LibertarianSlut

He said that eventually, but he also said “code-grand-parenting” when he was struggling to get it out. My husband and I looked at each other and cracked up when it happened.

Reanna & Taron—I, like, can’t stand her mom? With her...uptalk? I have to keep reminding myself that just because this woman is going to be a grandma, she’s only about four years out of her twenties, though I still think she’s immature and uneducated by that standard. I’m starting to realize that Taron is ghetto trash. Dude. Pull your fucking pants up. So what if Reanna wants her mom there for the Caesarean section instead of Taron? Are Reanna and Taron even a couple? Didn’t he have sex with someone else? I fail to understand the premium this show puts on the father being there for the birth. I think it’s fine for the father to be there when the child is born if that’s something agreed to by both parties, but on this show, they act like if the father doesn’t physically see his child get birthed, the man will abandon his child, like he’s some kind of wild species. I don’t know or care if my dad was in the delivery room with me or my sister, but I know he was there when we were growing up, and that’s what matters to me. I know I brought this up last season, but since this is the NFL Playoffs, this is on my mind again—when Tom Brady got Bridget Moynahan pregnant, but then he immediately got together with Gisele Bundchen (whom he went on to marry and have several more kids with), the media asked Bridget if Tom was going to be in the delivery room when she had the baby and she just laughed and said “no!” Having a baby is a very intimate experience—probably more intimate than sex—and if the parents aren’t a couple, I think it’s fine and rather normal for the mom-to-be not to invite the father to be there. Jenna & Aden—Aden’s mom with the kids all spread out in age is actually interesting. I liked his mom. If she had a baby at 17 and the child is now 31, I assume she’s around 48, which is old enough to be Reanna’s mom’s mom and that’s clear from her demeanor. Then again, the bar is set on the low side. Jenna’s apple didn’t fall far from her father’s tree with his “code-grand parenting.” I disagree with Jenna when it comes to her dad’s attitude about her mom—they’re divorced, which kinda means they don’t have to deal with each other anymore. That is why people get divorced! The mom can very easily have another <eye roll> baby shower for this stupid spoiled brat; the dad doesn’t have to shoulder the burden of paying for the thing and then also deferring to his 17 year old daughter about whether he is going to socialize with his ex-wife. Jenna can miss me with that shit. Myrka & Ethan—is all they have the “gender reveal”? This is so boring. Failure to launch. I’ve given up trying to understand Myrka when she mumbles down into her huge ta-tas. Here’s hoping she and her ambiguous boyfriend will be one and done. I knew that Myrka’s mom would show up at the “gender reveal,” because even if she thinks teenage pregnancy is not something to celebrate, she isn’t that adamant that she wouldn’t sign a release and show her face on this show to have her life and talking heads filmed, and given that the “gender reveal” is their only storyline, it was plain as day Liliana would show up. Snore. Could that “gender reveal” have been dragged out any longer?!?!? I don’t remember last season being this slow. When the show went to commercial before they would reveal the “gender,” I said to my husband, “if that’s not twins—if there is not pink and blue in there—this show is really taking the audience for a ride.” That entire last segment was beyond bogus and a waste of my time. I don’t give a shit about cha-cha dancers and fake mustaches—there are four other girls in the sophomore class alone who are pregnant—helure!!—you guys aren’t special. Tyra & Alex—it’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that Tyra is away at college in an effort to pawn off her baby on her mom and sister. If that works for them, fine, but since it doesn’t work for the sister, who is younger, I think it’s time for Tyra to make a change. She’s being selfish. Don’t drop out of school, obviously, but stay home and attend a school within commuting distance until you can work your shit out enough to get someone who is willing to watch your baby all the time. That’s called life. If I remember Tyra’s story from last season, she knew about birth control, as she had been pregnant before and miscarried at five months. So, after that fabulous mishap, she decided to have unprotected sex with a guy who can barely tie his shoes and...she expected this to somehow work out differently? This isn’t on Alex’s mom moving her boyfriend in either. No one is directly responsible for that child except the parents and neither of them are stepping up to the plate, even though Tyra is making a better show of it than Alex and using better buzzwords. Hailey—I am not a baby person at all, and I think her kid is cute. Much cuter than any other baby that’s been on this show IMO. Hailey is also really pretty—now that she’s no longer pregnant, her bone structure comes through, and I could see her doing some amateur modeling or something, which is great, because let’s face it, she’s not exactly going to win the grammar bee anytime soon. Big fucking shock that Matthew and Hailey II broke up. I think it’s gross and sad that Hailey I is still having sex with Matthew. She can do so much better. I’d like to see her get on really solid birth control and find a different guy from a different demographic, maybe a man who’s been married and divorced with his own kid(s) and earning some kind of paycheck and living in his own home, maybe a guy in his early twenties who can set a good example for her. God knows her mother—the one that bragged on camera last season that Matthew was still coming over to have sex when he was with Hailey II—isn’t going to lead her to the promised land. As much as I complain about how stupid and arrested these people are, they strike me as so real. I believe each and every one of their stories is unfolding pretty much exactly the way they’re telling it to us on camera, and that type of authenticity has become increasingly hard to find on reality shows, so, even though nothing even happened on this episode, it is still probably my favorite reality show right now.

This is where I come out on it 100%. I’m also really confused about Heather’s (and, to an extent, Whitney’s) current religious status. A few episodes ago, Heather and her daughter discussed whether they were going to go to church or sleep in. If Heather is against something—if she thinks it is racist and anti-gay (a paraphrase of her words, not mine)—why is she continuing to support it? That’s a really strange standard to set that no one is calling her out on—if I had kids, I wouldn’t bring them to a place that was bigoted, unless perhaps it was court-ordered and I would face jail if I didn’t do it (and I’d still probably not do it—I’d probably take my case to the media). So how does Heather answer for that; I’d really like to know. As ex-Mormons, where do Heather and Whitney stand? Are they agnostic? Do they just not believe in God? Do they just not think about it? I think these are fair questions to ask with regard to a show that pans to a Mormon Church every half a dozen scenes and women who trash the Mormon Church like nobody’s business every flipping chance they get. And I’ve given up on trying to define “Mormon 2.0.” It means, “we do whatever we like, but we are paying lip service to 4/5s of the population, so they don’t make our lives hell” as far as I’m concerned. The other thing I noticed is that in episode one, Jen said she was “converting” to Islam. In my opinion, she’s never going to do it, because it would mean giving up drinking (I know that some Muslims drink anyway, but Coach Shah was adamant to Seth last episode that drinking is completely forbidden in Islam). Jen’s religious stance reminds me a little of Heather Thomson from RHNYC—the husband was Jewish, the kids were Jewish, she followed all the Jewish traditions and used Yiddish words, but she wasn’t converting. At least Heather was honest about it. There is nothing honest or authentic about these women.

