LibertarianSlut

I thought I had read navel-gazing garbage bullshit before, but I hadn’t read this. She ate an apple on a mountain! She wears lashes around her pets! No more wine in the house, only tea! Oh, did i mention that I don’t believe for a second there is not a healthy dose of vodka in the (probably several) teas she drinks at night? This was obviously a spin piece that her people put in the media to show us that she’s stable. Funny how so many of us drew the complete opposite conclusion from it. 😄 On RHNJ season two, Dina Manzo famously once said of her colleague Danielle that “while we’re all having our tea at night, she’s plotting.” I’m 99% sure Tinsley is doing both, and given the limited capacity she’s demonstrated on the show, probably “not well, bitch!” 😉

I don’t get what is “so hot” about Evan either. I think he’s a generically good looking guy with male pattern baldness who is getting that bulbous red alcoholic nose, in addition to suddenly having a really nice, lean body. He’s not a young man, so I’m not getting on his case, but he doesn’t seem like he would get a lot of panties dropped unless he is really good in bed or has a ten-inch wang or something. Oh, and second season in a row I caught him, at the men’s table, making a pun about seafood and vaginas. Very mature, Evan. If a vagina smells like fish, it’s diseased. If all of the vaginas with which he comes into contact smell like that, he might want to get a scrape from his doc, because the disease could very well be originating from him. Might be time to make a long-distance call to Buenos Aires. Just sayin. I love your description of the Marge/Siggy breakfast from season 8. I used to like her a lot then too. The common denominator, I just realized, is that Marge is a total control freak, and has been since she joined this show, but she just hid it better and the players were more willing to go along with her antics. It comes from the lack of boundaries her mom gave her as a child. It dawned on me when Melissa and Joe were fighting and Margaret was frowning so hard and she just had to get her two cents in there twice (so...her four cents?) about how Joe was wrong and Melissa was right. Jackie, meanwhile, stood there quietly listening, which Margaret would never do. Then I realized, just as Ramona declared about Jill on RHNYC, Marge loves an underdog as long as she can control the narrative. She is like Bethenny and Dorinda from RHNYC in that way. She is like the opposite of a sunshine friend—she wants to be there for people when they are down, but only in a really specific type of way—as a judger of choices, as a benefactor, as someone who can bestow their opinion that you are either right or wrong before she thinks you can proceed with your own adult life. It’s sinister and sometimes it’s subtle, as it was with Siggy, but it’s there. That’s why she and Jen fight like two soaked cats in a paper bag—I think the genesis of it is that Jennifer marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t give a shit what Margaret thinks, and, to add insult to injury, Jennifer has the audacity to judge what Marge puts out there about her childhood and her life, and that is Margaret’s kryptonite. It’s the Achilles Heel of any control freak when someone blazes ahead with their opinion, regardless of what Control Freak wants. It is becoming increasingly evident that Marge can only play nice in the sandbox when shit goes down exactly according to her rules. I think that is what hurt her the most about Teresa and the ponytail pull—it was not that Danielle pulled her hair, which was BSC, but Margaret at least saw that coming. What she didn’t see coming was Teresa orchestrating it, because Margaret always gave Teresa a really wide berth, so it was beyond her comprehension why Teresa would fuck with her. She fucked with you because she wasn’t over your “Classic Marge” twenty-one comment from last season in Jamaica, and because Margaret got Teresa in trouble with Danielle and Marty about whether Danielle and Marty had sex (another example of a time Margaret stuck her nose in where it absolutely didn’t belong). Teresa holds a grudge. Live it, learn it. I am just so fucking glad the bitch has evidently stopped warning everyone not to break a cankle. She always seemed to think that line was a lot funnier than it really was. Ha, OMG, this post was a gift. You certainly have Jackie’s number. I am only realizing now that any attempt to cozy up to Teresa is an attempt to stick the knife in her back, which, as you said, she possibly could have done this season, but instead folded. I have not much more to add, except I had completely forgotten about the minivan! She should check out Braunwyn over on the other franchise and they can commiserate together in their minivans (though, JFTR, I think Braunwyn is far worse). That minivan was about as contrived as the birthday party for twins where Jackie threw the box of Amazon shit onto the driveway just to show how, I guess, real she is? I’m sure she had a bigger plan than that. I’m sure she wanted all of us to think she was one way, and as soon as we took her for granted, she was going to whip out stretch Hummers and fabulous parties and cause us to stammer and stutter about how multi-faceted she is—the all-American mom who dutifully raises children, but also flies them out to Denver Nuggets games. How dynamic and complex! The problem is that Jackie really never gave/got a sense of who she was—I think she thought she would come across so well that the onus was on us to take her as we found her—thus she presented as a walking book of contradictions. There is no point in trying to untangle this web at this juncture. If she is as smart as she seems to think she is with her degrees, she will quietly blend in to the scenery for the rest of the season, like Dolores, and not stir the pot with anyone, and no one should fight with her. Everyone should put her in Kelly Bensimon Scary Island time out until she can get her bearings, which probably isn’t coming to a theatre near us anytime soon.

You’re welcome! These heauxs have become so cartoonish that it’s getting easier to peg their moves. Plus—hangs head—I watch each episode twice. Once, for entertainment, the second as visual Ambien. I just have a question for the board now that I re-watched—what in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is a “real-a-tor”?

I see where you’re going on your first paragraph. Melissa has this weird power dynamic, though, where if it is not her on display, she is suddenly not as interested in being there, even if a camera is present. (It reminds me of that story Teresa told that when one of Joe’s exes called him on Christmas Eve, Melissa left the house and wouldn’t come back). As far as the second paragraph, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, and I think good minds can disagree about it, but I just didn’t want to see it. Giacinto did have ties to the cast, but he wasn’t a regular cast member, he was controversial (I didn’t like him) and my main objection is that I believe strongly that this was put on TV to drive a storyline, not to pay respects. Both of Teresa’s parents died when the show wasn’t filming, and I think the most the show should have done was have a “in loving memory of [first name] Gorga” at the end of the episode. An elderly parent’s death that happened between seasons is not a fitting f/t storyline IMO. Moving away from respecting Giacinto and onto something related, this just makes me uncomfortable to watch. I imagine it makes a lot of viewers uncomfortable to watch. It feels like attempted emotional manipulation. On OC, Emily pulling out the box of her stillborn twins made me uncomfortable. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with it. I’m not going to post how sad it is. I’m not going to reflect on how sad it makes me, because it doesn’t. This is supposed to be a show about entertainment. I’m not looking to have my heartstrings pulled. I purposely stay away from those types of shows. I think it’s fine to mention how one feels about a loved one’s passing, maybe a montage, and, at most, a quick scene of Teresa paddling out to the ocean with a wreath to say good-bye to her mom as part of a larger ceremony for the rest of the cast to say good-bye to someone who touched them. That’s even a little too much for my tastes. What they did for Joe Giudice’s dad was the perfect amount of coverage for me. Not 15 minutes devoted to someone who wasn’t a main player. If shit were actually going on during this DOA season—if they had interesting characters who were moving and shaking, I don’t think the show would have done this, which, again, brings me around to the idea that the show is exploiting a death in an attempt to keep the audience tuned in. If we had weddings, babies being born, fabulous home renovations, cheating scandals, and good, juicy fights with a cast that could actually argue and keep us entertained (sort of like RHNYC anything except 12), this would barely have gotten covered. Do better, show. Don’t use an old man’s death to fill a quarter of the ep because you have failed to cast enough interesting people. I think one thing that is interesting is that there are two ways of seeing this—one can say that since Teresa is the main person on this cast, her father’s death should get more coverage, sort of the way that Teresa got one half of last season’s finale devoted just to her family. I feel a completely different way though. I think it is an ensemble cast, or should be, and I do not imagine the show would have devoted the same coverage if Melissa’s or Margaret’s mom died, both of whom have been on the show plenty. I think the fact that Teresa gets a disproportionate amount of time is not a reason to give her more time, I think it’s a reason to have a more interesting cast, so that the producers don’t have to make a Hobson’s choice of showing a 15 minute memorial (which was the same length as my grandma’s actual funeral) or another scene of Dolores and Frank having girl-talk about Evan around the kitchen island. We shouldn’t be subjected to either for a protracted amount of time IMO. And this is the last time I’m going to say it, because I sound like a broken record—Jackie being there robbed this memorial of its legitimacy. Last season, Jackie wasn’t even invited to the obstacle course! She is not a dear friend or family of the grieving, she is a co-star. This isn’t an anti-Jackie or pro-Teresa argument from me—it is an argument that this was not a legitimate memorial, this was done for TV, approximately five months after Giacinto died. If this had happened in July, as soon as some of the covid restrictions began to lift, that would be one thing, but Teresa’s divorce to Joe was finalized right around Labor Day, and the show told us that Teresa and Joe were divorced already in past episodes. Why wait so long, if not for the TV cameras and to fill time on a dying show? (And none of these single factors are dispositive for me; it’s the totality of the circumstances that make me want to lose my lunch). But that’s IMO, and life would be boring if we all agreed on everything, so I’ll shut my pie hole on this one for now. She is such a bore. And she’s mean and sneaky and underhanded. In season six, Amber came on as Melissa’s friend, as someone she knew from her partying days. Amber was so nice and normal to Melissa, and Melissa got in there immediately starting shit, going to Nicole and telling her shit that Amber didn’t say in order to ruin the friendship between Nicole and Amber, because that is all Melissa knows how to do. When she’s not fighting, she is boring as hell. But what is even worse about Melissa IMO is that she is only on this cast because Bravo hasn’t yet gotten around to casting men. Bravo wants “Joey” 🤮 Gorga, because of his fucked up dynamic with his sister, so instead of making him a part of Teresa’s storyline, with Melissa as a friend-of, Melissa gets to skate by as a full-time cast member who never has to do anything, because the focus is on her brother. She is a proxy Housewife. It’s fucked up and twisted, just like everything else with this family. Excellent analysis. Or...or...and this has always been my theory—Jackie wanted to sow discord between Melissa and Teresa, so that she can come in on Teresa’s side. I think Jackie—the one who stood in line at the bookstore to meet Teresa—has not given up the idea that she and Teresa can run this franchise together, hopefully as friends, but if not, as opponents. Jackie has her eye on that first reunion chair, we should never forget that. She will befriend and then just as quickly turn on Melissa or Teresa on a dime if it gets her there. If Jackie and Melissa remain on this show, there will come a point where Jackie will double-cross Melissa and Jackie will play innocent, and she will get away with it, because Melissa is a very basic person who has no ability to analyze or form a game. I can so see it now—Melissa squinting at Jackie (Melissa does a lot of squinting; I think she thinks it makes her look smarter or younger or more J-Lo-ey) “Jackie, I told you that Joe humps muppets in confidence” and Jackie doing that nodding thing back at her, with the frozen philtrum and low-hanging upper lip, eyes black, throwing up her skinny arms, exaggeratedly shrugging like this is so beneath her, and lisping, “Melissa, I don’t know how you told me ya said it, I just know ya said it!” Huge grin. Camera fades to black. I’d actually love to see that play out. I am so tired of this show having the same alliances year after year. At least on NYC and BH, the reunion couches switch every season. Why is it that I feel I can bet money on the idea that it is going to be Teresa-Dolores-Jennifer on one couch (or sets of seats) this reunion and Melissa-Margaret-Jackie on the other? Why doesn’t Dolores fight with anyone anymore? Because she’s phoning it in. Why do Jackie, Margaret and Melissa only always get along? They have nothing in common with each other; why don’t they ever show conflict on camera? Because there is safety in numbers, and Melissa and Margaret are too stupid and afraid to get kicked off this show. Who’s left—Jennifer and Teresa? I’d pay good money to see them go a few rounds, but it won’t happen, because I think Teresa wants Jennifer on her side, and she’s slightly afraid of her. I would even welcome a Jennifer-Jackie friendship, like they had in season nine, just to break up the monotony of this Iron Curtain of Left Couch versus Right Couch. So boring!

