "on the outs" w/ Vicki & the rest of the group if she persists in dragging this out just like Shannon and Tamra did with Crooks' drama! Let it go; let it go! ;-)

Crooks' drama? It was a hell of a lot more than your dismissive reference would suggest. Vicki and Brooks knowingly and diligently conspired and spent the entire season committing and perpetuating a despicable fraud about his having advanced stage non-Hodgkins lymphoma (which actually strikes about 75,000 and kills about 20,000 Americans each year). Both to engender sympathy from the cast and the TV audience and promote and profit from their fake cancer treatments. Recall all the times Vicki vehemently tore into cast members who questioned her role in the scam, even as the evidence of the lies and fraud mounted? How the producers protected her and preserved her place on the show despite the cast member and viewer outrage? How they meticulously engineered her subsequent resurrection and compelled Shannon and Tamra to forgive and forget all as if it never happened?

Several years later, ol' Brooks is alive and well (unlike many tens of thousands of the real victims) and is no doubt busy scamming his newly-deluded wife for all she's worth. Vicki, looking much worse for wear, has retained her position on the show and continues to regale us with her raging malignant narcissism at every turn. Both conspirators, sad to say, are doing fine.

"Crooks' drama" my ass.

[S13.E02: One Apology, Another Betrayal]

Vicki was especially detestable and obnoxious this episode. Meticulously engineering that "Make Eddie forgive" session with Tamra's full help and support. Then sitting there, interrupting his meal, to plead, beg, cry, lie, and scripture-quote her way to his forgiveness. At this point in his life, she is but an annoying whiny noise to him. Does Tamra ever hold this bitch responsible for all the trouble she has caused? Is their "Laverne & Shirley" friendship so special and enduring when she normally finds it incredibly easy to socially assassinate those who cross her or simply annoy her? Right, because the producers wanted it this way.

Then on to Kelley's new house to scream and yell at her for getting upset at her own admission of facilitating Michael's new dating life. What a friend.

Makes one wonder how long she'd last on the basis of her never-ending sociopathic behaviors if the producers weren't protecting her position so diligently.

[S13.E02: One Apology, Another Betrayal]

Got to sympathize with poor Eddie's plight. An endurance athlete who appears to have inherited a tendency for A fib from his mother's side of the family. But there's also a strong correlation between years of endurance sports (running, cycling, etc.) and A fib too. Hours of sustained physical activity and resulting tremendous cardiac output put immense pressure on the walls of the heart, particularly the thin right wall, which can actually balloon from the sustained and rapid pumping action. This, in turn, can damage the electrical circuitry along the wall, leading to frequent A fib episodes and even sudden death. Eddie's double whammy might explain why his cardiologists have not yet succeeded in repairing the damaged muscle area(s) causing the A-fib.

A lot of endurance athletes with this condition have been effectively rendered invalids to lower their risks and must give up or significantly reduce their exercise activity. To someone like Eddie who lives to work out, this is the worst outcome possible short of death.

The last thing he needs at this point in his life is a blabbering, pseudo-aplogizing Vicki demanding his forgiveness.

[S01.E03: Fix]

A troubling, unsettling program, rather spooky at times. I watched it on my tablet using good earphone and was treated to all sorts of very faint buzzing and haunting instrumental music and female voices floating in and out of the left earphoneI. I don’t hear it when I watch the show on our large living room TV.

Question: how exactly did Camille’s younger sister die? I saw the scene (in Episode 1) where she in sitting next to Camille in bed and suddenly appears to suffer a heart attack or grand mal seizure, but the scene ends quickly.

[S05.E13: Ellison Eyewear]

Congratulations. You dudes just took the most negative popular stereotypes about millenials and confirmed them all. Perhaps this is just an isolated instance of a big city hipster dufus enterprise run amok, but I doubt it. Marcus, on the other hand, did a decent job of assuming the role of patient preschool daycare provider.