Geez, Mary is grown, there is no reason to cry over not being invited to the hip hop/golf party! She’s supposed to be a leader; this is immature. And I didn’t think Mary should have invited Jen to her Louis Vuitton ear bud lunch either. They’re not friends! Ok, Whitney, Mary’s house is not 20,000 square feet. It doesn’t even look particularly large; probably closer to 2k than 20k. Is Mary ever not talking about her grandmother?!? Her closet was disgusting. And I actually like her personal aesthetic. Color me shocked that Heather’s ex-husband showed up on camera—he reminded me so much of Kim Richards’ ex-husband Monty on RHBH, the one that died of cancer. Just as I was warming to Heather, she sounded so shallow and immature in pretty much everything she said about her ex-husband and former marriage: he “checked every box” by being over six feet tall, he was “cool and rich”, and had a “pioneer history with Howard Hughes” and Heather was “the never say no girl”? What does that even mean?? Isn’t that exactly what she got all up in a snit about Lisa saying about her in episode one?!? Heather is confusing, because Heather is confused. She’s trying to be the moral compass of the franchise, but she doesn’t really believe in herself, so why would the viewer get behind her? I feel like Heather is trying so hard to convey an image every time she opens her mouth: “I’m still a divorcee, ostracized by my community and totally alone.” Oh my God, Heather, you have a business that you claim is valued at over 20 million dollars, you have three healthy daughters, and you are somewhat arguably attractive if one squints enough and puts enough Vaseline on the lens. Why is she always lamenting her life? Even tongue-in-cheek, enough is enough and she needs to pick herself up once and for all and stop being poor little pioneer girl. And...does she know what ancestors are? Because her tag line is about “my pioneer ancestors,” but apparently the pioneers in question were related to her ex-husband, so I really hope she realizes how strange that sounds. If Heather and her ex-husband shared ancestors, I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point. It might even be somewhat interesting. Aw, poor weird Whitney again, with her poor weird familial problems of her in-laws having her picture mounted next to her husband’s ex-wife’s. I’m not sure how a viewer is supposed to relate to her story. She seems like an ex-Mormon fembot, like she shows up, delivers strange stories and smiles creepily and it just doesn’t elicit the desired reaction from me, at least, which I think is supposed to be amusement. Whitney is really charmless when I think about it—she probably has the least charm of any of the women on the show—and I’m not here for her. I have no idea who I’m here for at this point. In my mind, they all have big X’s next to their names, for various and sundry reasons. I really thought I was going to like Lisa in the beginning. I thought she was really cute in her smushed up kind of Bratz doll face, and it seemed like she truly didn’t give a shit, unlike Heather and Whitney, but it’s not a still waters run deep situation there—it’s just a vapid woman who is quite obsessed with goals in the abstract, which is a really weird preoccupation that I can’t relate to. I wish Lisa would stick to making astute observations, such as Whitney needing a lot of attention, negative or positive. (That sports bra and standing on her hands was not flattering to Whitney’s body type). The highlight of the episode for me was Lisa getting in Whitney’s face and telling her off. It took nine episodes, but apparently Lisa has a personality somewhere deep down inside. I just hope she sticks with confronting dumb bitches instead of staring into space and looking at her family blankly, like she has no idea who anyone is, or why they are together. Meredith has quite possibly the most annoying voice across the Housewives franchise to me, which isn’t really her fault, but the pregnant pauses as if she is always on the verge of saying the most important thing in the world is, and I can’t stand her scenes because of that and the attention-seeking Brooks, ugh. Coach Shah completely knew about that party in advance. Once again, he kind of won the episode by pinning his wife’s drinking as the problem. Does anyone have any idea how old Jen is? She has a 14 year old son, but can she be much less than 50 with that tight-as-a-drum face and struggle body (the one where she isn’t heavy or fat at all, but the skinny arms and legs don’t match the short neck and torso that gravity’s had it’s way with)? I can’t believe Heather—the Heather that eschewed gossip about Meredith’s marriage last episode—was the first one to jump on the Whitney runtelldat to Jen about Lisa and Meredith being scared of Jen. For someone who is a “straight shooter”, Whitney was so freaking tongue-tied. She wasn’t just stuttering, she was like hyperventilating. What an awkward try-hard bitch. Jen’s reaction to Whitney’s nontroversial gossip of throwing the glass and blaming Mary was perfectly on par with a Jen reaction. Le sigh. I don’t think Lisa and Meredith are afraid of Jen, and Whitney is really playing both sides of the fence, trying to stir up a season, and it’s not working. Whitney couldn’t even get the gossip out of her mouth without Heather having to speak for her. The fact that Lisa and Meredith—who aren’t exactly passionate or aggressive—swatted Whitney away like a fly speaks volumes. Whitney has emerged as the real asshole of this franchise to me. She’s taking Jen’s place. Whitney really needed “liquid courage” to tell someone someone else is afraid of her? She is dead weight on this franchise, and that’s saying a lot. Someone needs to lead a charge against Whitney and restore order. I (reluctantly) nominate Lisa. So, they mentioned a few times that this was close to Valentine’s Day. If this was really filmed over 2019-20, which other posters have said, then this show should be wrapping up soon. If it was filmed over 2018-19, which I suspected, there is no end point in sight. I’ve never wanted so badly to be wrong about something!

Myrka’s mom—“teenage pregnancy is not something to be celebrated.” Yup, that’s about the size of it. Reanna’s mom is taking way too much glee about her daughter being in pain. I don’t get that. I think she looks at it as a rite of passage, which is so weird. What a creepy, lumpy family. They think it’s time to break the cycle now, not 40 years ago? Reanna’s symptoms and misery are so palpable through the screen that it makes me not want to have a baby...and I’m older than her mom, so, job well done on that front, show. Also, if Reanna is in that much pain, but Taron needs to know that his baby might be coming, why doesn’t Reanna’s mom, the over involved genius, make herself useful and pick up the phone and send him a text? That was hopefully manufactured drama. Big shock that Alex didn’t confront his mom about her online boyfriend moving in with his infant daughter, because he doesn’t want anyone to be mad at him. What did Tyra see in him in the first place? This is a situation where she might have to leave college to come home and watch her kid. I didn’t realize Tyra was away at school and coming home on the weekends. That seems like something that has to be deferred in this situation. Alex seems useless. I know this is damning with faint praise, but at least Jenna’s dad seems able to articulate a thought, and I think he doesn’t have mixed feelings about this, the way some of the other (grand)parents do—he clearly thinks it’s wrong, but he’s doing the best he can to support them now that it happened. I think he was refusing to turn the guest room into a nursery because he didn’t want the baby living with them to be a permanent situation—I think he wanted Jenna and Aden and their baby to get their own apartment. That was the vibe that I was getting, I and I agreed with him, and I wish he hadn’t backed down. Ethan’s parents (of Myrka and Ethan) seem unhealthily ok with this. Who gives a shit about a “gender reveal” party for kid or adult parents? Like, people are supposed to attend and bring presents like it’s something newsworthy? The baby is either a boy or a girl, both of which are familiar concepts. Self-important much? If it was an “alien or person” reveal, I could see the theatre in that.

I think it “surprises” me that Lisa doesn’t have her story straight about her religion, because she is on a reality show where she doesn’t stop talking about it. I wouldn’t even characterize it as “surprised”; I am more dismayed that a woman who converted to Mormonism and drinks/sells alcohol and is asked about it doesn’t have a ready response, and she just descends into talk of being spiritual and personal. Coach Shah asked a direct question to Lisa whether there is “some religious proscription that says you can’t have an alcohol company and still practice” and “is that at odds from a religious standpoint?” If it’s allowed to be sold, but not drunk, as someone suggested vis a vis Marriott upthread, then perhaps Lisa should have said that. I would have accepted an answer such as, “no, we can sell it, but we are just not allowed to drink it” (and then she might have to explain why she was drinking earlier in the episode) or “yes, there is a religious proscription against selling alcohol, but I choose to anyway” or, “I don’t know,” which would ring strange to me, considering that the woman converted to the religion, so one would expect she knows something about it. I think she does know, but she is being deliberately obtuse, and that’s where my consternation originates. The stuff Lisa said about not being a cultural Mormon is bullshit to me. The church has a strict stance on alcohol. If Lisa and her husband want to ignore it, they are departing from their religion, which is fine, I guess, but the religion does not bend to meet Lisa and John at their comfort zone That’s not how this works. I had to agree with what Jen said in her talking head “that is not the Mormon Church or religion that I grew up with...it’s really not the Mormon Church; it’s like the Lisa Barlow church” after Lisa and John mumble-answered that they don’t care. If Lisa had said point blank that she didn’t care, I would have had a lot more respect for that answer. When Lisa says in a talking head that God doesn’t care that she owns a tequila company, maybe she’s right, but the religion that she converted to is unambiguous that it does not wants its adherents drinking, and there’s no getting around that, so why not just be honest and say money is more important than following the faith to the letter? It’s not like she’d be burned at the stake; everyone probably just would have shrugged and moved on. I don’t think Lisa is used to people asking her very direct questions like Coach Shah did, and I subtract points for unpreparedness, especially on TV. I’ve been this way my whole life—I expect religious people to adhere to their religion, or what is the point? I don’t think it is unique to Mormonism; I used to think it was kind of...gross (for lack of a better word) when my Jewish grandma would say she was going to fast for Yom Kippur and hopefully lose a few pounds, and when I would ask her why she was actually fasting, she would get defensive and not know. I mentioned in an earlier episode’s thread that where I’m from, a slim majority of the people are Catholic (not me, I wasn’t raised with a religion) and the hypocrisy was overwhelming to me. In the office where I worked in college, people would be horrible to each other, but no meat other than fish was consumed for lunch on Fridays! And in another office, there was the secretary who had a child out of wedlock and was currently on artificial birth control (hopefully at least), and when it was time to get paid time off to run down to church to get their ashes for Ash Wednesday, I don’t know who was quicker to leave the building first—her or the attorney who was sleeping with a different girl every week. I don’t get that stuff. I never have. Maybe it’s easy for me, because I wasn’t born into organized religion of any sort, and it was only in my twenties, through inquiry and reason that I arrived at the conclusion that I believe in Christian principles and I am, for all intents and purposes, a Christian, but the only things that really requires is for me to believe Christ died for our sins, He was resurrected, and I should try to be a good person. I’m not prepared to make religious sacrifices, I’m not prepared to tithe, I’m not prepared to attend church, so I don’t commit to anything, and I don’t claim to do otherwise. And I guess that if I have my attitude, it makes it hard for me to see it differently. Maybe I would be different if I was “born into” a religion (highly doubtful), but Lisa opted into this religion, so that makes it all the more puzzling to me. Then again, there is that famous quote by the Catholic woman—I forget her name—but when they asked her how she could simultaneously be so Catholic and so rude to people, her reply was like, “Can you imagine how bad I would be if I wasn’t Catholic?” At least that’s witty though, at least that’s something. Lisa looked like a deer in headlights, and like she was in physical pain when she was asked a direct question about her religion and business. This is why I think Coach Shah should get a snowflake and a tag line. I could not imagine any of the women on this franchise having the balls to cut to the heart of a matter without being offensive or awful about it. He just respectfully asked Lisa what was the deal with regard to her religion and her business, and she crumbled in on herself like a dying star.