Yeah, good recall! They were in Oklahoma. Since I am watching the Masters without a whole lot else to do, I went back to that episode’s thread to read more about it. I’m quoting myself again: I stand by what I said, even if that makes me bedfellows with the Gorgas. Teresa was so angry that the Gorgas were not at the one year memorial for her and Joe’s mom, and I was convinced then and I am convinced now that it was due in large part to the fact that their lack of presence made it more difficult for Teresa to exploit this for TV, the way she did with Giacinto. Back then Teresa was working really hard to make ends meet, because her husband was in jail, and I truly believe she didn’t think there was anything wrong with killing two birds with one stone—put her (real) grief on camera and make a buck off of it. Her problem was that the Gorgas thwarted her efforts. This is sick shit to me. The death thing—whether it’s Bethenny with Dennis, Jill having part of Bobby’s funeral on the RH when she was no longer even on the show—will always be a bridge too far for me. I will never be ok with trading on grief in a commercial way. Conversely, I don’t care at all that Teresa went to and came home from jail as the cameras were rolling and her kids didn’t get a private scene with her—I put that in the category of “everyone’s got to put food on the table.” When the death of someone else is involved, that is where I draw the line. It’s not civilized. Even if Giacinto was ok with it—even if there was a signed, notarized letter from him saying that it was ok for his kids to put his memorial on TV so that they could line their pockets and stay on TV—it’s so distasteful to me. I’m not saying it should be illegal, I’m not saying it should be banned, but I am putting it in the same category as the lawyers who advertise that if you were molested a priest, please call their hotline and they can get you “compensation.” Just so gross. Any aura of any legitimacy of this memorial was destroyed by Jackie’s presence. To me, there is no argument to be made that this wasn’t a TV event (as opposed to a real event that happened to be televised) if Jackie was there. She is not a friend of the family in any way, shape, or form. She just accused the granddaughter of the deceased of doing coke (even if it was an analogy, it kind of literally prevents her from being an appropriate guest, unless this is a charade for TV, which it clearly is). The best argument that can be made is that Jackie is a friend of Melissa’s, and I don’t think anyone is buying that. Melissa and Jackie film together and ally with one another—they’re not dear friends and have never claimed to be. I’m not sure I’m ever going to feel good about this show again, or really dig its characters, which is fine—feeling good about them makes me feel bad, and being disgusted by their behavior makes me feel more normal than co-signing it. I simply do not respect Teresa capitalizing on a death then or now, and the only thing that’s changed in the last two seasons is that the Gorgas are now joining her in this macabre display, because, let’s face it, that seven bedroom Jersey Shore house ain’t going to pay for itself.

Close! I kid you not—when Gia took the mic, my first thought was whether she was going to sing the “first you were one” song up until she got to 76, I guess. 😔 (I truly believe that would have been better than repeating a speech for the cameras that she already made to these same people in private).

That was a telabortion of the highest order. It is hard for me to pick my jaw off the ground about how much bullshit Bravo can sling in 44 minutes. I will say, before I go in with the filleting knife, that this was an hour of my life that made me happy, even if it’s because I’m happy I’m not them: Melissa and Joe are horrible actors. Melissa never has a storyline. What happened to the half-sister she was tracking down through a medium? What happened to having another baby? I don’t think she owns more than 10% of the boutique we haven’t seen in how long, and suddenly—suddenly—the Gorgas are ready to print out the divorce papers? I’m not asking if everyone was fooled, I’m asking if anyone was fooled. Like, was there a single viewer who thought this was an organic fight? I also love that she says there were “rumors” that her dad cheated...yes, “rumors” which Melissa confirmed on camera, when she threw her poor mom under the bus, and even her sisters were incensed, and their mom was so befuddled that she was confronted by her deceased husband’s infidelity on camera that she got drunk. Remember the storyline when she was going to write a book about her dad? It was that season. Melissa is hot in an every day way, not a TV show kind of way. I never see her make the lists of hottest Housewife. She has a great body and a long horsey face that is not aging well. But Joe will never leave her alone or never speak to her again; if they were to split, I think we would find Joe G (along with Teresa) stalking her on the ID Channel, until he landed with a 22 year old girlfriend who put up with his Napoleon antics. Melissa would probably score some guy who looked like Al Manzo who would put her and her spawn in an apartment above the Brownstone. It would be Goodfellas without the panache. Dolores loses me more every week. She is self-absorbed and vapid, and now that I see her game, I don’t think she’s harmless anymore. I think that she wants what she wants when she wants it, and she largely gets it, so she keeps quiet, unless she’s sweeping in to offer extremely generic advice about relationships that she doesn’t follow. This woman lives in two, if not mansions, really nice homes, has two men, one to do her bidding and one to do her bedding, and she has great grown kids. Why would she ever be a bitch? And what is she bringing to this show other than the pretty? How did that work out for Kristen Taekman on RHNYC? (NOT that I’m saying Dolores is as pretty as model Kristen, but I think she is really pretty, with DSL and a tan to die for with pretty clothes...and that’s it). Don’t let the door hit you on the surgically enhanced ass on the way out. Teresa (and Joe), I find it so crass that they are profiting off a death that happened before the cameras went up. If they wish to honor Nonno this way—which is a strange way, as they invited Jackie—good, go for it, but it’s not for our consumption IMO. There are some things that stay off of reality TV in my world. To paraphrase Kyle Richards of all people, “I don’t shower on TV. I don’t have sex with my husband on TV.” And I would think it would go without saying that Gia doesn’t deliver a speech to Nonno that she already delivered on reality TV. I think this is pretty sick, and Teresa, you sound like you’re 12 saying you wish someone would suck your lemons. I wish someone would stick a lemon in her mouth. I think Teresa, Dina and Dolores all get along with each other because they are so self-absorbed that it doesn’t occur to them to have a problem with the other ones. Those are still waters that do not run deep. Jackie, I feel dirty, but I am giving you a pass this week. Other than whispering to Teresa, which I found weird, she was a nonentity. I hear that third place reunion chair getting greased for her as I write this. Oh, and I’m glad Evan got strange around the world and now brags about it in mixed company. A wonderful thing to mention when his wife is so nervous that she’s ripping the hair out of her head. Maybe that guy with the 15K engagement ring isn’t looking so bad to Jax right now though 🤔 She looked pretty at the bullshit memorial for poor Nonno. Not having her husband looks good on her. Margaret looked about as pretty as I’ve ever seen her at the memorial for TV whores. The woman doesn’t have a waist to speak of, and she’s not pretending otherwise, which I think is kind of chic, her skin looked so dewy, and white lace looks so pretty against her whitish hair. No snark. If it reads weird, it feels weirder to write. I gotta say that Melissa was wrong in framing what Margaret said about going to her boss’s apartment and sleeping with him at 22 as something that was said in girl code, whatever that means. It’s what’s going in her book, she teased us with that info on camera so that we would buy her book, and any attempt to characterize it otherwise is pure spin and bullshit. Margaret does not get to dole out info and then control how others react to it. She’s taking pages out of the Jackie playbook again. Also, does any viewer give a shit that a not-so-attractive lady who is on her second marriage had sex with a man at 22? If that gets you a book deal, I think I could get a miniseries, cause I got some stories. And? I own my shit. Two for the price of one!! I’ve never seen more men combined (five) with less collective big dick energy. Frank, paint by number called and they want their tattoos back. I’m used to the Joes and Frank being bitches, but Bill and Evan were both girly creeps at different junctures in the episode. My husband is probably wondering why I am being so nice to him. Actually, I’m nice to him because I love him. And I don’t treat him like my bitch, because we have something called mutual respect. I’m going to put that in my book/miniseries and dedicate it to Margaret too. Jennifer...also kind of a nonentity this ep, which I didn’t mind at all. She is a better arguer than the rest (but, so is a fist with a face drawn on it, that a person moves to make it look like it’s talking). I’m onto Jen’s argument game now, which isn’t a bad game, but she ain’t playing chess either. She just takes what someone says, repeats it, but ups the ante. “My lips look like a monkey’s a$$ whole? Well, they look like the monkey’s a$$ hole that you sucked! You shared something with me in an intimate moment? Well, I shared something intimate with you when I got drunk in front of the group!” Not exactly Masterpiece Theatre, but I feel like she shows up to work every episode. She’s never phoning it in. That’s all I got to say about Jen. I’m side-eyeing her a little bit for the moment. Well, that was a weird one. Overall, Jennifer, Jackie, Margaret and Dolores flew under the radar for me, and Teresa and Melissa both made me completely sick in their own ways for reasons I highlighted above. The episode was a snooze, Dolores is stealthily becoming someone I officially Don’t Like, as is this show, no one was likable or a winner here, except I feel better about myself simply for not being a part of this group. 😃 Self-esteem courtesy of Bravo. Before I watched this, I was feeling weird about some decisions I have to make—right now I feel pretty swell—these losers stumbled into their forties and fifties—somehow I think I’ll be just fine and I appreciate the comparative image boost!