[S05.E08: Fifty-One Percent]

Granted, the last few episodes of Season 5 have contained more action, subplot twists, and more wins for PP than most other episodes in the past few seasons. But they still don't deliver a meaningful uptick in show quality. The past few seasons have been so consistently weak, so poorly written, so moribund and unexciting. This sudden burst of activity probably doesn't represent a meaningful deviation from the steady decline from the well-written, directed, and acted first two seasons. In those first two seasons, the characters were skillfully shaped, written, and acted to represent real and relatable people living and working in a rather absurd environment, all possessing solid core competencies and personalities (even Erlich). Scenes could be outrageously funny without wildly distorting Silicon Valley reality or appealing to low-brow humor and using very clever parody (watch Gavin's hologram scene with BagHead in S1E5 for one example).

Since then, the characters have evolved into strange and unlikable caricatures of their original selves (the rarely seen Monica excluded). Now much of the action is highly frenetic, extremely juvenile, totally unsophisticated, uninspired, unfunny, with characters bouncing around scenes like disturbed adolescents instead of seasoned techies. Dinesh and his tedious Tesla obsessions. Richard and his far too obnoxious, anxiety-driven loser persona. Jared with his traumatized manchild routine. Etc.

I know, as bad as it might have become, Silicon Valley is still better than most TV out there.  But this says less about the former than the utterly dismal quality of the latter. At least we have the first few seasons to remember fondly and occasionally revisit. The bar is just too damn low these days.

[S05.E07: Initial Coin Offering]

I drive the freeways and major surface streets of Silicon Valley every week day for my commute. There are about twice as many cars on the roads between 6am and 10am and between 2am and 7pm as there were ten years ago, when commute times were quite a bit shorter and roads not quite as congested. Yes, one sees a fair number of relatively expensive cars on the road. I'd estimate that near-luxury or full-luxury vehicles (those priced over $60K) comprise about 15 to 20 percent of the current commute traffic.

When Apple built its pricey new spaceship campus in east Cupertino, there were promises of substantial infrastructure work to adjacent surface streets and the 280 freeway (road widening, a new dedicated on/offramp on 280) to support the 12,000 new employees there. The new campus has been open and occupied for over six months, yet none of these improvements have yet been started, much less completed, and the resulting traffic congestion just further clogs all nearby roads even more. 

While it's nice to have a Tesla that can go from 0 to 60 in three seconds or less or a high performance Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, etc., you're still creeping along at zero to 5 mph with the majority who drive battered Fords, Toyotas, and Mazdas for most of your daily to and from commute. The very small group that drives really exotic European cars (Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc.) are mostly CEOs, VC partners, and other tech industry elites.

Thanks to continuing capital flight infusions from Chinese and south Asian buyers, local home prices continue to skyrocket. Two million usually gets you a plain 1200 square foot bungalow on a very small lot. Most buyers are not tearing them down and replacing them with mini-mansions built to the fence lines.

So perhaps nice cars simply serve as a relatively inexpensive way to publicly announce your wealth (ha) when your tacky little suburban abode is costing you well over 6 or 7 grand a month.

[S05.E07: Initial Coin Offering]

Wow. They sure packed a lot of plot changes and activities into this one episode. I figured the China angle would come back to bite Pied Piper sooner rather than later, but Laurie's sudden partnership bodes ill for them. Nice to see Monica joining up as ICO business manager; hope they reach and exceed that $68 valuation quickly, they're going to need it.

Some character issues caught my eye.  As obnoxious as he had become, Erlich's departure has left a gaping hole in the group. Dinesh can only be given so many unpleasant and always unsuccessful  roles to play in each episode (no Plaid mode for you). Jared, who was obviously traumatized in childhood (cigarette burns?) is becoming rather bizarre. Why his obvious contempt for Richard's new sandwich maker? Did he really need to chase him down and traumatize him further?