I just find it hard, if not impossible, to get into a show that starts with quarantining, so I’m not sure how this season is going to progress for me. It’s certainly not the fault of the players—I just don’t care to hear about it. I liked what Stephanie said off the bat about how they’re filming a TV show, they’re testing all the time, so save the tweets. I really like when they break the fourth wall like that. Now we don’t have to talk about it ad nauseam. There’s something off about Kam opening the show—she is great, but she’s not a lead. There is also something off about Kameron this year period, physically and mentally. It’s like she’s phoning in the role she’s been playing the last few seasons—like, “I? Am? So? Upset? About? My? Dog?” And then she looks at the camera like she’s not sure if she delivered her lines with the requisite air headed ness, like she is over it. Brandi’s mommy makeover was apparent when she was slipping on the slip n slide—like Tamra Barney, no belly button to be identified. Her face is starting to look hard and scary. She went away to treatment because she was suicidal over a video about squinting and stuff? I don’t believe that. I think she had to go to treatment, because last reunion she pulled out a folding chair for Leanne to sit on so she could get roasted, and then Brandi looked like a big damn hypocrite when her stereotyping (or whatever, I don’t know what to call it, it really doesn’t faze me) video showed up. Not to mention she was probably within an inch of losing her job. Bravo can miss me with its thumping music and panning to Tiffany when the idea of Kameron’s friend Jen meeting Brandi was broached. (This show loves a Tiffany and a Cary/Kary). Also, Kameron’s friend Jen was caught in a white lie about Kam’s age. When Stephanie asked her how long she knew Kameron, Jen said she knew Court in high school, and they’ve been together 15 years, so she’s known Kam for fifteen years. That would make sense...if Kam was 32 or 33, which she’s not... So Mama Dee just gave D’andra $100k? Sounds about on point. I don’t generally like D’andra, but I like that she can poke fun at her weight, and it’s not the elephant in the room that she gained at least 30 lbs since she joined the show. Once it’s addressed, it loses shock value, so, good move D’andra and Mama Dee for tackling that straight out the gate? Now I feel dirty for saying something good about D’andra. Where is Jeremy? And Travis and Brian for that matter? I have a feeling Jeremy is not going to be on the season a lot at all. I always said Kameron had a small-ish home (with no pool apparently) for someone whose claim to fame is that she’s a Westcott, and I got so much shit for it, but I guess Kam agrees with me in that she wants to upgrade her home to something more Stephanie-like too. Tiffany appears to have a lot of money. Her energy is a little high though. She’s a little alpha. I despise helicopter moms, but maybe she was kidding (didn’t seem like it though). I like people a little more laid back, but there’s no way I can fully gauge her after just one episode. She also seems a little young for this group. I think, from the editing, Kary Brittingham was on the chopping block for this season, and she was saved by the skin of her teeth. She barely showed up until the episode was 2/3 over, and barely a talking head was to be had by her, and she got no storyline or update, except that her stupid jewelry isn’t selling, which doesn’t bode well. The audience doesn’t seem to respond to her and her gravelly voice and the husband from whom she was always trying to elicit material goods. I don’t think she brings anything to the show. I think it was time for Leanne to go for a few reasons. She became too big to fail, and a franchise doesn’t flow when one of the players sucks all the air out of the room. But Tiffany and Kary are not the answer IMO. I’m still not clear on why we lost Cary Deuber. She was pretty perfect for this. Stephanie and Kameron are well-casted too. This show will lose me if it becomes the Brandi Apology Tour. I don’t know why she’d “need to talk” to the Asian woman in the room. By that logic, Brandi would need to talk personally to every Asian out there. That’s not something I’m interested in watching. I have no idea what Tiffany’s personal story has to do with Brandi. I am not here for the virtue signaling hour. I’ve quit three Bravo shows in this month alone, their concept and agenda is becoming increasingly ridiculous to me, and I have no hesitation in taking this one off my DVR. I’ll give it one more episode, and if this video thing doesn’t die, I’m done, and I’m done with pleasure. There’s not really much to see here, judging by the first episode. This show was so good seasons 2 and 3! Something happened, but I don’t care enough to investigate.

Nothing says a space is open and thriving like filming an extended scene where the store is empty of people, save Meredith and her husband with the Dennis the Menace hair. I’ve had the same complaint about Melissa Gorga on RHNJ and her boutique Envy in the past—n’er a customer to be seen. Really makes me want to roll up in there! @Sun-Bun was so right last week about Lisa and how busy she is—my s-i-l is the same way. I think she spent more time talking about how busy she was than working. The busiest period of my life was my first year in law school, and it looked nothing like this. I was so busy that as soon as I got to a bar, I started drinking and getting down with my friends—there was no time to sit around discussing how busy we were (and we weren’t even as busy as we claimed—if we were so busy, we wouldn’t be on IM with our books in front of us and having that count as “studying.”) Most people aren’t as busy as they think they are or possibly wish they were. Me, I’m simple in that I’m happy with the more free time I have, so I don’t really get this merry-go-round of exasperated sighs and lamenting about being busy. It’s not time-effective! Bethenny Frankel, as much as I hate her, seems very busy. Lisa just seems like she is playing that role on TV. There is that Voltaire quote that if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. I feel like if there was no Sundance to make Lisa so “busy,” Lisa would either cease to exist or have to invent a Sundance equivalent, and the season finale would be that she found out it was all fake, like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy thought he was going back to Willoughby, only for the viewer to realize he had jumped off the back of the train to his death. Actually, that would be about the best thing that could happen to this franchise right now. Whitney’s dad is such a creep. I wish he would team up with Brooks and they could march off the show together. The dad is the most self-reliant person he knows, but he won’t share a room in rehab? I can’t even really entertain this. All he has talked about since episode one has been wanting to start doing hair again—ok, so get off your ass and rent the fucking chair; what’s stopping you, bruh? What did Jen used to look like, that she didn’t only used to look pretty, but she was the prettiest woman Coach Shah had seen in his life?? Lisa: “has anything changed?” Coach: “nothing changed.” Mwhahahahahaha. Usually when a guy kisses his wife’s ass like that, he is scared of her, he has a girlfriend or both. Hmm. That, and cue to his real feelings about Jen later in the episode: “Damn, why you on me like this?” The scenes with the guys were a welcome change—someone give Coach Shah a place on this show!! Him asking Lisa and her husband about peddling alcohol was everything. Lisa sounded so full of shit with her answer—the answer is, as Lisa’s husband said, alcohol is not permitted by LDS, that’s it. If she drinks it—which she was shown doing earlier in the episode—and sells it, she’s violating the tenets of her church. This is not an essay type answer. The other two men sort of sounded like they were making shit up as they went along in the bromance, and Seth seemed drunk. Lisa’s husband was just warbling on about making more time and Diet Coke, which is pretty much literally all the Barlows have given us so far this season (that, and Mormon 2.0, which has never been defined, so I am led to believe it is “take what you like and leave the rest,” which is antithetical to organized religion, if I think about it). Wow, Heather showing the character there by not letting Whitney or Jen get her to lean into the gossip about Meredith’s husband/boyfriend. Saying that she didn’t care was literally the most integrity shown by a Bravo TV person in...two years? I gained a lot of respect for Heather, and I simultaneously lost whatever I had left for Whitney. It’s one thing to speak on someone’s marriage loud and proud and own your bitchiness like Jen did last episode, but for Whitney to whisper to Heather that she had to update her on something as if it concerned Heather, Whitney is such a two-faced bitch. And, I know I posted this last week, but it bears mentioning again: infidelity is where Whitney’s marriage started, both hers and Justin’s. And in the first episode, she was so indignant that people didn’t accept her choices to break up two marriages and get married at five months pregnant, but now that the shoe is on the other foot and it’s someone else with the scandal, she is hopping to talk about it. That’s just gross to me. Whitney is gross to me. Now that I’ve seen it, she has become physically ugly to me. It’s like her insides are seeping to her outsides, which happens a lot on Bravo. I have to say that the show flowed better with (almost) no Mary. This show is boring with just the five women and it’s boring and crazy and stupid with the six—my verdict is...Bravo, please end the season soon so I can put myself out of my misery. Train accident optional.

