Oscars Outsider - Real Housewives Film Analysis and Recap: RHOBH S13E11 & RHOM S06E11

Episode Date: January 13, 2024

Welcome to the Bravo Outsider Podcast! Join hosts Craig Midwinter and Sandy Klowak for an episode packed with insights and analysis on the latest episodes of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills S13E11, and the Real Housewives of Miami S06E11. We also briefly wade into the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City reunion pt. 1 🍸Featured Housewives: RHOSLC: Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, Meredith Marks, Whitney Rose, Monica Garcia, Angie Katsanevas, with Mary Cosby RHOBH: Kyle Richards, Erika Girardi, Dorit Kemsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Crystal Kung Minkoff, Sutton Stracke, Annemarie Wiley RHOM: Guerdy Abraira, Lisa Hochstein, Julia Lemigova, Nicole Martin, Alexia Nepola and Larsa Pippen, Kiki Barth, Adriana de Moura, Marysol Patton 📣 Stay Connected: Find Sandy Klowak on Instagram at ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/corporealcurios⁠⁠ Find Bravo Outsider on Instagram at ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bravooutsider https://www.bravooutsider.com 📖 Credits Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to the Bravo Outsider Podcast. I'm your host Craig Midwinter, joined again by Sandy Cloak. It's just the two of us today, but we've got two excellent episodes of Real Housewives that we want to discuss. We're going to talk about Real Housewives of Miami and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Sandy, just let's get started with just your broad thoughts on this week in Housewives. You know, coming down from last week or the Salt Lake City, it's hard to. get your heart pumping again, to be honest. But they were decent. That's where I'm at. Yeah, true. Actually, let's talk a little bit about the Salt Lake City reunion. It's not something

we're going to really dive into too much, but I'm sure that you've got some thoughts. I've got a couple myself. What were your impressions of it? Well, I think they're saving the best stuff for the end, you know, as per usual. So we've got to slog through the first two. I thought it was fine, you know, kind of status quo. The stuff about Monica, going, you know, being all cocky saying she emailed Bravo saying their show sucked and the ratings sucked and you need me. And then she's like, that's what I, that's what I put in the email. That was my actual email. And then they put up her actual email obviously was pretty hilarious, has been making the rounds.

I emailed the email for casting. Like everyone else. I said, my name is Monica Fowler and your show sucks and your ratings are shit and it's going to get counts. I'm being honest. That's what I said. So that was that was fun. Yeah, that reminded me of like you see those memes where it's like translating like my thoughts to corporate speak. It was the kind of inverse of that. I really appreciated that. Yeah, that was fun. You had mentioned offline the set, which obviously was a highlight.

Oh, yeah. So that was like, that was bringing us through with this theme of like, theatrical drama that we found in the finale, kind of moving it from cinema to theater, which I appreciate as a theater person. Yeah, yeah, totally. I was thinking, like, imagine being in theater school and you're on like set design

and you find yourself as a career designing the Real Housewives reunion sets. Like, that would be pretty, that would be pretty amazing. They're taking like more chances now. Like, we saw the Real Housewives Orange County when they were in one of those like LED volumes where it looked like they were at the beach. It's like the same type of set that they shoot like Star Trek Discovery on and you can put like an alien planet behind behind them. And I like that they're taking more more chances.

And this set, the Real Houseways of Salt Lake City set, was a very big contrast because it was entirely practical. It wasn't digital at all. And they had these big physical set pieces that were really like just off the wall, frankly. They had like a pirate ship and it looked like kind of like a teaky bar. I really appreciated it. It was a very like a visual feast. Exactly. It was like they did this hybrid of Bermuda but frozen for salt for the Utah side of it.

So they had like they had the ship with like ice crusted. over it and it just really it you know it kind of brings to mine like frozen shipwrecks in the in the arctic and like pirates of panzance i once went to a show at the uh pantages playhouse here in winnipeg which itself is very ornate and classical and i don't know if classical's right word but you know like old old style old fashion and these crazy sets over the top it was just so beautiful like you said and very the the sense of theater that that that i got from that was really appreciate. And it's just there behind you to feast your eyes on if you're slightly bored by catching up with people's marriage status or whatever.

I feel like they, you know, there's a very deliberate decision-making process when they decide on these sets for the reunion now in recent years, at least. The fact that they are channeling theater for this particular season of Salt Lake City is, to me, it seems like, a very deliberate choice to do that just because the drama was so heightened and um yeah the characters that were getting these portraits of are very theatrical and uh just the way meredith marks talks is very like theatrical the way she she uh orates it's uh yeah it it seemed like a very great choice so yeah the set definitely uh was a star of the salt lake city reunion did you have any other highlights from the Salt Lake City reunion that you wanted to mention?

No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think the only other thing, obviously we're all waiting for us to get into like the meat of things with Monica. But I really like that we got back to this storyline of the missing ring and we got a bit more context to that. For me, that really was a payoff that I wasn't really expecting because I think one of the like the big themes in Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. city this season has been this dynamic between, you know, a mother and a child. So we saw that

dynamic a lot between Monica and her mom. But we also got that with Lisa and, and her son Jack and him going away and her like dealing with with this change and dynamic. And to find out that this, this ring was a symbol of that relationship was a nice little nugget that we didn't get revealed over the course of the narrative that played out through the season, at least to my memory. It kind of like colors her reaction. It paints it in a different light for me just because like if it actually is a symbol, which I'm taking it at face value that it is. I think that that really provides a lot of context to her emotional reaction. It wasn't necessarily about the money, even though she highlighted that. But she got a replacement ring and it doesn't feel the same because

it's not the same exact ring that symbolizes her relationship with Jack. And the fact that that was at a core of her like emotional journey over the course of this season, I thought it was a really like satisfying way to tie that that storyline together. Totally. That's a good point. Cool. Well, let's get into the shows that we're going to talk about in full. Sandy, which of these two episodes were you most compelled by?