Gavin continues to sink ever further into his own special brand of sociopathy with each new employee-busting business decision and its unintended consequences.

[S05.E06: Artificial Emotional Intelligence]

If a Party member owns Jiang's patent-skirting version of Richard's new decentralized internet, then it really belongs to the Party, to be used to more effectively realize the New China dream through absolute control of both the old and new internets and even more comprehensive monitoring, classification, and ranking of all citizen behaviors and swifter punishment of those who deviate from Party-friendly conduct. Sounds truly dystopian. It won't be long before the NSA comes knocking on Richard's door, demanding his version of the new internet to ensure no internet gap occurs.

Ironic that Laurie murdered Fiona, an AI robot who possessed more humanity than she herself ever will.

[S05.E05: Facial Recognition]

Hmmm. Quite a departure from earlier Season 5 episodes. Richard Hendricks as a confident and amazingly competent high tech Sherlock Holmes. Fiona will forever be in his debt.

i wonder where Gavin and his penis box are headed. Jing Xiang’s version of Pied Piper?

[S05.E04: Tech Evangelist]

What a complete waste of an episode. This show's version of Silicon Valley life continues its rapid departure from the real thing. I can now only look back on Season 1 with sad fondness.

It would have been hard to miss the K-Hole HQ scene where the CEO reacts with disgust at the news that Deedee is a Christian while the most gruesome and graphic video game images are prominently displayed on large monitors in the background. Must have been from "Undead Sex Offenders." Oh, such rank hypocrisy.

Sure, Silicon Valley is certainly more PC these days than just a few years ago, but people's religious beliefs (or lack thereof) are usually still nobody's concern unless you actively proselytize in the workplace. Of course, wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat around the office will probably earn you a quick call from HR or your manager, but that would probably also occur at any Walmart store in the Bay Area. 

Next week we venture into the new world of AI. Even in the very short preview, it looks as broadly and poorly done as what has preceded it this season.

[Silicon Valley in the Media]

Oh, that zany Erilich. First he gets fired from Silicon Valley for "unprofessional behavior," now he phones in a phony bomb threat from an Amtrak train and is facing serious federal charges.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/arts/television/tj-miller-charged-false-bomb-report.html

[S05.E03: Chief Operating Officer]

Well, just when I figured Judge and Berg had hit rock bottom, they give us episode 3, perhaps the very worst among many bad SV episodes. This is fast approaching purile network sitcoms quality, with pretend romantic relationships and badly written characters who pop in and out of the show only to advance yet another incredibly lame plot device. And all of of the main characters, with the possible exception of Jared, have become insufferable and/or incredibly stupid and thick-headed. He's only mildly annoying doing what Judge and Berg tell him to do. 

If Jian Yang succeeds in creating a Chinese version of Pied Piper that fails as badly as its American progenitor, even his crooked uncle won't be able to protect him from the labor camps.

[S12.E21: Reunion Part 2]

57 minutes ago, zoeysmom said:

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on the hug:  http://www.etonline.com/rhoc-reunion-takes-shocking-turn-vicki-tamra-and-shannon-see-pics-exclusive-91401

Here is a August interview with Kelly and Vicki-  interesting comments:

VG: I’m always open to salvageable relationships, but it has to be both sides. They are fixated on the past and they won’t move forward. I am over it, literally. You’ll see coming up that Tamra says I tried to attack her family and attack her marriage. That is not the case. What is the truth is [that] Tamra approached Kelly when we were in Ireland and asked Kelly …

KD: “Did Vicki say my husband cheats on me and my husband is gay?” And then I said, “No, she didn’t say, ‘cheats’ on you. And then that’s when Heather Dubrow goes, “You can’t get your story straight.”