Myrka & Ethan—there are four girls in the sophomore class who are pregnant?? Good God, I weep for the future. I guess the one thing I have to say in their favor is that they’re not playing coy about the fact that they had unprotected sex and that’s how she got pregnant. It’s really sad that she was joking about this on Instagram though. I’m just going to be that asshole all season who says the people in this environment are way too accepting. Last season, it was Hailey or Tyra (I still can’t tell them apart) who had almost no one attend their baby shower, because the friends didn’t support the idea of an unwed, unplanned teenage pregnancy. That was a more relatable reaction to me. And I’m also going to be that asshole who points out that it’s not a “gender reveal,” it’s a “sex reveal,” it always has been. It’s only in the last 10 years or so that I have started hearing “gender reveal” and I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but it’s incorrect. I think people say it because they thing it makes them sound smarter or sensitive or something. 😖 It just grates. I don’t think it backfired on Myrka’s mom to kick her out of the house if she got pregnant at all. I don’t think the mom’s goal is for her to be homeless or learn from the school of hard knocks—I think the mom doesn’t want to be saddled with another kid, so win-win (as much as a 16 y/o pregnancy can be a win). It’s strange to me that Myrka’s mom never mentioned adoption though—I wonder if that was on the table. Other than that, I think the mom was making really good points. Tyra & Alex—so he just hangs around all day and plays with and naps with the kid? Hashtag goals! Take online courses, get a part-time job, learn a freaking skill!—he’s 19 and his grandma will watch the baby if he wants to better himself. I suspected he was a loser last year, and now it’s confirmed. At least Tyra is getting off her ass and doing something. If she cheers through college, it will be the best thing she can do for her daughter. I really hope she sticks with it. I don’t blame her for getting upset about a nonbiological male staying in the house. That’s a deal-breaker, especially given Alex’s mom’s judgment. Jenna & Aden—Ok, this is a little interesting that she was in Catholic school when she got pregnant, and she transferred out. And Jenna at least seemed like she was intimidated and humbled by being pregnant, unlike, ahem, Myrka! Lol at her saying she thought she was just going to be like Kylie K and post a picture of her baby and that would be that. This is why I watch—clueless teenage moms and moms to be and how they view the world. I can’t believe this person is going to be operating a motor vehicle. This makes me more afraid than her having a baby in a way. I think she is intellectually stunted to begin with, and is playing it up in addition for the cameras. I could totally see her doing doughnuts in an icy parking lot...at like 10 months pregnant. That’s the “luxury car”? It looks like the rental that costs $10/day. Reanna & Taylor—OMG, Reanna sending dirty pics and him “talking” to other girls. This is the good stuff right here—the high school bullshit that these people are going through and during a pregnancy, to boot. The talking about cheating and what constitutes cheating is very relatable. They are like a more attractive, less ghetto version of Hailey and Matthew. This is pretty much the most realistic reality TV show I’ve seen in awhile, and I appreciate it. Some of the stuff she said, some of the symptoms and her c-section was almost too real, but I’ll stick with it. This show is probably the only one I watch that is on an upswing—season three is better than season two, which was better than season one. Jenna and Reanna are the ones that interest me the most. One season of Tyra and Alex was plenty, and Myrka just looks so mature that it takes me out of the moment (like Rilah from last season), but...it’s definitely a good way to fill an hour, and I feel like it’s been a year since I’ve watched reality TV without an impending sense of dread so...two thumbs up.

When Eddie was talking, I basically tuned out (other than to realize he could use a good powder) and I realized Gizelle picked the wrong shoes. From the ankle down, her feet looked like two obese people strapped to the electric chair. Chris Samuels and the “plotting on my child.” I can’t. The only thing redeeming about that was Gizelle addressing her masked bodyguard in the shadows. What I don’t understand though, is if Chris and Monique were the only people to discuss their baby’s paternity on camera, where did the footage of Gizelle talking about it (in really ugly glasses) in unaired season five footage come from? It may have been edited out, but Gizelle speculated about the paternity of Monique’s child on camera. I’m not sure how we get around that. And I don’t care either. I don’t think that’s below the belt when one signs up for this show. Chris can get off the cross. Juan wasn’t there because he still feels salty about the way he felt he was treated by Andy at the season two reunion aka Andy asked him a few questions that weren’t softballs. Juan...get the fuck over it. Robyn made me laugh when she kept repeating “I am so glad Juan Dixon is not here right now” to Chris Samuels. Does Robyn even know who she is (re)-marrying? Juan is the most mild-mannered person on Bravo (unless he’s passively-aggressively shading Robyn, of which he’s done less this year, but it was still there), he kisses other men’s asses, and he can’t carry a thought in a bucket. But it’s a very good thing he wasn’t there! Gizelle wasn’t good against Chris S. Even though it seems like 50 years ago, Gizelle had been confronted about Jamal’s dirt by Monique just hours earlier, her response was poor, and it seemed like Gizelle was filtering her response to Chris through that lens. She acted like she couldn’t understand why he was there, kind of how in part one Gizelle was acting like she couldn’t understand why Karen was giving her opinion...because he was invited, and she was asked, respectively, Gizelle. Get with the program. It’s funny that Chris S is so big that him just walking across the set casts a huge shadow and it garners more attention than the person speaking. Actually, it’s kind of sad, because that’s how boring the people speaking are. Ray is so goddamn checked out that it makes me chuckle a little. Chris Bassett is alright, but it’s hard for me to get past the fact that he sounds like a hobby rapper when he speaks. Ashley completely got to skate. Oh well, the less I had to see of her smug face and her stuffed up voice, the better. I left the reunion as I came—the people I find the most heinous are Ashley, Karen and Gizelle. OhMiGod, goodbye season! I will not be slithering or making any positive movement toward season six. What a long, boring, long, dragged out, long strange trip it’s been. 💋

Candiace sure was quick to flee the stage, unless there was something I missed from last week (and quite possibly I did, because last week was a boring blur). I don’t think Monique should apologize if she doesn’t feel she has anything to apologize for. Let her show her true colors. The fake apology was cringeworthy. I thought Candiace and Monique could have handled the reunion conflict better—the former is supposed to be book smart and the latter is supposed to be street smart, and I just got none of that off of either of them. I got a lot of prerehearsed lines, what seemed to be a lot of choppy editing, and a lot of Andy interrupting and saying “we have to move on,” even though there was three and a half hours to talk about it. Monique’s rap in the lobby of that hotel when she joined the show was better than the lyrics to Drag Queen or whatever it’s called. Candiace’s reply to Monique’s non-apology was too long-winded and dramatic to be effective or relatable. Oy vey with Karen and her false equivalency of how they were both equally responsible for the fight and how they assaulted each other “simon-taneously.” First of all, where is the Good Doctor to correct Karen’s speech? Second of all, Karen is lying again and it’s making me gag. When Karen is lying, her voice gets loud and high and it’s a major tell. She tried to get Monique and Candiace to face off at her wig event, she got caught, Andy articulated her lie in advance, and Karen was still somehow able to skate. Why? “Burn in eternal hell” is not a threat. At most, it’s a suggestion. 😄 This is like season 2 RHNJ Danielle saying she is going to let a judge decided whether “bye” is a threat.