Nailed it! I always thought that article (and the subsequent denial of what was obvious) was a real bitch move that she largely got away with, and it sticks in my craw to this day. I am glad that you are shedding light on the fact that it goes even deeper! Jackie doesn’t fight fair, she throws rocks, and when she is called on it, she hides her hands. But God forbid someone says something to or about Jackie that isn’t exactly to her liking (and I’m not talking about Teresa; I’m talking about Jennifer and even Margaret), they have to atone 50 ways from Sunday. Just pivoting to something else mentioned in the post—and this isn’t a defense of Jackie, because using pictures of kids in a distorted way sits wrong with me—childhood obesity is a big problem. The data back me up that is is much more prevalent than under eating disorders. I believe in live and let live for adults, but children need guidance and structure, and allowing them to become obese before they are 18 (and obese is a lot smaller than a lot of us believe) is setting them back so far behind their peers who are of normal weight. If a parent allows their child to be obese, the child in question essentially has to undo an entire lifetime of learned behaviors at 18, or they are at really high risk of not just a whole host of diseases and conditions, but their social options are severely limited. I just think that’s patently unfair for a guardian of children to put someone out in the world at a disadvantage in that way. So to the extent that this issue is brought to the forefront, I think that is extremely worthy and important. To the extent that parents let their kids be obese and do not intervene, especially when those parents are medical doctors, I am appalled. I think it’s a form of child abuse. There are people on this cast I have to look at more closely in that regard. But none of this excuses Jackie’s poor behavior and her oversensitive MO. I will stick up for Jackie in the tiniest way in that she paid (overinflated) lip service to eating healthily last season when she quizzed her kids about food, and they all appear to be of a healthy weight. I would rather see a parent struggle with an eating disorder (regardless of the disorder) but teach their kids to be healthy, rather than a parent who is now fitter than a fiddle, but allows her kids to take in more calories than they are burning, thus allowing excess fat to flourish. Clearly, neither is ideal and kids are not stupid—they don’t fall for “do as I say, not as I do” as much as we adults think they do, but I do think Jackie is aware of her disorder and is trying not to let her kids follow in her footsteps, and that is more than I can say for the other cast member. To me, is it not ideal to have to choose to either be an obese child or have a parent that is obsessed with counting calories—kids shouldn’t have to deal with either in a perfect world—but the way I view it, I would rather see the parent (who theoretically has free will) smoking cigarettes than the kids, and in the same vein, I would rather see the parent have an eating disorder than the kid. And I think that the data support the idea that smoking cigarettes can be less deadly than obesity, and obesity is currently more of a threat. I am just using my own thoughts to discuss how seriously I take childhood obesity. I am not in any way stating that anyone on the board has endorsed it. It also sucks to defend Jackie, even in a qualified way, but I comment on what I see on my screen. I also commend Teresa for being a positive influence on Milania and helping her shed 40 lbs. It can be done when the parent is supportive and health-conscious. If they don’t see childhood obesity as a problem, that is a big problem IMO. It’s getting harder for me to ignore. I feel terrible about the adult neglect that appears to be going on in one of these households. This doesn’t excuse Jackie’s shady ways. I am glad she is bringing attention to this issue. I wish she would do it in a more positive way. But Jackie makes everything negative, so I’m not surprised.

That’s a strange question. Clearly, *I* don’t think I’m “overthink[ing]” if I decided to write a post with that length and that specificity—those are the exact amount of words that I felt were appropriate to convey my ideas of what is dysfunctional with the Gorga-Giudices. If someone decides to go on at greater length than someone else, that’s not an affront to the person who wrote the shorter post. This is not a personal endeavor (for me). 😁 I used the post in question as a jumping-off point to voice ideas that I have had about these people for years. It’s not a lesson or message to any given poster if I begin my post with a definition of “immediate family.” I then went on to say what I thought of “immediate family” colloquially, so I covered everything that I thought appropriate. We clearly disagree about whether the substance of what goes on between the families is healthy, which is fine. I’m not sure why it would get more personal than that, but I suppose not everything is for me to understand. 😇 Happy final game of March Madness tonight, to anyone who follows! 🏀

Legally speaking, immediate family is generally comprised of parents, grandparents, spouses, children, and siblings. So by that standard, Melissa and Joe Gorga are immediate family, and Joe’s and Teresa’s respective kids are their immediate family just as much as Teresa and Joe Gorga are immediate family. I give no quarter to this idea of “blood.” It sounds so medieval to me. I guess when people talk about “blood,” they’re talking about DNA? We’re programmed not to procreate with people with the same DNA as ours, and to spread our seed elsewhere. I’m really concerned—I’ve always been concerned—that they don’t seem to realize this. But I think what is even more important is that, colloquially, when people get marred and especially have kids, that family is usually considered their immediate family and everyone else takes a backseat—parents and siblings. I think it’s really unhealthy to put one’s family of origin ahead of or on par with the family that they created by choice. It causes so much upheaval and uncertainly as to where everyone stands. Even Caroline “Fambly” Manzo had her pulse on this, at the season one table flip finale, when Jacqueline turned and Dina and called her a liar in front of everyone, and Caroline defended Chris Laurita for taking Jacqueline’s side. Caroline said something like, “that’s your sister and that’s your wife, but you only wake up next to one of them.” Bingo. Needless to say, I think a husband’s loyalty should firmly be with his wife, or they need to take a good, hard look about why they are together. For Joe and Teresa to agree—on television, no less—that they are all the other one has, really gives me the creeps. I’ve always been on Melissa’s side and against Teresa when it came to this particular issue. But Melissa puts up with it, so my sympathy for her is quite limited. Maybe if she hadn’t put herself and her husband on a TV show where they are jockeying for position and fighting over Teresa’s brother’s loyalty, there wouldn’t be so much confusion. But whenever Teresa has, over the past several seasons, acted like Joe Go needs to step in as a surrogate husband, because her husband is in jail, it really fucking freaks me out. Those were choices made by Teresa and Joe Giudice, and if Joe and Melissa haven’t made the same decisions (or haven’t yet been caught making those decisions, which is my theory), I don’t think the Gorgas need to step up aka suffer for something the Giudices chose to do or not to do (such as disclosing the full range of their assets, which would have kept Teresa out of jail, which the judge is on record as saying). I think I prefer Teresa fighting with Joe Go (which is so freaking boring; they’ve been doing it since season three) to the behavior that is one step away from incest that goes on when they get along. I never need him to tell her she’s sexy or her to admire his physique again. When they kissed in this episode, the camera angle made it impossible for me to tell if it was on the lips on rewatch, and the fact that I think there is a distinct possibility it was on the lips is a problem. Not healthy. If I wanted to watch a show about adults who are in love with people from their family of origin, I’d watch Arrested Development.