VG: Tamra had it in her brain — she never thought it was going to be aired and now she’s fixated saying that I tried to ruin her family. I didn’t try to ruin her family. I don’t care about ruining her family, I’m not that kind of girl. So I don’t understand why she is stuck on this. She is causing it to have so much life when it didn’t have to. She could’ve moved on and not talked about it this year, but she’s playing a victim. I didn’t go after her marriage; I didn’t go after Shannon’s marriage. They keep saying it over and over and I don’t understand it. If they don’t want to draw attention to it, then why do they keep talking about it? You’re going to see a lot of that this year. 

KD: They’re still talking about Brooks!

VG: It’s so crazy, two and a half years after him. I’m not talking about Simon. I don’t care about Simon. It’s an old relationship and it’s just ridiculous that they continue to talk about it. I don’t talk about Sidney. Why doesn’t [Tamra] have a relationship with Sidney?

KD: You’re not bringing that up.

VG: I’m not bringing up all the stuff that just came up in the press that I already knew about.

S: During moments like the drama between Tamra and her daughter, is that a time where the ladies can rally together and support one another? How does that play out amongst the group when things like that happen off camera?

VG: I texted her and told her that I wish her the very best and I’m sorry she’s going through a tough time. The problem is that it’s never reciprocated with her towards me. When I was going through all that I went through two years ago, not once did she ever reach out to me and say “I’m your friend for 10 years, what can I do?” Never once. It’s a lopsided friendship a little bit.

S: It is confusing for viewers — especially in the beginning of the season — to watch the women refusing to see each other. You’re filming a show together, so I think you’re going to run into each other.

VG: They’re causing their own demise. If they don’t want to film, then they can go back home.

KD: They’re burying themselves.

S: Do you keep in touch with Heather Dubrow at all?

VG: We don’t talk to her.

KD: No! I run into her more than anyone. I run into her at Orange Theory all the time.

S: Is Tamra still friends with her?

KD: They were never … that was a fake friendship.

Interesting comments about Heather and Tamra-didn't the others say that about their relationship in Bali?  Vicki seemed to defend the Tamra/Heather relationship.  I do believe Vicki is maybe overcompensating.

Well, if it was a group hug, it didn't take.

Vicki's self-promotion and bending of the truth, that I can understand. That's what she does. And of course she's certainly not the kind of girl (cough) to ruin another family. In her own echo chamber of a brain, she's still an attractive 17 year old Illinois girl who makes all the men hot and all the other women eternally jealous and resentful.  Not some rapidly expanding and increasingly unattractive old lady from Orange county.

 I was a bit surprised by Kelly's part in this interview. She's acting like the old Vicki sidekick, angry and stirring up shit whenever Vicki pulls the ventriloquist dummy string in her ass. I''d have thought she had matured a bit this season and could better see through this bitch's selfish and destructive motives, was a bit more politically astute. Guess the single life is making her simple-minded again. 

[S12.E19: Season Finale: Candle Wicks and Lunatics]

5 hours ago, Jextella said:

Honestly, despite the Brooks' stuff, I trust Vicki waaaayyyy more than I trust Tamra.  Vicki can't help herself.  She blurts things out like a sheep.   Does she often suffer from poor judgment? Yes.  Does she suffer from worse judgment where men are concerned? Yes.  Did she turn a blind-eye or even perhaps conceal some shit where Brooks is concerned?  Yes. Did she lie about Brooks at one point?  Yes, but she owned up to it and apologized. 

Tamra is the shady-boots one on this show.   Vicki is merely a bleeting sheep.  That, to me, is her biggest challenge where the other wives are concerned.  She needs to stop repeating crap on TV.

I'd really like for Vicki to stay.  Shannon has clearly taken the popularity lead on the show but I can't see her forming any true relationships with any of the cast.  She's just in a different world than they are.  I don't want to tune in to forced relationships.   All the signs point to her leaving though, e.g. Jeff Lewis said it was her time (and Andy has said Jeff Lewis has really good judgment where the housewives are concerned), her Instagram account being made private, Brianna moving, many rumors, etc. 