I can’t believe how unenthused I am about this. Bravo waited too long to shoot its load, and now I don’t care. It reminds me of that season of Atlanta that had a four-part reunion because it was the season that Porsha and Phaedra had their allegations against Kandi and Todd having plans to drug Porsha, and Kandi’s alleged sex dungeon. That is what I think this fight turned into—was it a big deal? Yes. Was it unprecedented for Bravo? In my opinion, yes, because we’ve had people get physical before, but no one has ever slammed another person down where a whole camera crew had to get involved. But? I don’t give a shit about this fight anymore, just like I lost my outrage over the sex dungeon on RHOA. I no longer care about the fight. No one was seriously hurt. It is also like the “dog dumping” on RHBH. Bravo overplayed its hand, and the result is that I don’t care anymore, no matter how righteous one side was, or how poorly someone treated another member of the cast. It reminds me of RH of Dallas and Leeanne and her comments. No matter how bad something is—with very limited exceptions, like international terrorism, and even that can be covered with so much saturation that I lose interest—I think there is such thing as making too big of a deal out of it, and that’s what Bravo is doing here, and I resent it, and it causes me to lose all goodwill toward the show. I don’t care what Chris Samuels does tonight. There is no way it can live up to the way it was teased. Even the binder—which I was more excited about than I had a right to be—turned out to be kind of a nonstarter. All the binder managed to do was piece part one (complete bore) together with part two (highly boring) so that the viewers would tune in, and now this week is supposed to be So! Amazing! That! It! Needs! 50! Percent! More! Time! I’m kind of like at the point where I am saying, “bite me, Andy.” Unless it is revealed that Jimmy Hoffa’s body was located in Grant’s Tomb wearing one of Robyn’s caps and the Lindbergh baby has been alive and well this whole time and has been living on one of Monique and Chris’s four properties, then this wasn’t worth it. Bravo is such a cynical network, but I am far more cynical. Also, major fail that Michael and Jamal got to squirm out of this thing. If I worked at Bravo, I’d reschedule over and over until they could both be present (Bravo had a freaking year to do this, much of which occurred during a time when everyone had to stay in place) and if they just simply failed to show, Ashley and Gizelle should be out of a job. As soon as any given Housewife becomes too big to fail (Teresa Giudice comes to mind), the franchise in question becomes fatally flawed IMO. Everyone knows that Ashley and Gizelle’s storylines turned on these horrid men, and if they don’t show up for the reunion, but the other husbands (and Juan) do, there have to be consequences, as the consequence should be their job. I also think that Karen should be fired, because she wouldn’t know the truth if it bit her in the face. Ditch Ashley, Gizelle and Karen and keep Candiace, Wendy, Robyn, and, hell, at this point? Even keep Monique, because I feel like Ashley, Gizelle and Karen are way too dishonest for plausible deniability, and the rest of the women’s stories haven’t been fully told yet. There is not a single additional thing I need to know under the sun about Karen Huger, and Ashley and Gizelle are just liars who play the audience for fools. Oh, and I think I would have found this all a whole lot more interesting if it had aired anywhere near the time that it was filmed. When did the fight happen, September 2019? Other reality shows, like the ones on MTV, go from farm to table in three or four months. I’m not sure why this didn’t air back in January, when it was far more relevant. Bravo is really beginning to lose me. It takes its viewers for granted, because for awhile there it was the best channel with the best reality TV, but they have really begun to slip and slide since 2017 or so, and this is a blatant example. How refreshing would it have been if Bravo was willing to give up the ghost and admit this was kind of a nothing season, and as a result, have eight episodes of content, and a two-part reunion, and maybe next year if the season is actually good, give them 20 episodes and a three-part reunion. It’s simple to me—under promise and over deliver. That’s how you sustain the people’s trust and interest. To go through these machinations just because it’s accepted and expected make me feel bitter and jaded and as if Bravo’s taking me for a ride. If the final installation is utterly Shakespearean, I will admit that I was somewhat wrong. But I will never understand why they didn’t start talking about the interesting stuff in the early installations, in an effort to yank our chains and keep us tuning in so that they can get advertising revenue, and I don’t respect that. It make me feel like I’m shopping on the 80% off rack at Macy’s. Also, the longer and more drawn out the seasons, the more the cast gets to keep a high profile, so I doubt they’re complaining. A few days ago, my husband was trying to find an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 for me on dailymotion, and an interview with Candiace just popped up, apropos of nothing, where Candiace was explaining in detail yet more about the fight, and I couldn’t believe it or take it and I wanted to rip my fucking hair out of my head. This is now a 15 month old dirty bar fight! I feel bad that it happened, but I just don’t care that much about a bar fight that everyone is getting rich off of. If I cared that much, I’d watch Jerry Springer, or I’d watch the ID Channel, where the real crime happens. I resent that this show has turned into Jerry Springer. And Andy Cohen is a far more horrid person to me than Jerry Springer. Sincerely, Disappointed.

No Whitney, you didn’t “kill” the runway, not by any metric. I realized this is episode seven and we’ve seen Whitney on the pole three times, which is roughly every other episode. Is that supposed to be titillating? What did I do to deserve this? I wouldn’t call any of that “fashion.” Unless...it’s an ironic take on fashion? Now that I’ve heard from the likes of Brooks, and seen his clothes, I don’t blame the dad for being in Ohio. I’m just surprised he didn’t travel farther. Has Heather been married before? Does Whitney’s dad have problems? They haven’t really mentioned it. Heather and Whitney, if you guys hate the Mormon Church so much, don’t participate in it! You don’t have to be “under the cultural Mormon thumb” unless you consent to same. I don’t sit around wondering out loud what some other church thinks about me all the damned time. I don’t get the impression the Mormon Church cares about either of these clowns, so why not just part ways amicably? It’s like trash-talking an old boyfriend; why care so much? This is Jen in her medicated state? Scary. Might I suggest they up her dose of Thorazine? She said Coach Shah was going to leave her at one point? Something tells me that idea isn’t completely off the table. Lisa is boring. I had high hopes for her in the beginning, but my hopes went somewhere to die a long time ago. I kind of respect Meredith’s lack of emotion about her separation. This franchise has enough emotion and hysteria to go around. I have a problem with Jen in general, but I don’t have a problem with her spilling the tea on Meredith’s marriage per se; I think that’s what the show’s about. What I did note, and what I did not respect, was Whitney sort of teasing the topic for Jen to speak on, but being unwilling to say anything about it directly, which means her fingerprints won’t be on the murder weapon come reunion time (if there is a reunion and they don’t just put this thing out of its misery). That’s shady boots, Whitney. Your hands are dirty in spreading gossip and rumor about another woman’s marriage—the same axe Whitney is grinding about her own marriage ten years later. Hypocrite, Whitney be thy name! This is Whitney’s dad “sober”? He looks like Slade Smiley five years and several bottles of shoe polish from now. I don’t think Heather has enough self-awareness to be able to identify her “moral failings.” I think she keeps tossing that phrase around so that she can be a victim and so that people—in this case, her kids—will sing her praises and absolve her. That’s immaturity masquerading as maturity to me. Whitney and Justin get it on four or five times a week? Bullshit. Unless that’s what she meant about not minding “a little prick” in her tag line...