This is so true. There has to be an objective standard for any of this to work—did Teresa say/do something heinous? If we’re using the subjective standard—how Jackie reacts to Teresa—then Jackie is going to take everyone on the show down with her into her rabbit hole of crazy. Something really weird must have gone on with editing at Dolores’s party, and I resent when we don’t get the full picture. Jackie ended last episode with her Cheshire Cat grin saying, “can we just fucking drop it and be cordial” and “did you get that confidence in jail?” And when asked to repeat herself, she said “yeah, that’s what I fucking said.” Mind you, everything Joe B said at guys’ night had already come out at this point. Then, in this episode, Teresa storms away in a fit of curses and suddenly Jackie is reduced to a sniveling mess and everyone, including Teresa now has to tiptoe around her. The narrative makes no sense. How can I watch a show when something crucial was cut out? Either something crucial was cut out or Jackie is certifiable, and she needs to be off the show just so that it can continue and viewers aren’t scratching their heads saying WTF. Also, I am not mad that Teresa apologized to Jackie. Teresa, if she feels bad, which it appeared she did, should be a big enough person to say to Jackie that she is sorry for what she said about Evan, for what she brought up at the table, etc. Because Teresa was wrong about a bunch of things. What Teresa doesn’t get to do IMO is expect a return apology from Jackie, because either you’re sorry or not and it doesn’t matter whether the other person is sorry, and I’m not sure Teresa gets that. And Teresa, by apologizing to Jackie and saying it’s done, has to actually be done, and I don’t believe Teresa is over it. I have a feeling she is going to go ape about the Gia coke “analogy” at the reunion, and I don’t respect that. Be over it or don’t be, but pick a lane. If Teresa did not think she owed Jackie an apology, but Jackie was reduced to a puddle of tears and her husband was coming and Teresa just wanted to make it nice, she could have said what she originally intended to say, which was that there would be no more unpleasantness coming from Teresa and they should just stay out of each others’ way. What I can’t abide by is the fakey fake shit of the picture taking like they’re besties and Teresa telling Jackie and Evan she would never want to hurt them, when that was exactly what she wanted to do at the beginning of the season. All Teresa could talk about, from Lake George to the Jersey Shore was “fucking Jackie,” but, no, she would never, ever want to hurt Jackie and Evan. That makes zero sense. I don’t think Teresa is smart, but even she knows what basic concepts mean, and she should have integrity with her words or they mean nothing. If she apologized in order to get in good graces with her brother, because their father’s memorial is coming up, I am even more sickened. An apology is something that is issued when one is aware that they have done wrong, not because of circumstances. I am going to be watching Teresa very closely for the rest of the season, and if she’s not really fucking good with Jackie, I’m going to mention each and every time that she is a total hypocrite. Integrity is telling your brother, “I love you, I loved dad, but I do not forgive Jackie for taunting me about jail in front of a table full of people, so do what you need to do with that, and I hope we can forge our own peace, despite our differences about Jackie.” Also, Jackie should take a page out of Margaret’s book and wear a one-piece bathing suit with full coverage. I was kind of uncomfortable the entire time she was wearing the black suit with the cutout over her abdomen. It was highly unflattering. And just as a final note before I retire this episode from my DVR: Margaret threatened to go all in on Jennifer after they had already gone in on each other. Do it, Marge! Fucking do it. Because I promise you that you will lose. Remember at the season 7 reunion of RH Atlanta when Nene roared to Kenya “this ain’t Phaedra!”? Well......Jen ain’t Siggy or Danielle or Jackie. She will hand you your ass on a platter like she does every time you guys get into it, so, please, by all means, keep up the insults to Jen, such as the fact that her husband is her meal ticket, which he is. When is Margaret going to realize that it’s not an insult to say that someone is rich by virtue of who they married? It beats the shit out of being broke because you lost a lawsuit and your husband is too lazy to work. Come up with better material, bitch. Joan Rivers she ain’t.

OMG, it’s certainly not racist—Chinese isn’t a race. That would have been a weird sentiment if anyone would have proffered it. If that’s been your experience, that is cool. And my experience is that the most interesting people think outside of the box and do things differently than others. I like innovators. If something hasn’t been done before, I tend to applaud the person who does it first. In Margaret’s opinion. And the way she did it to put Jennifer down for going to China to buy furniture—which I think is fabulous and a really creative way to furnish a house and also a great way to see the world—was snobby and also showed me that Margaret had no imagination. I wonder if Margaret could even afford to go to China. The season before, Margaret’s party line was that she *had to* go to Milan to see a shoe company about making shoes for her business...only for the shoe never to come up ever again, not even at the reunion. That was clearly the season trip, and Margaret wasn’t shelling out a dime. I guess people who live in unfurnished/unrenovated houses shouldn’t throw stones at people who don’t just buy their furniture from China, but travel there to pick it out. 🤭

I agree that it wasn’t a definite case of xenophobia, and I may be using too strong of a word, but something rubbed me the wrong way about Margaret’s slack-jawed face and put-downs of Jen going to China to get her furniture. It may not have been xenophobia per se, as Margaret wasn’t showing dislike for people of another country, but to me she was showing disdain for a person for shopping in a particular country, like it is tacky to get shit from China. What Reza and MJ—two of the dumbest people on reality TV—say about Jen’s home doesn’t really have any bearing (to me) on what Margaret said about going to China to get furniture and how she said it. I don’t know anything for a fact—I just have hunches—but I guess I call stuff out more often than I used to, because Bravo is a network with selective outrage, and that annoys me more than Margaret or anyone else. If someone says something about certain cultures, Bravo goes nuts and fires someone. But terms like “white people shit” have been flying for years, digs at China, digs at Italian-Americans...that is all good for Woke Andy, so I post about this stuff just to out the hypocrisy of the network. Despite the words of my post, I am actually kind of sympathetic to the idea that everyone may have their prejudices, and maybe Chinese furniture is not Margaret’s cup of tea, and she has a right to express that without harassment. But if she had shown the same derision for Mexican furniture, she would have been dragged and that is at the root of my problem and why I call it out. It’s more anti-Andy and anti-Bravo and anti-double standard sentiment than anti-Margaret. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to clarify that.

I am just going to be the asshole who quotes myself, because I am a little surprised at how the stirrings of what I felt at the very end of last season turned out to fulfill themselves this season: Margaret was good until she wasn’t, and now that she’s bad, she’s awful. Now I am not going to miss an opportunity to call it out. She is a 50-something year old child who looks like she’s 65 and acts like she’s 12.