I think they're both despicable women. There is no need to elevate one in order to properly denigrate the other one.

Tamra can be a mean, hurtful person. The time she purposefully got Gretchen drunk as a gift for her crazy horny son. Howshe mercilessly ripped Alexis apart at her Cut Fitness grand opening party for no good cause other than the damage she inflicted and the sadistic satisfaction of it all. And many others. She's a self-taught, street smart scrapper who could clearly see her viewer popularity declining and decided to create a new and nicer Tamra. That's when she got religion. And broke with Vicki. Not because she actually underwent a spiritual conversion on the road to Damascus by the Pacific or was ethically repulsed by Vicki's cancergate shenanigans, but because she believed the mere appearance of those beliefs would set her straight in the eyes of viewers. But that sobbing scene in Vicki's lap in Iceland goes to show that, with a few inhibitions removed (liquor in this case), she's easily willing to return to and beg forgiveness from the Dark One. If Eddie weren't around to support her and serve as her conscience, she'd still be the same hellcat she was five years ago, without any pretense to the contrary.

Vicki has done far far worse than simply turn a blind eye to or conceal Brooks' misdeeds and occasionally repeat some gossip crap about the other housewives. She fell in love with a psychopathic conman and woman abuser, and she'd still toss good old Steve to the curb if she could have him back in her life. Many of us fall in love with the wrong person or a bad person from time to time, often against our own better judgement. But there comes a crucial tipping point, where the sheer magnitude and volume of the evil things done by that lover are so massive and horrendous that any chemical attractions are totally negated and wiped clean. For that to happen, you need to have empathy for the victims. She is not simply blind or weak or simple minded. She was an active co-conspirator with Brooks and is still active in her own ongoing schemes to destroy other people. She doesn't deserve anyone's trust or support.

[S12.E19: Season Finale: Candle Wicks and Lunatics]

This being the final episode of the season, it was no surprise that both of the soon-to-be-fired HWs (Peggy and Lydia) were performing their desperate last-minute redemption tours. Peggy apologizing to Meghan for the Iceland baby abandonment accusations, rewriting the history (despite aired video evidence to the contrary ) of her early encounters with Shannon, etc.  And Lydia profusely flattering Shannon ("You were so much fun in Iceland!" "You're now my favorite, what's happening!?). Sorry, losers, too little too late. 

But take solace Peggy, you've won, by acclamation, the consolation prize of "Worst Real Housewife in Bravo History." Most of the ladies relish and seek out maximum camera face time.  Making friends and enemies and working hard to preserve alliances, usually mindful of their popularity with the fans. Peggy never made any heartfelt attempt to participate in the show. Instead, she exerted the bare minimum effort, making abundantly clear by her body language and words that she hated every minute of it, disliked most of the cast. Would rather be anywhere else but on the show, if only master Diko would just cut her some slack. Most of the housewives are extroverted and very vocal types. Peggy is a deep deep introvert who still hasn't mastered the English language and its idioms and nuances after forty years. Despite the displays of wealth and class, she is still that peasant lady from the Armenian mountain village. Passive-aggressive to the max. The type who sulks alone and mutters dark nasty incantations at her abusers and lets her anger and resentment fester and grow. So I guess she'll actually welcome her release from this televised hell. Of course, Diko will be there to rub it in nightly, like a burning linement, for the next few decades.

As for Vicki the newly self-appointed relationship counselor, it's a bit problematic for a malignant narcissist of her standing to even attempt to dispense meaningful and helpful advice to others. For one thing, she's never had a mature, meaningful, and reciprocal adult relationship with anyone from which to draw actual experiential knowledge. And her well-honed magical thinking (whatever I say in the moment is true, regardless of any past events or utterances) is yet another obstacle to her success in this field. You could see Kelly biting her tongue while Vicki spewed her flowery advice: "Intimacy in marriage is essential. The minute me and Dom (?) stopped being intimate, our marriage started falling apart." (Hooking up with Girth the swamp thing back then probably didn't help much.) "Michael doesn't want to have sex with you? That's because he sees you as being untouchable. Dom used to see me that way too." (If by that you mean Dom didn't want to touch you, you have a valid point, but we know that's not what you meant.). I haven't been fond of Kelly until this season, when she finally shed her raging psycho act and introduced us to her crazy fun-loving no-verbal-filter persona, but I felt sorry for her having to endure all that utter bullshit from Vicki the Yenta.