I’m glad this show is back—it’s so much more organic than what MTV does with its “teen” moms. I’m also so glad they scrapped last season’s cast, save Tyra, because that avoids the quandary and boredom of “professional teen moms.” I also like that these casts are quite young. I’m not sure that it’s television-worthy when 19 and 20 year olds have babies. Jenna & Ayden—I hate when couples say “we’re pregnant.” I hate it with an avid passion. The mother is pregnant and the parents are expecting a baby. That’s it. He is stupid; she is dumber than a box of hair and clearly embracing it. There’s something extra scary about the idea of someone with braces on their teeth giving birth. I mean, can’t they do Invisalign after middle school? If Jenna’s dad had such high, high hopes for her future...why didn’t he have the talk with her about sex and monitor her behavior? I’m not really sure I feel sorry for him. He’s talking about “tough love” now? A day late and a dollar short. Also, she stole the pet-sitting money, but dad wants her to get a job? Mwhawhawhahaha—that dog don’t hunt. Dad’ll find out soon enough that he’s probably looking at the second coming of Kayla. Myrka & Ethan—I get a pretty strong vibe off the bat that he’s gay. He also seems really stupid. I feel bad for his parents. I don’t know if it’s legal, but I don’t have a problem with a parent kicking their kid out of the house if they get pregnant. Parents are tasked with raising their children, not their grandchildren. I think Myrka wanted out of that house—her mom probably hates her and they’re poor, and Ethan had a really nice house with two nice, normal parents. I think there’s a good chance she got pregnant on purpose. Also, what’s with the mumbling, Myrka? I wonder why a producer couldn’t tell her once or twice, nicely, like, we can’t pick up what you’re saying and can you enunciate please? Holy shit, Myrka’s mom is only 38 and not 58?? Good God. But I kind of agree with the mom. If the rule is no unprotected sex and the teen has unprotected sex, there have to be consequences. It’s so interesting how people like Myrka talk about getting pregnant in the passive voice, as if it’s just something that happened to them. It sounds like both partners had ample knowledge about birth control and chose to dispose of it, so they have to live with the consequences. They are not—at 16 and 17–too stupid to understand what unprotected sex leads to. Those excuses can be saved for 11 and 12 years old. Tyra & Alex—Alex’s family clearly watched the show last year, and they upped their image, which is welcome. Tyra is using two forms of birth control; what’s Lucy’s excuse for getting pregnant again? Reanna & Taron—Reanna’s mom is a pice of work not wanting to “talk down on her situation,” as if it’s more important to be nonjudgmental than it is to keep your damned kids from having a baby at 15! This feels like Tyra from last season—it was like she was expected to get pregnant so young, because every other damn woman got pregnant that young. If my mom, my sisters and I all did time, would I expect my daughter to turn 15 and get arrested and go to jail? Hard no. Taron, are you sure you are the dad? Because he sounds about as sure as Anthony (of Rilah and Anthony) last season (although Anthony did turn out to be the dad, it was touch and go the whole season). While I didn’t enjoy the vomiting (during my lunch, no less), Reanna is probably the best example for young viewers as to why you don’t get pregnant at 15. The pregnancy has made her kind of physically ugly, compared to the pictures of her they showed from before the pregnancy. Maybe some teenaged girl somewhere will see this and make a better choice. Taron seems like a guy who wanted to knock up his girlfriend in order to mark his territory or some other dumb shit, and now, like Matthew last season, he is realizing this is not all fun and games. Reanna’s mom seems way too involved in making this relationship work. There is this sick cycle where a lot of teenage moms are happy or at least have mixed feelings when they’re daughters become teenage mothers, because they look at it as a way to redeem themselves, and I am seeing shades of that here. They’re all so stupid and backwards, but it is a fresh cast to hate, and I have a grudging respect for that. 🙂

Bravo does not condone violence—okay Andy, except there would be no season without the violence...that you don’t condone. Candiace pretty much summed it up when she said Monique was bored so she fought with Candiace. That’s about all there is to it. All of the stuff with Charrisse was either a waste of time, or Charrisse should have been at the reunion to hash it out, one or the other, but not half measures. That’s just horrible storytelling. I love how it took 48 minutes into the second reunion hour to talk about all anyone really wanted to talk about—the fight—and next week is “supersized” aka dragged out. Gee, I have an idea—why not start talking about the fight in the first installment, or would Bravo make less revenue if it didn’t drag 18 episodes out over the course of over three and a half hours? This is the second week in a row the reunion has been a giant bore. Next week is probably going to be epic, and I’m bouncing from the franchise after that, because I am so tired of this half-assed storytelling. It used to be only RHBH, and now it’s bleeding into this franchise. I’d rather fold socks than have to listen to mindless chatter about T’Challa and new sides of Karen for damn near two hours, only to make the real reunion—the only part that’s important—90 minutes next week. Ciao adios with your bullshit, An-dy. I care(d), but not that much.

Gizelle sure has a lot more to say behind the scenes that she won’t say to Monique’s face when Monique is armed with the binder. Why don’t Ashley and Gizelle put the kibosh on their situations by saying they’re in fully open relationships? Everything else makes them look so foolish. On this set (not in a hotel room where she can control the narrative) is the most I’ve ever seen Gizelle knocked off her pedestal, and I’m here for it. Michael is clearly an illegal ass-grabber and he should be off the show. Having said that, if Andy has an axe to grind with Michael, he should take it up off camera. It makes for such shitty TV to hear Andy tell the cameraman’s story. We have three parts to fill—rather than talking about Karen’s “private side” aka her lying side, or T’Challa, why not bring the cameraman to the set to duke it out with Michael? Oh yeah, Michael had a <cough, cough> wedding that he couldn’t miss. It’s so interesting that tell-it-like-it-is Ashley offered exactly zero details as to whose wedding that was. All the convoluted backstory about Gigi and Charrisse should have either aired or not been brought up at the reunion. Too much inside baseball and Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care.

I agree. I’m surprised at the lack of distinction being made. Referring to Hasidim as “Orthodox” is way too general and doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the Orthodox community, most of whom do not live anything like this. I was thinking he either started with a small sum, and then just kept getting really, really lucky, because the entire end of part four seemed a little bit like a dream sequence. Either that, or Moishe’s friend with the van they used to kidnap Esty fronted him the money? Those two had a bit of a strange relationship... I’m not that viewer that reads homosexuality or bi-curiousity into everything, but I think there is a case to be made that the series was at least suggesting that Moishe was gay. If I think about it, he did something so terrible that he alienated his wife and children so badly that he seemed surprised that the rabbi was ever going to offer to fix his family if he helped Yanky find Esty. Then, when Yanky and Moishe went to that brothel in Berlin, Moishe said there was a different Torah on the road, and Moishe and that guy were getting kind of handsy with each other after Yanky left. If this is just part of their culture, then maybe I’ve gone out on too much of a limb. Maybe it is the opposite and Moishe is asexual? When Moishe went to that club to look for Esty, he seemed very single-minded in finding her, and not at all interested in the environment or the music, which was out of character for him—he was a compulsive gambler and smoker and he got fall-down drunk, yet he wasn’t exhibiting any interest in either sex (also, he never slept with a prostitute that we know of), so I don’t know where to put that info exactly, but I think we were supposed to gather something about Moishe, because they kept showing his expression, and it was quite prolonged. The club scene made me sad for the guys. At least Esty was stepping out and wearing red lipstick and finding herself in the music even though this was brand new to her too—at least she had fun. I don’t think Moishe or Yanky will ever be able to take that step and feel free. It would be interesting if Moishe was asexual and that was the reason he was alienated from his family, sort of like a bookend to Esty (and I know vagismus is real, and I don’t mean to say that Esty was asexual—I think she was scared out of her mind, rightfully so—but I am just stating she was not interested in having sex with Yanky) and I would be really interested in that story being told—any story where the men in the Hasidic community don’t live up to sexual norms, because I don’t think that story has been told yet. It makes me want to suggest Rumspringa to the Hasidim, but what do I know? It’s not my culture. I find Moishe the most fascinating character of all, and I think he gets overlooked when this mini-series gets praise. Not to get too Jungian, but I think Moishe was the dark that allowed the viewers to see how beautiful the light was in Esty and how Yanky was not all bad—that he had shades of grey to his personality. I’m not sure it was the lines—I think it was the actor’s performance (which I thought was outstanding) and how much he could convey just by moving his eyes. Really great, subtle performance. Going a step further, I don’t think Moishe was just bad. I don’t think this series was that simplistic. If anything there was truly represented as an all-encompassing evil, I think it was the shadow cast by the Holocaust 65 years after it ended. Esty, Yanky and Moishe’s lives were all totally fucked up—but at least Esty got out. What happens to the men? I don’t think either of them are “happy” at all. With Yanky, it was more obvious, but Moishe was also in a lot of pain too, given how he jumped in the river in Berlin and screamed something at God. I think if it was Moishe’s goal to kill Esty, he would have. He had a weapon and a plan for kidnapping her. He was spying on her, and he knew enough to know he could kill her, stash her tiny undocumented body somewhere and be on the next flight to JFK before she was found. I don’t really think he gave enough of a shit about Esty or her baby to kill them, when all was said and done. He was “trying” to get Esty back, because he was brainwashed into thinking that was the right thing to do to get back in favor with the rabbi. My conclusions is that Moishe is a nihilist. Regardless of his sexual orientation, I think he cared more about finding some pleasure in his life than Esty or Yanky or probably his own immediate family. I wish we got more than just glimpses into what made him tick, or maybe the fact that we only got glimpses is what made it so rewarding. I just find Moishe the most interesting of the three, and how he was a book of contradictions, such as being a slob and Yanky being disgusted by his behavior, but then praying so keenly with his Torah like one scene later. I don’t want another Unorthodox to be released—I think everything about this was great, from the acting to the cinematography, and there is definitely something to be said for too much of a good thing, but after I watched this—and then rewatched for the nuance—I found myself wondering about Moishe the most. And I think that was really good storytelling. Always leave the audience wanting more. This was a really talented group, and I hope to see them do more work, either as a group or as separate actors, because I find them to be much stronger than anything that really passes for character TV these days. All three main characters read like real people to me, not actors, and that is probably the highest compliment I can pay. The only other mini-series I’ve seen this year that I think can compete with Unorthodox is I Know This Much Is True—and Olive Kitteridge and these two works are some of the finest acting and storytelling I’ve seen. I am impressed that Netflix green-lighted something so strange and beautiful. I am curious if anyone has any feedback about my armchair detective work into the characters’ motives. I don’t usually get that deeply invested in something like this that I draw so many conclusions, but what can I say, it provoked deep thoughts, which I’m not used to? 🤷‍♂️