If Melissa doesn’t want to be a part of “this fucking bullshit,” why doesn’t she quit the show? And if Joe Go is so jacked up that he has to ice his hand because he was slamming it because of how worked up Teresa is getting him with regard to Jackie, maybe he should take a step back from the cameras for a beat too. I agree that Joe Go doesn’t need to stick up for Teresa to the point of kicking Jackie out of Dolores’s house like he is the Manzos kicking Kim G out of Melissa’s Christmas party in season three. Teresa gave the most cursory effort at sticking up for Joe vis a vis owing the money to Michelle’s husband John and she kind of held the listing of the house up like a carrot, but did not say she wasn’t going to give them the listing if they didn’t drop the rumor of Joe owing money. Teresa also said on camera that she thought it could be true. And Joe Go did stick up for Teresa against Jackie at Evan’s second birthday party when he told Jackie that he thought Teresa said what she said at Evan’s first birthday party in an effort to protect Jackie. Teresa is so full of shit with that noise that she deserves Joe’s full loyalty, but only gives qualified loyalty. She is about 90% wrong on the issue of what Joe G had a duty to do in that instance. Yes, if you go to jail, you run the risk that someone is going to say “jail” to your face. Your on-again, off-again brother doesn’t have to fight that battle for you. But Melissa was wrong for getting in Teresa’s face like that and throwing a cheese plate as if this is season 8 and it’s a cake. Someone really smells themselves on the chopping block. I noticed that Joe G likes to start fights at tables (season three christening, pounding on the table). Does he think he looks taller sitting at a table and pounding on it? He actually looks like a really seasoned baby in a high chair. But? Joe G is so wrong about Juicy. He killed Antonia Gorga Sr?? He put Teresa in jail? I thought that was the prosecutor. Is this like how, on RHOC, Vicki Gunvalson forced Shannon to gain 40 lbs? Take some fucking responsibility, please. Now that Joe Giudice is officially deported, Joe Gorga talks a really big game, but in earlier seasons, especially at reunions, Joe Gorga would always say that he “loved” Joe Giudice and supported him, and he said that when Joe Giudice called from jail in the Easter episode. It takes a really tough man to talk shit from across an ocean. 🤔 What is wrong with these men? They are such soft assholes and can never say anything to anyone’s face that they mean. Joe Giudice was the only one good for that. Jackie pulled away from Joe B like she has a lot of practice pulling away from a man’s embrace. Why is Jackie crying? I thought she was so good on everything at the end of last episode. She was over it and she didn’t care who said what. Now there are veins popping out of her Botoxed forehead? What happened with editing? Or is she just a psycho? Frank is lying again. He is twisting his words so badly. He does believe the cheating rumors, or he wouldn’t have practically put a bullet to Joe B’s head to talk about it on camera. Frank is using his lawyer techniques poorly. Last season he said Jackie is someone who will never forgive a thing (and he was right) because she was a female lawyer. What I’m seeing here is a (former) male lawyer trying to spin something that is on film and televised, and he will probably get away with it, because Andy plays favorites and loves him some Frank. It’s so rich for Frank to make a distinction about how Joe Giudice is out of Joe Go’s family because they’re divorced, yet Frank, who is divorced from Dolores, gets full husband treatment from Bravo. The irony! If Joe B skates on his lie, I will set myself on fire. It’s a little creepy how he’s suddenly got his hands all over Jackie, even if it’s in a fatherly way. She wouldn’t be crying if Joe B hadn’t run his mouth. It wasn’t “taken out of context”! Frank asked about the rumor and Joe said the rumor is that Evan has a girlfriend! He has absolutely no leg to stand on. And I know it’s on film, but Jen bringing it up at the table was inappropriate. It’s good for the show, but it’s shitty human behavior. She did the same exact thing last season in Jamaica when Dolores mentioned in passing that she didn’t consider Jackie a friend and Jen brought it up in front of everyone at the table. I don’t know about that. I’m not not happy that it came out, but she’s messy boots. This isn’t all on Teresa. Jackie was a little right about that part. Teresa is completely right that Jackie likes to throw daggers and then cry and then everyone feels sorry for her. For someone so stupid, she pegged Jackie’s MO. But Teresa said she is done with Jackie and she didn’t follow through, so I don’t know what to do with that. I like people who stick to their words or I begin to tune them out. Oh, Evan, on the topic of your alleged infidelity, now “it’s a fucking joke”? Is that why you froze your wife out and she had to hide from your kids that he wasn’t talking to you? What a dick. As bad as the women are on this show is as bad as the men are. I love how the collective attitude of the group is that Jackie can’t handle it anymore, so therefore Teresa needs to stop. Maybe Jackie should stop taking jabs. And, oh, what a shock that Jackie is just having yogurt in the aftermath of insulting Teresa and getting a clap back for it. Welcome to the Real Housewives of New Jersey, sweetheart. If I ever yelled at my husband on camera the way Margaret yelled at Joe for no good reason—let’s assume she hadn’t seen the footage from him dishing the rumor yet—I would take my ass off reality TV and get into serious individual and marital counseling. That is horrendous. She really bitchifies him. Thank you Jennifer, for calling what was completely obvious to me out. And then Margaret said that it was Jennifer’s fault that she yelled at her husband—OMG, this really is OC, and if Margaret gains 40 lbs, she’s going to blame it on Jen. Does Margaret know how bad she sounds, blame-shifting like that? What if she hit her husband, or if her husband hit her and they blamed a third party? I’m not sure how that would fly, but I’m not sure about anything with these people. I am taken aback at the bitchiness of the men on this show—Joe G, Joe B and Frank—it’s astonishing. They are so invested in bullshit. I really miss Juicy for that reason. He said shit to people’s faces and he didn’t want to make a career out of talking shit behind people’s backs, nor did he hem and haw about all the crazy shit that went on. I thought Frank’s perfectly sculpted, Botoxed to high heaven eyebrows were going to jump off of his face after Dolores’s party. This is his ex wife and her friends. His kids have nothing to do with this. Why is he still hanging around? Why doesn’t he seriously get his own girlfriend and his own life? I think Frank and Dolores are like Robyn and Juan Dixon on RH of Potomac in that they still consider themselves to be in some type of romantic relationship, and they have just kept that part off of the cameras because it’s so fucked up. But I am so tired of Frank who has unseated Joe Gorga as the seventh Housewife. They should explain his presence or he should have a deeply diminished role on the show. I thought after he got disbarred he was flipping houses. What happened to that? Does he even have a job anymore? I was so glad when Bill showed up. Still a gossipy queen, but a full standard deviation less annoying. He’s changed a lot since the middle of last season when he was perfect though. Not for the better. It all started with his drunkenness at the Jersey Shore last season. Now he is in love or at least serious like with the camera. Jennifer’s black and pink outfit was so slimming and flattering. Melissa has a great body, but I wasn’t a fan of the cut of her bathing suit. It was like her whole vulva was on display, on display. And the bandeau top being weighed down with the microphone was an architectural disaster. Damn, when I wrote last week that Joe Go keeps a good physique, I didn’t see him without a shirt on! I’m not saying he’s fat, but he’s about the size Joe Giudice was when he joined the show. When they showed a flashback of Joe shirtless at the Gorgas’ first beach house, he looked completely different. It’s like all the men decided to gain the weight that Evan lost and then some. Are they taking estrogen or something? Is that why they are getting so fatty and emotional? OMG, Jackie is threatening to drive away on the WaveRunner and us never seeing her again?? Is that a promise? Teresa really didn’t need to say shit to Jackie. She got peer pressured into it, and probably to move the show along, but one of the reasons I said I liked Teresa is because she didn’t back down...and now this happens. It makes me meh on her. Jackie was way, way, way too relieved that Teresa “made it right.” I have said throughout this season that I never say never. Jackie had an opportunity to flip me at least somewhat onto her side if Teresa walked up to her and Jackie had dismissed Teresa like she was a nobody. That would be a boss-ass bitch move that would show me that Jackie can hang and that she is equipped for the show...so of course she slunk over to Teresa with her hunched down shoulders and agreed to quash it. Jackie, you just can’t be helped. 🙇‍♀️ I think the reason Teresa doesn’t want to talk to Evan is because she has a huge crush on him. She apologized to Jillian two seasons ago. I believe she’s apologized to Chris Laurita in the past. Teresa lost a lot of points from me for telling Jackie and Evan that she would never want to hurt them in any way. Then...why did you go the the guy’s birthday party and spread rumors that he’s cheating? I can’t follow this bullshit. I don’t like this dynamic between Teresa and Joe Go where she is a full grown adult and she listens to her brother like he is her king. That shit has given me the heebie-jeebies since the very beginning. And how about that kiss between them that was practically on the lips? I can’t unsee that. Margaret, Teresa’s apology to the Goldschneiders was one of the weakest apologies you’ve ever seen? How about last season when Teresa orchestrated Margaret’s hair pull at Steven Dann and the non-apology that Teresa issued to Margaret as the finale that Margaret accepted lock, stock, and barrel, because Margaret is fucking terrified of Teresa? Margaret can have several fucking seats. Jackie seems so weak and desperate when it comes to Evan. She seems exactly like a wife on the verge of having a nervous breakdown because her husband is threatening to leave. Just sayin. I had to agree with Jackie that Teresa was pulling a Jekyll and Hyde (or Hekyll and Jyde, as Teresa puts it). It’s fucking weird to me that the night before, Teresa was sitting at a table and egging on the idea that Evan had a girlfriend, and now she is taking pictures of them as a couple like she is their friend, telling them to kiss with tongue? I don’t know how these people play like that. Jackie shouldn’t feign surprise either though, because she agreed it was all in the past. I would never agree to those terms if I didn’t want to. Fuck that noise. But I am probably a wee bit tougher than Jackie. Then again, a neutered baby Easter bunny with no teeth is tougher than Jackie. I’m officially bored of Teresa plugging the vibrator she is selling. It’s verging on SkinnyGirl. Jennifer is a fucking queen for doing exactly what none of the other cast members are willing to do (save Dolores, once every other season): when Margaret started to blame Jennifer for the bringing up of the rumor at the table the night before, Jennifer said, at the table and in Teresa’s presence that “Teresa brought it up.” She didn’t wait for the safety of a talking head. And she was calm, cool and collected about it and she didn’t have to be at an 11 to do it (are you listening, Mellisa and Jackie?). And that is what I respect about Jennifer and completely disrespect about Margaret—one will tell it like it is, and the other doles out insults right and left to everyone but Teresa. They are like night and day. Jennifer is a sloppy drunk. And Margaret is a sloppy sober person who isn’t great when she’s drunk either. She did sleep with her boss when she was in her twenties—and not a ‘young girl’ as she claims now—and she slept with the fucking contractor when he was working on the home she shared with her husband. She takes glee in her mom sleeping around, and she was bankrupt since the time she came on this show, but only admitted to it as late as last season. Really bad shit went on in her marriage to Jan, because she goes nuts anytime anyone brings it up. Margaret is so lucky Danielle is not on this season to call that shit out, because it reduces Margaret to even more of a quaking mess. This is the third year in a row Margaret is calling Jennifer’s marriage a cop-out in some way, shape or form. Season nine, Margaret heavily implied Jennifer had an arranged marriage, season 10 Margaret called Jennifer out at the Jersey Shore for doing no work and discounting her role as a wife and mother, and now Margaret is attempting to diminish Jennifer again by saying that Jennifer’s marriage is her meal ticket. It...probably is. Jennifer has a rich husband. Margaret is so jealous she can’t see straight. Marty was right that no one would look at her twice, surgery or no surgery. It’s just interesting to me that Margaret has changed her tune from the mildly xenophobic and derisive remarks she first made upon seeing Jennifer’s home—that she was cheap for getting all of her stuff from China. Where does Margaret shop? What does she bring to this show? She drinks a lot of coffee and showers with her sloppy husband. Yay. If Jennifer is Bill’s concubine, Joe B is so Margaret’s concubine. I also think Jennifer was spot-on when she said that Margaret projects what she saw in her mother’s drinking onto Jennifer. Margaret said as much in the past two episodes when she said that she was worried about Jennifer as a mother and she reflected back to her own childhood. Margaret revealed that she slept with her boss to get an advantage “in an intimate monument”?? What do she and her husband not understand about the functioning of a camera and a microphone?? And, not to mention, what Margaret “revealed” was what is going into her book, which will be, at least hopefully for her, consumed by the masses. She is such an asshole. If everyone took Dolores’s advice to keep their mouth shut, she does realize that there would be no show, right? I’m not sure how many people are tuning in to watch a divorced, empty nested couple in their fifties bicker about houses. “There’s a reason she has no friends.” -Margaret on Jennifer. This is one scintilla away from “I know you are, but what am I?” Not to mention that it seems like they have the same amount of friends, as it is presented on the show—they each get along with two cast members, and two others tolerate them. What happened to season seven Margaret, with the quick barbs? Margaret is the worst kind of bully—when there is someone easy to pick on, like Soggy Siggy, who was losing her ever-loving mind, as well as Danielle, who was also sick in the head, she will lead the charge. But she is so scared to look Teresa’s way, and she can’t defend herself against Jen, who just reads her for filth over and over and over, the latter of which I suppose is amusing. Overall, I am disappointed in this whole cast, save for Jennifer. I mean, is the right word even ‘disappointment’ when my standards are so low that they are merely being met? Can someone be disappointed in something they have no faith in? Second week in a row it is becoming clear to me that Margaret is the worst person on this cast. She pretends to be stealth about it, but she is just as afraid as Jackie; she is just not as crumbly, because her husband is too scared of her wrath to cheat. And Margaret is more of an asshole bully than Melissa, who flares up but then calms down. And she’s become more boring than Dolores. Teresa is just whistling the company tune, and she did nothing for me this episode. Jennifer is my last, best hope, and even her game isn’t completely clean, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. I’m giving this whole episode and cast a Kanye shrug this week.