[S12.E19: Season Finale: Candle Wicks and Lunatics]

2 hours ago, film noire said:

I think Shannon is hard to watch, especially through female eyes. She's become a living checklist of what society hates in a woman; impetuous, drunk, gobby-mouthed, shrill, clumsy, big arsed, soft-bellied and raging.  She's the total negative package, when it comes to every ideal of American womanhood.

And I find alot of it repugnant to watch...but there's also a kind of primal rage in how she's acting that I've found (this season) intriguing;  a woman who is done with trying to jockey for position within the Most Fuckable Bitch in the Harem world, done trying to dry hump that hollow leg one more time, hoping it will finally give her an orgasm. It's as if she just read the fine print in her Woman Contract, and can't BELIEVE the riders she never stopped to take in before -- who the fuck WROTE this fucking deal for me? Where did I sign up for THIS shit? -- she's so angry at all of it, and I have a grudging respect for that.

She's displacing the anger everywhere it shouldn't go  -- throwing plates and screeching and demanding footnotes to conversations when she herself is, at best, a drinking buddy to the truth -- but as undignified as her expression of that anger has been, there's dignity in feeling that anger, when you're coming to grips with realizing your value was based on being visually consumable, not on being a complex human being.

So maybe it is normal - not evolved, not good, not smart, not mature, not decent, not kind -- but normal to react like that when you find out it was the lift of your ass and the nip in your waist that society cared about all along, and not a single thing that really mattered in the making of you as a person. Your only value skin deep; nothing more. How could the reacton to that -- the reaction to something so ugly -- be anything but ugly itself?

No one has ever addressed the deep-rooted causes and motivations of Shannon’s overwhelming midlife suffering, rage, and unhappiness with such insight and accuracy before. I think you’ve nailed it. 

[S12.E19: Season Finale: Candle Wicks and Lunatics]

Is that a black bear in ultra high heeled shoes?

[S12.E19: Season Finale: Candle Wicks and Lunatics]

Hurry up, Ryan. Go find a couch and make damn sure Lydia’s mother doesn’t sit on it.

[S12.E17: A Case Of The Vickis]

Once again, Vicki the master manipulator manages to come out on top, effortlessly reassuming her title as true OG (after spending the season isolated, scorned, and irrelevant on the sidelines, on the verge of elimination). We all knew that Tamra was by her core nature attracted to the dark side, despite all her transparent attempts over the past few seasons to assume a new persona, that of the good-hearted devout Christian who now recognized Vicki for the wicked and scheming monster she truly is.  But less than an hour back at the hotel from the hospital, Vicki has Tamra sobbing like the hurt and rejected child she is in her lap, declaring her pain, love, and devotion.  Shannon sits in the corner, ineffectual, abandoned, cursing Vicki's lies as she watches her BFF Tamra's instantaneous conversion back to the dark side. All the while, the Vicki bots beam with great satisfaction and pride at the joyous reunion, having helped Vicki attain her primary objective. Even though two of them will be dropped from the show, they have served her well.

For those of us who clearly see Vicki for the malignant narcissist she is (and detest her for it), this is all a bit disturbing but also not unexpected. Shannon is now in for a world of hurt.