You’re right in that we don’t know that they had unprotected sex—all I can say is that it is highly likely, given that the mainstream forms of birth control are well over 90% effective, and the IUD is over 99% effective. I would think, at the very least, if a man is going to cheat on his fiancée, he would use one of the most reliable forms of birth control. If we’re entertaining the idea that Chase had protected sex and the birth control failed, we may as well also entertain the idea that Chase is not the father of that baby—maybe he made that part up too in order to get away from Whitney—because that notion is statistically more probable than good birth control failing. If she went off the pill and didn’t tell Chase, that is unprotected sex. If he was having unprotected sex with a liar, that’s an even dumber choice. I’m not sure I agree that Chase is a D-List actor. He is not on the same level as Kathy Griffin when she had her show on Bravo. I wouldn’t call him an actor. I think he’s a person on a reality show who lies and cries. I never suggested that Chase should abstain from sex for any amount of time—I suggested that he shouldn’t lie about being faithful to a woman when he had no plans to be. If Ryan or whomever approached Chase with this TLC idea, Chase would have been well within his rights to say “pass” and then go on to have sex with all the people on the planet. To me, this isn’t about sex, it’s about dishonesty. I also think Chase dealt with the aftermath of this worse than Avi. The best thing to do would be to accept full responsibility, including the lies. If he did that, I’d probably be on the path to forgiveness for Chase on a dime. The worst thing, IMO, is to meet Whitney with a smirk on his face and make the weakest protestations on earth, in all likelihood to collect that TLC gwola. Ghosting her, like Avi did, is in the middle of those two extremes. I feel like Chase coming on the show and not really owning up to what he did, but instead, making half-assed excuses, is a way of conveying that he thinks what he did was on the spectrum of justifiable. If I were in that situation—and I never would be, because even though I have made horrible choices, Whitney has me bested by a long shot—I would rather the guy just disappeared into thin air than to meet up with me and to say he cares about me, even though the offer to stay together is not, and has never been, on the table. That’s so condescending, I could choke on it. And that hug at the end was super pathetic.

My post was quoted, so I assume this question was posed to me, but I have no idea why anyone would root for Whitney. I pretty much indicated that when I said she was the joke and I can’t think of one time I agreed with her behavior, thought process, or ideas at any time in the show’s history...I have to pass on that question. Maybe someone who is rooting for her could answer. Other than the cheating, getting another woman pregnant and being completely checked out of his relationship, I guess Chase was an alright fiancé. It’s not like he threw Whitney through a brick wall.