That was...disappointing. I don’t care about the housing project the way that I did care about the Ryan brothers and their bank robbing schemes last season. I kept looking at the clock to see when it would end. Way too much of the Rohr family. I don’t care about the mother and daughter as main characters. This was such poor storytelling too. Everyone was ignoring the fact that Decourcy had no good evidence that Jackie dropped that ADA off at the ER when she overdosed—it was a complete leap of logic, so therefore it made no sense to me that Jackie spent a healthy part of the episode going to bat for Decourcy. It was also a huge leap of logic that Decourcy would make this college student with the drugs found in her car his cause because Siobhan told him to. I don’t even think Siobhan would have made it her cause. Last season, she was very selective in how, when and why she would back people, but this season, as soon as the lady from the housing project shows up (who I really don’t like) with Leon playing a priest (which was horrible casting; all I saw was Leon), Siobhan is all like, “yes, sure I can talk to my husband about that!! Why not?!?” A huge part of what made last season great was the tension between Siobhan and Decourcy and their ambitions that often came into conflict, but sometimes worked together to advance both of their careers. Instead, here we see Decourcy hearing his wife’s request to get in deep with the FBI and attempt to get them to give up on a possible CI, even though the update at the beginning of the episode told us that Decourcy was in DA purgatory for fucking the Ryan case so bad, but he was just like, “ok!” Who is Decourcy and what did you do with him? Because Decourcy doesn’t just listen to his wife like that. Oh, and how is that glass eye working for you, Decourcy? Because there was at least one shot where he was entering the apartment in the project where the young girl took a stray bullet, and he looked right at something with his bad eye. Nice continuity, show. I like Jackie a lot, but he was wasted this episode. The quote-trading all fucking episode was so boring as was “I am woman...”. Like, ha? I’m laughing? And all the stuff about Eldridge Cleaver and “the price of” mixed up with Nixon, mixed up with James Baldwin just felt like it was trying way, way too hard to be clever. I am also not a fan of Jackie being so fucked up that he can’t stand or communicate. I like him when he is just barely keeping it together, but still making a ton of sense, the way he was at the end with Decourcy at that bar called “21st Amendment” (great name BTW), but not the way he was around his wife (who I don’t care about, if I haven’t made that clear). A lot of this just felt like Ben Affleck making a statement on race, which is the thing that will get me to stop watching the quickest. I could not make heads or tails of Decourcy letting that kid off who made a racial slur at a black cop at the beginning. Not only did he not have authority, he didn’t have a reason. Decourcy doesn’t just do things to be benevolent. It’s not who he is. That was Affleck using Decourcy poorly to make a racial statement. I don’t need any of that on a fictional TV show that I watch for entertainment. Affleck can take his causes up elsewhere. The only exchange that worked for me was Jackie outside the courthouse with the new female Asian DA. Those two can probably hang with each other. I loved it—loved it—when Jackie said he was going to be “self-referential” and when he said “dragon lady” was Chinese, and the Japanese hate them. That is the Jackie I love, the hard-assed Boston Cop (I know he’s an FBI agent, but he is for all intents and purposes a Boston cop) who seems like a total fuck-up and waste of space, but he is actually someone who is really book smart and cunning and he will sell his mother down the river without thinking twice. The conversation between Rohr and the new female Asian DA inside the building just felt like a lot of racial politics talking, and it meant nothing to me, because it didn’t feel organic to the decade. The 1990s had its own unique set of racial problems which didn’t mirror the racial problems 20+ years later. Ben Affleck does know this show takes place in the 1990s, right? It looks like he’s weighing it down with a lot of 2020 problems, and it’s doing a disservice to the show. Siobhan loves herself some Siobhan, doesn’t she? I mean, there is confident—which she was last season—and there is shimmying and dancing when she delivers every line, which is all I saw when she met that Boston politician in the back room of the restaurant. It didn’t ring true to me for her character. When Jimmy Ryan and his sister-in-law made their appearances at the end of the episode, was it supposed to be some kind of mic drop moment? Because I didn’t care. It felt like, too little, too late. There are already a bunch of new characters with a whole lot of convoluted storylines with the housing project, and just as I was trying to get a hang of that whilst trying to keep my eyes open, suddenly the characters from last season show up and...I don’t care. Not to mention that they were in the opening credits (since when does this show have opening credits?) so anyone who was paying any attention knew it was a matter of time until they showed up. That bank scene at the beginning was so stupid and contrived. This is how we are supposed to learn about the housing project lady and her giant swinging lady dick? A real person who is in charge of a housing project—and there is huge money in that—doesn’t just waltz into a local bank, see a woman crying, and threaten to pull all of the housing project funds from the bank if this crying woman’s default period isn’t extended. That’s not how any of this works. That bank probably got the housing project funds from a lot of back room wheeling and dealing, and housing project lady wouldn’t just be able to pull the funds unilaterally like that, nor would she be stupid enough to threaten same, because if her bluff was called, then what would she do? Not to mention that the bank staff member didn’t ask her for ID before getting on the phone with the big boss to convey her request, and, of course, getting a concession. Anyone who knew about that housing project could have claimed to be the person in charge of the funds—why the hell would the staff member just take her at her word that she was in charge? Maybe I should try that—walk into a local bank branch, tell them I’m VP in charge of Wal-Mart, and they better give me favorable lending terms or Wal-Mart will stop accepting their credit cards 🤔. Just very disappointing storytelling. This season opener just made me tired and disappointed. This show can write compelling reasons to motivate its characters to act, but instead it did this. Very lazy. If this is a harbinger for the season, there is a chance that I will be out, the way I am so, so out of The Chi.

Thank you! And I want to thank @Mindthinkr for writing that in a different thread—this makes me so happy, yet so nervous that I get all blushy and flustered and never know how to respond. 💗❤️ It is a very tough job, but while I’m at home on my couch watching March Madness, I somehow manage to bravely take one for the team and yak about housewives. 🤣😂🇺🇸 💂‍♀️

I do too. I miss them as a couple, but I get it, they couldn’t live together, so they got a whole-ass divorce, not a wonky divorce (giving a heavy sideways glance to another cast member 🙄) and I am glad they are in business together. If Teresa is telling the truth, it was Joe’s idea, and now they’re both making money off of it. If I think about it, Teresa is a great spokesperson for sex toys, because she had a traditional marriage, but she was apart from her husband (for an albeit nontraditional reason), so she resorted to sex toys because she didn’t want to cheat. This is something that can be marketed to army wives, or women who have husbands who are out of town on business. Alternative forms of sexual gratification within the confines of marriage were actually a part of Teresa’s story since Marge joined the show in S8 and Teresa showed interest in the marijuana that Marge puts on her puss. I think this is organic, and I like the normalizing of sex toys, as long as they’re not being shoved down our throats (no pun intended). Speaking of throats, does anyone remember in season 3 when they went to the cabin upstate and Teresa got drunk and outed herself as being bad at blowjobs and Joe pretty much confirmed it was true? It would be disingenuous if Teresa was giving blowjob classes or something, but shilling vibrators seems real. And I got to hand it to Teresa for at least being willing to try oral gratification (giving a heavy sideways glance to another cast member 🙄 ). And, in the seasons before Joe had his drinking problem/jail stay, it seemed like Teresa and Juicy had a very healthy sex life. I remember her telling a story about them doing stuff on the beach in Punta Cana that didn’t make Juicy sound like a caveman lover. As late as last season, Teresa told all the ladies that she was always very satisfied in her life with Joe in that area (giving a heavy sideways glance to another cast member, one whose name rhymes with Qelissa). 🙄