Finally, despite spending almost all of her life growing up in the U.S., Peggy is at heart just an uneducated, closed-minded, middle-aged peasant woman raised in some small isolated Armenian mountain village. Most emigrants with her life experience (educational background, trappings of wealth, etc.) become more American in their behavior and outlook, more outgoing, friendly, socially skilled, fully articulate in English. She, for some reason, has not. She remains cold and distant, suspicious of non-Armenians, inarticulate, superstitious, fatalistic, as if she never left that village. Probably wears a black peasant shawl at home and issues dark curses to ward off trouble when the cameras aren't running.

[S12.E17: A Case Of The Vickis]

On 10/27/2017 at 0:11 PM, zoeysmom said:

Lydia tries too hard to be head Bitch in Charge.  These are adult women fully capable of making their own decisions. Lydia is taking this trip hosting way too serious. I am not sure why someone deciding to visit Vicki later would hurt Lydia's feelings, then again I didn't get why there was an issue with "the group text" which consisted of a picture from Tamra in her room and she and Shannon deciding not to join the others.  It is about time for Lydia to break down and claim she misses her husband and children.

She is indeed a strange one. There's the esctatic "Yaaayy!" arm-waving kooky adolescent girl who looks and behaves  like a "My Pony" castoff. The wealthy Joel Osteen-brand "Jesus wants you to be rich" pseudo-Christian who is repeatedly shocked and downright intimidated by displays of non-Christian behavior (in her self-righteous but moronic and woefully uniformed view), including drag queen shows, homosexuals, etc. The annointed friend whisperer who has assigned to gaslight, with full religious fervor, Shannon, the highly neurotic and fragile apostate.

And there's the self-appointed head Bitch in Charge role mentioned above. Watching that video from inside and outside Vicki's deathbed chamber, one sees her immediate transformation to it. Her already heavily made up and dark bulbous eyes become even darker, her voice and expression deadly somber, as she kneels on the well-traveled hotel carpet outside the mausoleum, holds out her boney arms to pull the others down to their knees, and begins a solemn prayer for Vicki's miraculous recovery from death's portal. A while later, she visits Kelly and Meghan in the hotel dining room, sternly guilting the ingrates for choosing to eat rather than rushing to hover by Vicki's side at the hospital, which is exactly where she, the righteous one, is headed. And, she adds as she heads out the door, she fully expects them to spell her there as soon as they've finished their late-evening feast. Bitch.

[S12.E16: An Unexpected Thaw]

34 minutes ago, zoeysmom said:

Virtually every opportunity Lydia asserts some comment about these women and their behavior. Can they be trusted to behave and how she is the friendship whisperer.  Bottom line is Lydia is at the root of most of the problems since she first went to Tamra's party.  She kept speaking of Vicki, was asked to stop and then immediately told Shannon they would not be getting along-as if she was Head Bitch in Charge.   Then it was springing Kelly on Shannon at The Quiet Woman and lying about it.  Then there was the party at Kelly's and Lydia's dramatic swim upstairs and telling Shannon she done, the overreaction to not being included at the Farmhouse dinner-a little clue Lydia production was filming at your house-can't be two places at once.  It just never stops with Lydia the pot stirrer and her side kick Peggy.  Lydiot and the drag Bingo-always needs to be the center of attention, calling Meghan out after Kelly was clearly over the top about Meghan.  Lydia was in all her glory for the moment when she thought she was being left out.  Add to the mixture the number of times Lydia has called Shannon names.  And she is the good Christian, the true Christian?

Peggy's husband-interrupted his anniversary party to bend Shannon's ear about David "interrogating" Diko.  David didn't interrogate him.  Diko apologized to Shannon and made some claim about liking David.  Then Peggy approached Shannon at another event and expressed her unhappiness with David and repeatedly told Shannon not to mention it to David.  The next day she apparently texted Shannon and called and didn't get a response.  Sure enough as soon as Lydiot arrives the following day she goes after Shannon for not returning her calls.  What could she possibly be calling Shannon about?  After telling Shannon not to say anything to David she wants to know what David had to say and then claims David is lying.