I totally agree with you. If I was going to bold everything I agreed with from this post, I’d wind up holding the whole thing. I felt this way throughout about Chase—I said that if new info came to light that did not cause me to believe that Chase was acting in bad faith, I would post that I was wrong. Nothing that has transpired has changed my mind that he is not a good egg. I don’t have to like anything about Whitney to dislike Chase intensely. To me, that would be what-aboutism. Whitney has almost no redeeming qualities that I can name off the top of my head other than I find her to be more articulate than the average reality TV star, when she is not mangling the English language on purpose. Other than that, I disagree with almost everything she says and thinks going back to season one. The thing with me, though, is that whatever I think about Whitney, the facts are: she’s desperate in every way there is to be desperate (exhibit A is this show), she’s infertile, she’s lonely and likely to remain that way and even if she lost 100 lbs she would still be morbidly obese. One can argue that this is all of her own making, and I would accept that argument, but it’s still all true and for me to continue to belabor all of her wrongdoings feels a little like punching down. She is a joke. She is the joke. I’m not sure how much more I have to say about that. Chase still behaved terribly here though IMO. I will never not see that. This is reality TV. If someone goes on reality TV as themselves—which is undisputed—and plays the role of a guy who gets another girl pregnant behind his fiancé’s back, I reject that person’s behavior with an avid passion. I don’t understand the argument that Chase is caught in some reality/fiction vortex from which he cannot escape. He made his bed by signing on the dotted line to display his “reality” for an audience, he behaved badly, and he is rightfully being taken to task for it IMO. I think him crying hysterically on TV was well-deserved, because it shows there are consequences for our actions. I think the social media comment aired on the show was in all likelihood an accurate prediction—I think it is more likely than not that he will be a bad father, and partner. He went on two seasons of reality TV and either lied through his teeth for money and fame or he had unprotected sex when he was engaged to another woman. Either way, this child’s life began in a dishonest and public way. I can’t look past that. I wouldn’t know where to start. I think it was completely valid for Whitney to ask Chase why he never told her he got a woman pregnant, and he is going to raise the baby, but why he never asked Whitney to continue to be his fiancée and then his wife while he did this for the next 18 years. I think I know the answer to that question—because he doesn’t want to be with Whitney—but if two people are engaged, it is a strange thing not to bode the topic of trying to save the relationship when one does wrong. If the engagement was fake, then shame on all of them, but I’m not assuming anything. I have my doubts, but as long as this is a reality show, I expect people to act realistically, and that is one of the few realistic questions that arose. As far as taking care of his kid, that is an old trope. Guys on the ID Channel and mafia movies and all over the culture constantly tell women they can’t be with them because they have to be with their kids, and then they go bang some other woman (note to Chase’s current partner—the way you got him is the way you’ll lose him), or hit the bars or both or worse. Chase saying he has to go take care of his kid doesn’t mitigate any of his wrongdoing for me. It doesn’t even make sense—within the given narrative—as to why he couldn’t be with Whitney. The thing about this is that I would have a grudging respect for Chase if he said anything remotely truthful, such as, “I never loved you; I was pretending.” Then I could find an honest place to dig my boots in and try to see things from his side, but he is obviously clearly lying to placate the storyline and the cameras, and I don’t respect that. My opinion from earlier in the season remains exactly the same—you want to be an actor, go to casting calls; you want to put your life on TV, put your damned life on TV, but then accept the consequences. I find schadenfreude in the fact that he rolled the dice for an “easy” payday and now he is not just crying, he’s crying like a baby. I think both Whitney’s and Chase’s tears were very real, and very deserved. I am also curious as to whether Chase thinks what in all likelihood was a low-end payday was worth it, and I think he sucks even worse if he thinks it was. There’s nothing remotely intriguing left about this show to make me want to keep watching. I think it has run its course, like the other TLC show Sister Wives. There’s nothing there left anymore, except lies, and I also find everyone on that show who is an adult repugnant, just like I feel about everyone on this show. I don’t feel bad for Whitney, but I’m not having fun making fun at her expense, no one is giving good snark, there’s just a 600-lb (Whitney and Buddy’s combined weight?) pile of stank left. FWIW, I am proud of Buddy for losing so much weight so fast. I sort of changed my opinion on him a little in the last few episodes, as he’s shown some growth. I liked Ryan as well as you can like any of these people for awhile, but I don’t get the severe attitude against Buddy in talking heads, but then filming scenes socializing with him, but not calling him out to his face the way Todd would. Maybe Ryan is freaking out that if he and Buddy continue along their respective paths, there will be a day in the not-so-distant future that Ryan is flabbier than Buddy? I am not at all a fan of Ryan’s squeamishness toward the Chase-Whitney situation. He gets all uncomfortable like a 12 year old boy when Whitney pumps him for info, which he should either give freely or say to Whitney, “hey, Whitney, I don’t know who you think you are demanding me to tell you about Chase’s private matters, so I suggest you back off or find a different business partner.” Everyone is so goddamned mealy-mouthed on this show that it makes me sick, because they’re all sucking at the teat of the almighty dollar, and I wish they would all go on individual journeys to find some self-respect. I was ride-or-die for Todd until he said on camera that he wishes all the best to Chase and his new baby. I think the baby is an innocent player in all of this, and I certainly hope the baby is fine with her whackadoo parents, but there are some things you don’t say as an alleged friend, and I think this was the equivalent of telling a friend that you’re pretty sure the ex that they’re losing their shit over is up in the club having the time of their life. At least Ashley had mixed feelings about it, and I think Heather said the thing that sounds the most like an earthling would say to a good friend after a break-up, which was something to the tune of “fuck him.” There are 7.2 billion other people in the world who can wish Chase luck with his family, and there are about five who claim to be her real friends, and real friends take up for one another, where I come from anyway. I’ve seen enough to know I’m not gong to change my mind. I haven’t read or seen one fact to undermine my position, just supposition. I am not willing to stretch my credulity to the end of the earth and make up a set of reasons that this would normally be low-down dirty behavior of the highest order, except Chase was in a bind, so he is therefore pardoned for his sins. No one—including Chase—is coming on the show to discuss a bind he was in, so I am certainly not going to take into account or weigh evidence that is not there. If evidence comes to light that Chase participated in this show under duress or coercion, such as someone was blackmailing him or someone had a gun to his head, I’d be willing to revise my opinion, but that is not even remotely the case. I think the main argument to counter my argument is that Chase signed up for an easy payday, Whitney was in on it, there was supposed to be a great breakup where Whitney was all, “I am woman, hear me roar,” only Chase got a woman pregnant, which threw a wrench into their plans, and so what, it’s a TV show, they parted ways. My only problem with this argument is...all of it—there is no evidence to suggest this is true from what I have seen on the show, therefore I’m not going to entertain it. Chase has the power to tell the truth and shame the devil, which that alcoholic comedienne did a bunch of seasons back, and she was fabulous. If Chase is just going to sit there and cry, I am not going to make up a story for him out of whole cloth to save his poor little feelings. That’s not how any of this works for me. He can man up or get out. He did the latter, certainly not the former, and I guess that page is now closed. Good riddance, and my opinion that she dodged a bullet stands.

Does Jen ever not have Mary’s name in her mouth? Jen is so obsessed with Mary; she tells Whitney she doesn’t care who Mary married?!? Jen cares so deeply about who Mary married, in addition to every single other thing that concerns Mary Cosby. What drives the obsession, sis? It reminds me of what MC sang in Obsessed (the other MC—Mariah) “it must be the weed, it must be the E.” While that song is in my head, the word “delusional” comes to mind—Jen is really going to deny what she said on camera? The only things Jen talks about are Mary, minorities, her husband, and parties. Agh, Whitney is so gross—her husband is “the sexiest motherfucker up in here”? Is this the kind of thing where, if you say it enough, you think it may come true? She reminds me of Melissa Gorga in that regard—keep telling us you think your husband is sexy, hon, and someday we may believe you, and if you shout loud enough, someday you may believe you. Forgive me, but I can’t seem to get excited about Sundance, and I am definitely going to need to talk to my doctor about my SFWD (Sundance Fashion Week Dysfunction). Can’t get it up for that; my soul simply doesn’t respond. My weave is tired. My pantry liner is tired. I don’t give a flying fork who the “actual” queen of Sundance is. It’s about as relevant to me as who is the current titleholder of Ms. Grand Island, Nebraska. Heather has so many issues that she needs a magazine—she resents Whitney for having a marriage, she resents the church, she seems jealous of the five employees of hers who are giving birth to boys, she seemed like she was going to crack her shell when she found out through the grapevine that Lisa Barlow may not have known who she was...geez, she is a lot. No wonder she can’t find one man in the state to hit it. I’m not quite sure whose type she would be either. A lumberjack? She seems like the type who would spend 95% of all first dates pouring her heart out to the guy about all the shit her ex-husband and the Mormon Church put her through until he excused himself from the table and drove away. She looks like Tammy Diffendorf from the show Mom, only Tammy is sweet, kind, funny and talented, so that’s probably why she gets men. Um, Heather, don’t look now, but that guy is so not into you. Did I miss something or did she literally only leave with him because he was going out to his truck, and she grabbed onto his hand for dear life, and he was too polite to shake it off? Yet this is what the show previewed last week, as if something was going down. Very weak, producers. Katie and Lala? Oh dear Ditto for Brooks and his vocal fry.

What the hell is Jen’s actual business? (Rhetorical question; I don’t care, because I don’t believe she has one). I guess now that she got this heaux wives gig, she is a professional fame whore, no longer just an amateur.

Ah man, I am in such a dog-eat-dog world that all the people I know—women, minorities, women minorities, men who are gay or straight, any demographic you can imagine—acts like they think they’re entitled to whatever they deserve and then some. When I have been gearing up to make pitches for my raise in the past, the bullpen between me (a woman) and my husband (a minority) is not clean or pretty when we strategize as to how I’m going to sashay with all the confidence in the world up to my boss, HR, and whoever else (including God, if it’s on His schedule) to make persuasive arguments that I deserve a significant raise and a whole host of perks, when in reality, I probably don’t deserve at least a third of what I’m asking for, but what is the saying—a negotiation is only successful if both of the parties walk away from the table feeling unsatisfied? I would add to that “uncomfortable” because if I’m going to be uncomfortable making the pitch, my superiors are going to be uncomfortable in weighing my demands. I work out every last detail, down to where I will stand in the office in order to subtly convey a power position. I figure out where my damn hands will be placed. And my husband? He is so aggressive that I am a shrinking violet compared to him. Maybe it’s a product of where we’re from, but we suffer no fools. For anyone who is hesitant—regardless of demographic—I think that is a personal problem they need to overcome ASAP. No one is going to fuck with my money, and I will “act as if.” Tyra said a long time ago that no one should dull their shine for anyone, and I believed her!

Did she actually say this at the reunion? I find so much of this show incredibly dull (with about 15-20% being great, so therein lies the paradox), but I write my posts as the show airs, so maybe I miss some things. My question is, where in the world would “twice” come from? I don’t think it’s physically possible to perform twice as good as one’s peers at anything but the most elementary levels, which is setting a ridiculous standard, especially the higher one climbs. For example, maybe a toddler can be twice as good as tying their shoes as another toddler, but the difference between a competent investment banker and a superb investment banker isn’t double. Also, how can someone will themselves to be twice as smart as their peers? “Smart” and “prepared” aren’t synonymous. Why wasn’t Gizelle 200x smarter when she brought Jamal onto the show? I think a lot of people get anecdotal evidence confused with empirical.

Aw, come on, give me a little bit more credit for diversity—if it comes from Jordan Peterson, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, or Ben Shapiro, I’m always game to “educate myself”! 🤗