Yes, let’s hear it for Jen! Another reason I like her—and this is a bit of a nonsequitor—I like how she says Joe Benigno’s name phonetically, pronouncing every consonant. I always find it jarring when an American pronounces a Spanish or Italian name with a heavy accent and immediately reverts to their American accent. If we’re doing that, why don’t southern names get spoken with a southern accent? And English names with an English accent? 😗 I agree with you that Melissa is grating. She is everything that is wrong with Teresa, watered down, formed into a human, but with none of Teresa’s good categories. However, I am going to stick up for her once and then go take a bath and a shower. I do think this show needs checks and balances, or it doesn’t flow, and I’m not sure who is there to check Dolores if it’s not Melissa. Teresa is too self-absorbed to give a shit about Dolores’s life (and I say that without judgment, as I am somewhat self-absorbed too). If Jen’s not going to do it, it reverts to Melissa. Someone said last season that if Melissa is not fighting with Teresa, they want her off the show. I’ll settle for Melissa fighting with anyone, as opposed to being this weirdly judgmental peacemaker. Melissa was being rude, asking all of those questions of Dolores at Dolores own ego party (it will never sit right with me that Dolores had a party for herself about receiving an award for cancer awareness; it should have been enough that she did the work and received the award and it should have been more than enough to televise the award being presented to her at home with Frank), but I do think someone needs to speak about how strange Dolores’s dynamic is, and Dolores is not being candid, which bothers me even more. This is, what, her third season with David and her unconventional, wacky family as a storyline? The whole thing was that she was only going to move in with David if she had a commitment, and now it is suddenly that she likes her freedom...her freedom of living with the ex-husband who cheated on her and hurt her so much she divorced him? I don’t really get it in almost exactly the same way that I didn’t get Dina and her non-existent husband from whom she was “separated” even though there is no legal separation in New Jersey and they lived in the same house and slept together. Someone needs to ask them the hard questions for their narratives to make sense. I like Dolores, but she’s never really had much of a storyline, and I think it might be a favor to her if Melissa gives her a little bit of one.* And this has nothing to do with anything, but every time I want to settle in and really like Dolores and think of her as this sweet mom, dog lover, former police officer from Paterson with a heart of gold, she shows a really materialistic streak, and it turns me off. Dolores’s materialism doessn’t work for her the way Jennifer’s does to me. Jen came on this show as an unapologetic materialist. Dolores is like a stealth materialist and I don’t know what to do with that. *Dolores should really be willing to take whatever comes her way, because a few years ago, on WWHL, when they were doing this Bravocon thing, Dolores confronted Ramona Singer about Ramona not wanting to take pictures with fans some years ago, Ramona response was that she had been tired, and Dolores said—with this huge grin on her face—“then you should get out of the business, Ramona!” I didn’t know this was “the business,” I thought it was reality TV, but since Dolores stated that she views this as a “business,” she should come fully prepared to play. I wish all the guys had been honest. JoeGo had some plausible deniability, because I don’t recall him out-and-out lying, but Frank lied too, and that makes him suck just as bad as Joe B to me. I’m not totally sure why it looks like Frank is getting to skate on this one. It was said on camera, so cop to it, you cowards. It doesn’t work for me that everyone feels so comfortable sharing their theories in the Gorga basement, but as soon as they are in mixed company, mums the word. Why are they so afraid? That’s the opposite of integrity or manning up (to me). What is so wrong with saying, “I said/heard it. Yes I did. And? Do I owe someone an apology? What’s next? What exactly do you want me to do with what I said/heard?” I don’t really have an ounce of respect for people who want to gossip on the record and then refuse to tell the truth about what they said when it comes out. That’s wanting to have their cake and eat it too. Joe B is not a very smart man. He likes to drink a lot, screw his married clients, and viscously push 60 year old men into pools for saying what is true about his wife. But what’s Frank’s excuse? I guess he is just dishonest by nature, cheating on his wife, and getting disbarred for commingling funds and fraudulently covering up for it after the fact, which is a huge no-no for lawyers. Oh, and then he didn’t tell Dolores he was disbarred, which made her look like a clueless liar at the reunion, even though he called her friends as witnesses for his hearing, rendering Dolores that tragic “last one to know” figure that Reba McEntire sang about in the eighties. I am suddenly remembering exactly why I don’t like Frank. Good point that Marge was so upset because she probably knew about the rumors too! The plot thickens!! It’s so interesting to me that both Bill and Evan didn’t come down to the shore on the first night, and only Evan’s lack of presence got attention, because Bill knows how to maneuver and Evan has no clue. And I don’t really blame Evan for having a sidepiece either. I posted last season that I don’t like Evan because of who his wife is. Maybe Evan doesn’t like himself for the same reason? 🤔 Write a column on that, Jackie! You nailed the Goldschneiders! I don’t have much more to add, other than the way that Jackie sneakily introduced the idea that she has all this money (but only she could talk about it) in the middle of her second season, was so, hmm, calculated and disgusting. In the process, it made Jackie almost unredeemable to me the way she embarrassed Jennifer for daring to ask a few questions on a reality show about their lives and emasculating Evan by telling everyone twice that he had to sign a prenup (I never say never, but that was fucking horrid). I can’t look at her the same way for pulling “oh, by the way, I’m rich” out of her hat as a way to stay relevant halfway through the season. Everyone was supposed to be awed, but silent, about a 1,750-some odd square foot house in WestHampton Beach that she rents out. Whatever. And Melissa somehow found a way to make me hate her more when she drew everyone’s attention to how “winning” Jackie was, which fed right into Jackie’s hands. The only thing mildly redemptive about that for Melissa is how she is now distancing herself from O Crying One this season. But yeah, if Evan has a girlfriend, as Joe Benigno reported he heard, the only one I kind of feel bad for is the girlfriend. Cause with a wife like Jackie, we all know that side bitch is doubling as Evan’s therapist, and I don’t envy that. We haven’t heard much about Jackie’s money this year, and is this because she is broke from paying for Evan to play? I am just going to go with that one, because it has a satisfying ring to it.

A big part of Jackie’s problem is that she violated the rule of “know thy franchise.” She thinks she is on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where they will go an entire season combing the contents of one comment. Jackie keeps waiting for a pause in the action so that she can get in her prerehearsed line, so that someone like Kyle will give a big O face and Lisa Rinna will dissect it and everyone will be like, “wow, can you believe what Jackie said about Teresa becoming confident in jail? Oh my.” This is not Beverly Hills though. Or, to quote Nene, “this ain’t Phaedra!” On this show, the fights come fast and furious and it simply doesn’t work to sit back and say “you can yell at me.” The others do not pick up on your sardonic tone or note the irony of the situation, because they are too busy grabbing glasses to break on the table and readying themselves to tell you “your husband’s fucking cheating” (and then they will calm down and apologize), but you gotta keep up to hang. Waiting for a quiet moment to sit back, curl a lip and hiss something about jail or cocaine may work in Chi, Chi, Chi Beverly Hills, but that don’t play in Jersey. And even in Beverly Hills, people will threaten to go Oklahoma on your ass when you go too far. Jackie is in deep waters. By waiting for her turn to speak, she is in danger of becoming RHNJ’s answer to RHNYC’s Cindy Barshop. Cindy was the one-season wonder who had to be prodded by Luann to get her two cents in at the reunion, and instead of getting her point in, Cindy took that opportunity to lecture Luann on how rude it was to prompt her to defend herself. And I am not even being hyperbolic when I say no one’s really heard from Cindy since...so, best of luck to you with the quiet, deliberative method, Jackie. You’ll need it.

Maybe that’s where Jackie’s parents learned how to live apart? 😉 That whole post was Shakespearean, and hit on every single one of their character flaws with such surgical precision that it was chilling. Woke Andy should look out, as his job may be in jeopardy. He’ll need to find something to do other than lecture people and grin lecherously in polyester suits. 🤭

When a 15 year old girl was onscreen and her father’s reaction to her summer outfit, which showed a fair amount of skin, was to zero in on her abdomen to the point that she was shrieking “don’t touch my bellybutton!” I saw objectification. If her mom did it, it would be less of a deal to me, though still embarrassing. That’s just my opinion. It’s not good fodder for TV, because it made me a little uncomfortable and it wasn’t central to the show, thus it was completely avoidable. Antonia didn’t really have a choice in what was going on (I guess she could have stayed off camera, but how could she anticipate that Joe was going to go in for the grab? That was just fucking weird to me). This is not the same to me as Joe Giudice teasing Gia to the point of tears on the way to the fashion show in season two, because Gia was a little kid, so it was on the normal side for her to cry in that situation, and even that was cringey to me. If my dad brought international TV cameras’ attention to my abs and then tried to touch them when I was 15...I’d still be embarrassed all these years later. It was just a shade over the top; nothing to clutch pearls over, just something I conveyed disdain toward on a message board. The main reason I’m not a fan of Antonia’s Growing Body as a storyline for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Melissa, is because they are so contrived about it. Seasons ago, when Gia asked Teresa for a bra, and they went shopping for one, that wasn’t boring to me. I thought it was funny and cute. I am neither here nor there on this matter of agency, I just don’t like how Joe year after year plays the role of caveman father and Melissa as the devastatingly modern and cosmopolitan, yet flummoxed, stuck in the middle parent who is trying to be fair and benign to all. I am not a fan about how smug Melissa becomes every single season when she explains to everyone in her slow nasally voice how, on the one hand, Joe is old school Italian, but on the other, her daughter has already seen it and blah, blah, blah, so she is caught in a rough place, but damnit, she is going to shoulder through, and...It’s boring more than anything else. <shrugs> Oh, I had a completely different take on guys’ night. I don’t think the other guys like Evan at all anymore. If Frank liked Evan, he wouldn’t have begged Joe B for the scoop about the rumors on camera twice. If Joe B liked Evan, he wouldn’t have spilled the rumors of what the 10 women in his house say every day. When they put it to a vote whether Evan was cheating, the vote was done by hand raise—so if the men believed Evan, all they would have to do would be to raise their hands in favor of “no,” but in addition to doing that, Frank added that he “99 percent” believed Evan wasn’t cheating, which led to Bill to say that there is always that other “one percent.” And then Joe Gorga said in a talking head that the reason he voted in Evan’s favor is because he is a “man’s man,” which leads one to the conclusion that none of the men at that house thought Evan was innocent and they all thought it important to voice said thoughts on camera. To quote Kelly Bensimon (never thought I’d be doing that), the guys were engaging in “PR 102.” They didn’t say “I think he’s cheating” in those exact words, but they left enough room for doubt that it’s clear, at least to me, where they stood. I understand that MMV. I don’t think any of them like Evan. Joe G called him out straight to his face about missing guys’ night, which is apparently some kind of cardinal sin. It’s becoming more apparent to me each episode that Evan is the odd man out, and the guys are circling the wagons in an attempt to bond with one another over their disdain, in addition to the fact that Frank didn’t get away with his cheating, so he may have more of a vested interest in outing Evan than the rest of them (who also might be cheating, now that I think about it; it just hasn’t come to light yet. There are no sacred cows on this cast for me). But my bottom line is that I think the writing is on the wall that the guys don’t think Evan is ‘cut from their cloth’ this season and they are quietly but firmly mean-girling him, and I would feel bad for him if I didn’t think he did something to deserve it. I think he is detached and thinks he’s better than them. Maybe he is better than them, but so is Bill, and Bill still knows how to hang.