Terrible people.  The only thing that makes these two worse are their confessionals.

Lydia's panties are in knot because she is realizing the other women don't have to kow tow to her-they know how the trips work and who pays.  The trip wasn't comped to get a three page spread in Nobleman Magazine.

I'm becoming a strong believer in the "Vicki's Robot" theory of the post-Cancergate season newbies.

As part of her glorious revenge/redemption/victory strategy against those who dared question her and Brooks' motives during that grossly unfair season, Vicki must have decided before filming started on the past two seasons (and no doubt continued into the season) to employ a full court charm offensive to carefully and firmly convince each new HW, Kelly, Lydia, and Peggy, of the grossly terrible things had been done to her and Brooks. How she, the very OG of the OC, and her possum-skinning lover had been systematically maligned and libeled by thaT evil quartet of miscreants: Tamra, Shannon, Megan, and Heather (whom she was successful at scaring off with that Terry malpractice rumor she embedded in Kelly's microchipped micro-brain). That's why all three of theSE Vicki bots came onboard fully indoctrinated with the same warped take on what had happened, Vicki's very own version.

For someone we figured was spending most of her time at home pining away for Brooks and wishing for casseroles that never arrived, she's been a very busy master-manipulator. This goes way beyond malignant narcissm. It's uber-Machiavellian in its design, purpose, and execution. We ought to send her to North Korea to take out Kim Jung Un.

[S12.E16: An Unexpected Thaw]

1 hour ago, zoeysmom said:

Oh boy-why the Vicki Tamra relationship will never be repaired.  Vicki shut up.  Eddie's past sex life is so far off limits to you:  http://www.allabouttrh.com/2017/10/25/vicki-gunvalson-urges-eddie-judge-admit-hes-men/

Damn, Vicki is like a fueled-up kamikaze trying to take out multiple targets. Is her need to settle old scores and get back at Tamra for her perceived mistreatment of Brooks, now several seasons behind us, so compelling that she needs to raise this issue yet again and demand a public explanation from Eddie for some past relationship? Her logic is totally self-serving and riddled with untruths and screwy assumptions.  She righteously claims that anyone related to or close to an acting reality star is responsible for publicly coming forth and explaining all their past transgressions or indiscretions. Why, she'd even expect her son or daughter to admit to past relationships that occur outside of the traditonally heterosexual norm. Really? 

We know what she's trying to do here: assign moral equivalence to Eddie's alleged past relationship and Brooks' many outright moral transgressions (there are so many). That's madness, akin to equating Hitler's monstrous sins with a 5-year old child found playing with himself.

Why is she doing this in so public a forum? She either already knows she's off the show or is so totally, stupidly self-absorbed that she cannot appreciate how abhorrent her behavior is and how it might seal her fate if it is not already sealed. She is despicable.

[Vicki Gunvalson: Her Love Tank Runneth Over]

This is just another scam by the Vickster. Her insurance business is probably in the tank and poor Steve can only afford to take her to the local Arby's twice a month at best. She probably hounded some remaining friends and family members to contribute the glowing reviews (or wrote them herself). Might even be worth it to pay $40 for my very own Vicky video, if only to be able to rip her Xanax-heavy performances in my review. But then it would probably never see the light of day.

So very desperate. And the irony that she would choose to give her half-assed support to anything having to do with authentic cancer survivors is ironic to the max.

What's next? Vicky's Psychic Hotline?

[S12.E15: Mystic Mistake]

I suspect that Lydiot is now frequently stopped at stores and on the street and explicitly told what an asswipe she has become. Let us pray it is so. 

So Vicki tells her cardiologist that her father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers at the age of 59. I certainly wouldn't wish that on anyone, but one can't help but view her increasingly isolated and loopy behavior with that prospect in mind.

Shannon, wake up and save yourself. There is no way this shit show is worth the toll it has taken on you and your girls.