I’m on s01ep03 of nyc! Thanks loves.
Hi huns. I'm now on so4ep06... and these gals are officially my new best friends.
Some quick observations:
- Scary Island!! Kelly is a wild lady, who I do occasionally really feel for. The constant "Bethenny, stop. Bethhhenny SHTOP! STOOOOP Bethenny" has to be the least successful way of diffusing tension in a reality tv show ever. What a moment though as she danced off to bed on Scary Island to never be seen of again, and only heard of through a clearly staged note read out loud by Ramona. Then at the reunion I DIED at her claiming she had a breakthrough not a breakdown. But yes overall she has dark energy and is a pretty leaden unfabulous presence on-screen unless the whole cast are piling in on her. So it's a bit queasy really. Can you imagine how edited to nothing the whole Scary Island moment would have been in today's climate?
- Luann's musical career. Wow. I'm so hot and cold with the countess. Occasionally a regal, unruffled queen, but then just as occasionally a cliquey snob I have no time for. The breaking up of the Ramona orchestrated Jill / Bethenny reunion in S3 was UNFORGIVABLE. Well, UNTIL, her single launch when she busted out MONEY CAN'T BUY YOU CLAAAAASS to an assembled nightclub of bemused friends. Her confidence in the face of being brutally divorced and called a slut by every housewife for 2 seasons was WILD. If Luann was a vitamin pill I'd take her every morning. Truly a queen of rallying hutzpah.
- Bethenny S1-3: truly the lead. S4 is an adjustment without her. The thing about Bethenny that's so compelling is the she manages to so consistently hit the nail on the head in the master interviews that you subliminally agree and laugh with her so often you sort of become her in your head as you watch. A real loss, but I'm aware she comes back. All this said, perhaps not the nicest person?!
- Jill S3-S4: Wow, what a fall from grace. It's so involving watching a whole cast and audience falling SO OUT OF LOVE with someone. From the vicious unforgiving Jill at the top of S3, to the desperate in-too-deep Jill as the season progresses, to the mentally battered BREAKDOWN Jill of S3 reunion, and then into the born again I'm-nice-really Jill at the top of S4. It's the reality tv arc FROM LITERAL HELL. Poor Jill. She's nice underneath. Horrible at the top.
- Alex's personality flip towards the end of S3 is also really weird. She had the 'shy sweet voice of reason' role down pat across S2 and S3, after a very dodgy edit handed to her in S1. But then she suddenly presses IMPLODE over her (seemingly imagined) YEARS OF ABUSE from Jill... It was all so odd. The Godfather style message she delivered to Jill from Bethenny, and then the true apotheosis as she was FORCIBLY REMOVED from Sexy Sonja's Casa Amor in a bondage wrap dress. WHAT ON EARTH HAD HAPPENED?! It was like the producers sat her down and said 'your weird husband is so fat now you are going to have bring the drama yourself' and she took it as a divine message from above. I find it uncomfortable watching someone so reserved hurling themselves into the fray in this way.
- SEXY SONJA. J'adore. What an entrance sticking up for Krazy Kelly on Scary Island whilst clearly three sheets to the wind and also diagnosing her so savagely with her sat right there.
- RAMONA. My queen. Everyone says she's a monster but I actually find her SO SWEET and really loveable. Her energy is so Bambi-esque and she can't hide any emotion that comes over her, it's just so endearing. I smile every time we get the "Ramona's condo" interstitial. I might head over to Wurst's countdown and pen an essay 'In defence of Ramona Singer'... when I'm finished with the show though obvs.
Housewife rate:
1. Ramona
2. Bethenny
3. Sonja
4. Luann
5. Alex
6. Jill
7. Kelly
8. Cindy (who be dis?!)