Melissa’s Shore dress was up to her C U Next Tuesday, but I’m not gonna lie, she pulled it off. Joe also keeps a really good physique, whereas it looks like Joe B put on a ton of weight, and Frank is not terribly far behind. Oh snap, Jackie—what happened to never acknowledging Teresa again??? Last time I checked, “thank you” was an acknowledgement. I love this pattern of Jackie being passive with Teresa, like she was at the beginning of the season, and Teresa just goes right in. “I gave you something to stick up your ass” and then claiming that she came “bearing gifts” is not not funny. Psst—Jackie, Teresa has no remorse. Get with the freaking program. Jackie is “so fine” as she yanks her fake hair out of her head. Did anyone tell Lawyer Lady that 70% of communication is nonverbal? Oh, I am so glad Teresa told the others to take their words back about Joe Giu, but did she address Jen and Dolores, who led the charge that he was going to take her money?? Because that is on tape, and I don’t like selective outrage, whether it’s from Teresa or anyone else. Melissa is so condescending with “you’re ruining our nice dinner” and “be nice” after Joe Giudice’s name came up and Teresa addressed her brother in a pretty neutral way. Why does everyone always have to be nice on Melissa’s schedule, but she’s free to yell “this motherfucker is winning” at a nice lunch in the Hamptons? And she was the one who made Marge’s “21” comment in Jamaica into such a big thing. Double standard much? Teresa and Jennifer are the only two people who will call that shit out. What happened to Dolores’s Cold War with Melissa? I lived for that! I love Teresa for putting everything out there. This show would be such a snooze if she didn’t call out Joe B. I am so here for that. Joe B is such a fucking liar. And a pussy boy. Ok, he didn’t hear the rumor “in town,” he heard it in your house, Marge! He said on any given day, there are 10 women in his house talking. Liar face!! “Joe mixes his words” is a good one. Is any single person buying that? I love Margaret getting on her high horse and screaming at Jennifer to “shut the fuck up,” but she only will curse at Teresa in a talking head. Why the fuck is Margaret Teresa’s bitch? If Teresa “had [Margaret’s] hair pulled,” why is Margaret friends with this woman??? Because she is a total coward, and it’s more sickening than a lot of the shit that I see from even Melissa and Jackie. There are a lot of words for Melissa and Jackie, but they are not total cowards. I have no respect for Margaret. She got really fucking pissed and screamy, but she is simply incapable of taking on Teresa one-on-one. There’s no show if no one will call out when the emperor has no clothes. Jen called Teresa out on her shit last season and lived to tell the tale. Why is Margaret so afraid, because she’s broke? She can see her way off this show with Dolores, Melissa, and Jackie, if I had my way. Teresa did not call Melissa a stripper at the Posche Fashion Show of season four—it simply didn’t happen—I don’t know why we have to rewrite history. Has anyone seen old pictures of Melissa and her horsey face? She’d be lucky to be the stripper on Tuesday afternoon. Good for Melissa for getting Margaret together a little bit though. I’m here for that. Maybe Teresa did get her confidence in jail. Who cares? Why does Teresa get set off by that shit and play into Jackie’s hands? I mean...she was confident before, so the premise behind the rhetorical question was erroneous, but if Jackie wants that, why not let her have it? Teresa wrote a book with the word “Inmate” in the title...I kinda think the secret is out. Damn, wasted opportunity. If Teresa hadn’t reacted to the “jail” comment, the last comment that would have resonated from the episode would have been that Jackie is calculated, which I think would have been the perfect way to end the episode. Oh well. There’s always next week. I am sure Teresa will go there and get Jackie and anyone else who needs it together, which is why I tune in. There was a lot of screaming this episode, but it (at least the second half) wasn’t boring. Party of one, maybe, but I like it when they fight. Very few of them are interesting enough to carry an ensemble show without excessive drama, so this was a good episode with a slow start.

I’m gong to try to be more positive today. I will try. I love Dolores’s daughter—she is so unlike anyone on this franchise. She brings such a fresh energy to the show. I’m glad, for her sake, that she doesn’t appear a lot. Good for Teresa for getting into the sex toy business. Jackie should and could be her best customer, and they could bond off of that. I don’t understand Dolores’s award. There’s a lot about charity I don’t understand. I think this stuff should be kept off TV. It’s crass to televise it IMO. Not wearing pink is the one thing I won’t get on Jackie about. I don’t care what color she wears, and I doubt the cancer cells do either. (If Dolo had told everyone to wear pink, the way Melissa told everyone to wear white, and I just missed it, then that makes Jackie a jack-wagon and I apologize). Margaret is such a bitch to be worried about Jen as “a mother”. Why doesn’t she worry about her own family and the ex-stepchildren that don’t talk to her that she made a storyline out of for two seasons? Dolores seems to sing a lot of tunes about David. Melissa actually had a point that David is not going to buy the cow if he gets the milk for free. I’m sick of hearing about him. Dolores looks so good, her figure and tan this season are the tops, her polka dotted dress was to die for, but I don’t love her storyline, and I wouldn’t miss her if she were gone. We’re talking about Dolores’s divorce from 20 years ago? I...don’t care. Jen was spot-on when she said that Dolores preaches that Teresa deserves a great guy, but Dolores doesn’t live it. Jen looked so good at Dolores’s party, and Margaret looked good in a long, free-flowing skirt on the way down to The Shore. I liked Jackie in the flowing top and short shorts. It is a much better look than the skintight that she normally sports. Melissa is really trying to stir the pot and stay on the show. Points for trying? I don’t like them objectifying the daughter as a sex object, but that looks like it’s going to be her storyline, so I’ll get with the program, reluctantly. I really like their Shore house. A lot. It’s a lot nicer to me than Jackie’s Hamptons property. Frank, “what happens at guys’ night stays at guys’ night”? When it’s filmed for a reality show? Frank fucking loves lady gossip, and he can bite me when he pretends otherwise. We all know that he, Joe Go, Joe B, and Bill like to cluck like a bunch of hens whenever they get the smallest chance. I am completely convinced, as I have always been, that Jen is the future of this franchise. She keeps it moving, she’s smart, she’s light, she’s free, she has a nice big family...move over Caroline. There’s a new matriarch! For someone who is “never” afraid, Jackie seemed...kinda afraid, confiding in Melissa like a scared cat, asking Melissa whether Teresa is going to start with her...Ok, I said I was going to try to make a positive post, so I’m going to end here before I get myself into trouble!

🤙 Preach. Tinsley most definitely attempted to manipulate through her personas. The article above—which is a doozy—pretty much proves that. The author of the article—who was in direct contact with Tinsley—said that “She learned how every detail—the curl of your hair, the width of your smile—had a role to play.” New York Magazine is a pretty unimpeachable source. This article confirms that Tinsley did to Topper more or less what Scott did to Tinsley. He wanted her to have a baby, but she wouldn’t do it because—as she shouted across the table to Topper—she wanted to be skinny for MTV? And I and many other viewers felt sorry for her because she didn’t have a child? Any cosmic sympathy I had is shrinking rapidly. What goes around comes around is a son of a bitch. The more I read about this woman, the more I trust my spidey sense. The handbag line was handed to her, as I suspected. She was in the right place (East Hampton) at the right time when a designer needed a model. There’s no there there. The more I learn, the more Tinsley’s story reminds me of Luann’s. Except the part about running away from her husband to be with a prince—that sounds like Sonja; Luann only did this to a boyfriend. The thing that bothers me that has not been said in this thread yet, is that Luann got so much shit for all the hand ups she’s gotten from men and her good looks, but somehow Tinsley is unimpeachable? I think this has more to do with the fact that Luann is tall and has a deep voice than people realize. Tinsley purposely presents herself as this delicate thing—almost inhuman, like a doll—and a lot of us just fall for it and assume she’s delicate, delicious, and innocent, but she’s none of those things. She’s calculated to within an inch of her life. She’s more of an idea than a person, much like Patrick Bateman. I’ve posited this before in an episode thread, but I don’t think Tinsley would be handled with such kid gloves if she were poor and/or less attractive. Even though this is a part of human nature, I find it disturbing. If Tinsley looked like Crazy Eyes from Orange Is The New Black, she would be nobody’s victim. Similarly, if Tinsley were still physically Tinsley, but she came from Brooklyn-Brooklyn (not Alex’s posh neighborhood), but, say East New York, and she dressed like Meredith from The Office (who she is starting to resemble, not for nothing), she also wouldn’t be given a pass. (FTR, I’m claiming looks-ism, not classism, and certainly not racism.) But this? doesn’t deserve any more more deference than this because at the end of the day, we’re all people, and we should be judged on the content of our character. When Barbara K—who exhibited a personality not very dissimilar from Tinsley’s, both of them being kind of mild-mannered until they weren’t—comes on the show and gets treated just as good as Tinsley, I’ll stop talking about this issue. Not to mention that Carole told the press that “When Tinsley flew her glam team with her for a group trip to Cartagena, all hell broke loose... [because] they were there for Tinsley only.” In the same article, Carole mentions that this was kept off camera. I thought we were supposed to “mention it all.” Why do Erika Girardi and Dorit from RHBH get so much shit (rightfully) for their glam squads, but Tinsley’s got to keep hers off the air completely, which led to the narrative that she was low-maintenance? I suspect this is because she was a pet of Andy’s. I don’t like preferential treatment like this, as it plays the audience for a fool, so I’m happy to call it out. Thankfully, each woman is an individual, because if we were judged as a group, Bethenny would have been right, and Tinsley’s behavior would have set us back 100 years. Unless more comes out (a topic about which I’m ambivalent), I still don’t feel sorry for Scott. He had just as much info available to him about how she’s carried on with men in the past as the rest of us did, and for whatever reason, he chose to put a ring on it. I’m sure he was enjoying all the sex, all the covid vacuuming and cleaning she bragged of, and he is a big boy who could have walked away from this black, black widow, baby, but he chose not to, so he can save his tears for the pillow too.