Panda Bear

I liked D'Andra a lot last year, but I can't stand her now that I see her for who she really is: a spoiled rich girl who's used to always being the alpha (a role she likely played in her relationship with LeeAnne before they were Housewives). She truly can't stand that LeeAnne is the star of this show, so she's going to do everything she can to ice her out and embarrass her. But this strategy always backfires; she's just going to make LeeAnne the underdog and get her a lot of audience sympathy. It's the classic Jill Zarin maneuver.

In my opinion, Eddie is a passive-aggressive guy with a lot of anger lurking underneath a placid demeanor (just like his buddy David!). I don't know if anyone watched his wedding spin-off with Tamra a few years ago, but there was an episode where Tamra interrupted his bachelor party in Vegas and the way he treated her for getting upset about a pretty over-the-top lap dance was weird and scary. Every once in a while, but more often this year, I see that same anger pop up in him and I think, he's really not the nice guy most people think he is.

How did EW publish the excerpt... when the manuscript hadn't even been edited yet and seemed to be in somewhat rough shape (Liza said the writing was all over the place)? As someone who actually works in publishing, this show drives me crazy sometimes.

Yes, exactly. There seems to be interesting stuff going on behind the scenes, but they refuse to put it out there, so we're left with these hidden camera shots, producer interventions, and baffling edits. I can understand a person wanting to hide things that make him/her look bad, but then why choose to be on reality TV? Does the cast really think we're going to be into storylines about producing socks and tomato pies instead? They should cancel this.

Oh my god, you're right on the wedding hair. She looked insane when she married Facinelli.

Also, putting the sibling thing aside, who on earth would think of Kelly as sexy at this point in the show?

It's been renewed for a second season.

Does Catherine realize she's on a reality show? She's always trying to hide things from the cameras. I can't believe it, but I miss Ashley, who was willing to put it all out there.

"But ya are, Blanche -- YA ARE!" I just laughed SO hard at this in my office. She should be especially happy the wedding was called off so she doesn't have to look back at pictures of herself with that hair and make-up forever.

I was kind of excited for this to come back because the last two episodes of the previous season were weirdly compelling: Hannah's father confessing to Louis that he never loved her mother, the whole botched Lyle/Catherine engagement scene, Ashley's failure of a party and her abrupt divorce decision. But this episode was a pretty big snoozer. I mean, we watched Hannah play bocce ball in sweatpants at one point. That is not good TV. But. I liked the scenes with Brandon and his husband and Hagood seems like she might have some personality. (Her name may actually be Helen? Her Instagram handle is Helenhagood anyway.) So I'll give it another shot next week.

Truly. A show that we actually enjoyed watching... even if Brandon was just as infuriating back then.

Didn't Tori Spelling know that people made fun of the show after the first time it pretended she could be a model (way back in the Paris episodes)? You'd think someone would have told her...

Yeah, I kind of thought Shiv was going to walk in on them at the end of the episode.

I don't know why Kendall is still bothering. Time to get out of the family business and let them all drown under the company's debt and criminal actions.

I thought a prestige HBO drama like this would get a lot of buzz, but no one seems to be recapping it or paying that much attention to it. I thought the premiere was kind of weird tonally and the baseball bet was indeed very hard to watch (I hope that family gets good money for that stupid watch!), but I'd be lying if I said I weren't intrigued enough to check out the next episode.

I kept waiting for this to come up--it's a major part of his story, which was introduced THIS season! When the writers can't even remember stuff from a few months ago, it's baaaaad. What's great, though, are the Sassy article acting profiles. The Shannen one was spot-on!

What went unsaid, for some reason (Andy), is that Jax and Brittany had a spin-off to promote during the period they were "broken up." Of course they were spending time together. They were contractually obligated to!

Yeah, this is the episode where I stopped watching during the original run. I simply hated all of the main cast at this point, except for Valerie and Nat. Kelly, in particular: what a true piece of garbage.

If I were one of those girls, I wouldn't have been offended because Craig clearly still only had eyes for Naomie at that point. I don't think he really even looked at those girls.

I was so proud of Kathryn for being mature and not giving into the big scene we all know Ashley was hoping for. I just wish I hadn't seen the season-opening flash forward showing them arguing with each other. Kathryn, you're better than Thomas and his sad, fame-hungry girlfriend (who isn't much when she doesn't have her make-up spackled on). Stay strong. (And I know--you could easily make the case that Kathryn once was that same fame-hungry girl, but I give her more leeway because she was only 21 at the time. Ashley's what, 32? She should know better by now.) Speaking of age, I don't think I realized how truly young Naomie still is until this season. She is going to be so embarrassed about her behavior someday, if she isn't already. I hope she and Craig truly do stay apart, because it isn't entertaining to watch them fight and they're both a lot more likable separately. I do hope Craig gets a scene with Gizmo at some point, though. Also, the pairing of Cameran and Michael the butler was an unexpected highlight. What an odd man.

They wrapped filming in August. Jax's father was diagnosed with cancer in October and then passed away in December. I suppose it's possible that his dad started to feel sick before then and Jax knew about it, but I don't think his behavior this season has much to do with that. And I'm pretty sure he and Brittany got back together because they had to start promoting their spin-off, which premiered right after VR stopped filming, in late August.

I'm pretty sure this was filmed in August. Katie and Tom were celebrating their one-year anniversary (August 18) and there were rumors that Brittany and Jax had broken up right when their spin-off premiered (August 23). Edited to add: Yeah, Katie's Pucker and Pout party was August 2, 2017. Jax's dad was diagnosed in October.

I like Craig a lot. I think he would drive me crazy as a boyfriend, but he seems like a good person. I'm confused about why Naomie thinks he'd take JD's side. He was the only person sticking up for Kathryn for much of season 3. He doesn't really fit the good ol' boy mold that Whitney, Thomas, JD, and (to some extent) Shep do.

True, but Kathryn's hormones were probably going nuts for a great deal of the time she and Thomas were together. I wonder how calm and adoring Ashley would be to Thomas if she were postpartum and Thomas was out flirting with other women instead of helping her.

I think the same thing happened with Jamie Walters in season six. He made the credits, but then left ten episodes or so in. Kind of weird. And, yeah, Brandon is a total monster. But that's what happens when you let boys believe they're entitled to everything they want. (Ahem, JIM.)