I don't know. I don't know, Craig. That's too hard of a question. They were both middling. They were both equally middling to me. No, I mean, I think that at first, my first impression was Beverly Hills. Yeah, let's get started with Beverly Hills. So off the top, I just like, one of the things that really stood out to me about Beverly Hills was how this was like visually constructed this episode.

I thought it was really interesting that it started off. with the, you know, the shopping trip and the wine tasting trip. And that was all so, like, colorful and this actual dinner that they have, they have, like, graded the color in such a, like, very saturated way. And there's, like, a bloom effect on the lighting. And as we watch this episode progress, it transitions to, like, a gray scale. Like, the next, the next, like, core piece of this episode is the conversation between Doreton, P. and there is still like some hints of color in that in their apartment,

but it's definitely a lot like, it's a lot grayer. It's a lot more neutral. And then by the time we get to the end of this episode where they're doing the celebration of light, everyone is in black. It's in a dark bar. And I just thought that this, the way it had to be deliberate, the way that they constructed this because they obviously graded the color in the, in the opening scene at the dinner.

Like that was definitely exaggerated the way that it was color graded and the way that it was presented with this with this glow. And to me, it really hit on the core theme of this season of Beverly Hills or one of the core themes of this season of Beverly Hills, which is transition to me. We're seeing like this transition that Sutton is making into the dating world. We're seeing this transition that Erica is making based on her new, financial situation and trying to really find her footing again. We're seeing a transition within like Kyle's relationship with Mo and and now Morgan.

And we're seeing like Garcel preparing for this transition with with our kids going up. And this, to see that kind of manifested in a visual way throughout this episode where we've got this, this gradient and this transition in tone, I thought was a really like compelling, deliberate choice on the part. of the editors and the producers. Wow, that is very cool. I did not notice that at all. I'm so fascinated by the things that you take away from this. I did notice the high contrast, very bright, sunny first scene I was commenting to my husband.

I'm like, oh, my God, it's just so sunny in California. It seems obnoxious to me. Oh, yeah. I did notice that. I was like, God, it's just so bright and happy there. It's not my vibe. So that one was definitely obvious. But yeah, that is very interesting.

I like it. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I found it like really, really compelling. And yeah, so let's talk about that first scene. What were your thoughts on it, aside from it, being a little too cheery? I mean, it was fun. It was like, obviously they really hammered in like, we're finally getting along. This is just so good.

Oh, and like everyone had a little, you know, confession. in your moment saying that. And it was cute. It was nice. I liked Sutton getting a little wild and doing some weird physical comedy with bodies. She's fun. I was love Sutton. I don't know. What do you think? Yeah, I thought it was enjoyable. It was nice to see like a fun game for once the game was not just like a deliberate mechanic for getting drama out there. I think it still was a deliberate mechanic to, like, create a fun environment because they needed this, like, this release. They needed to set up this, like, this new foundation of people being able to have fun with each other and not take each other seriously so that we can use that as a baseline for whatever drama comes within the rest of this season. So I really like that.

I like that it was framed as a birthday party, like bringing forward this idea of like rebirth because it did feel like a renewal on these relationships. Now we've got a little bit of intrigue to try to get an understanding of what actually was reset and what was just us having fun. I also, there's something about Crystal that I have found really like magnetic this season. She's not really doing much,

but I feel like she's a lot more comfortable in front of the camera. I think in her past two seasons, she has come across a little rigid, and I was surprised to see her back for a third season, frankly, because I don't think that she was adding much to the dynamic. But she seems a lot more comfortable, and I feel like we're getting a lot more of her personality this season. It wasn't showcased a lot in this episode,

but we did see her, like, having she was like clearly like a happy drunk type you know just a little tipsy at the the dinner and having having fun and so it was nice to see her kind of let loose and like see her letting her guard down and you could see it in in her body language it was like communicating this this um this confidence in front of the camera so i i like that overall you know there wasn't a lot to this scene in terms of the drama but I think that it was like in terms of like

utility and form I thought that it was a really important scene yeah set things up for sure I thought I mean it's it was a nice trip I think it's funny that like as her name Anne Marie is going on a birthday trip with like women she doesn't know but it's reality

TV so you gotta you gotta force a couple things right yeah totally suspend your disbelief What other highlights did you have from this episode? Well, I guess keeping on that trip, I was interested in learning about Kyle's shopping addiction, especially since she's just dropped one potential addiction or addictive substance from her life. So I found that, I mean, everyone has their addictions, especially if you're really rich, you can buy a lot of stuff. But though lots of people that are not really rich have shopping addictions too I hear.

So I found that interesting. buying something every day, even at a gas station, because she just loves it. That's interesting. I didn't like immediately pick up on that. But this idea of her substituting a previous like addictive substance with another addiction is really interesting because she's also substituting out her relationship with Mauricio with this relationship that she's got with Morgan. So that is, yeah, that's, that's an interesting dynamic to watch for sure. And then as far as the moving into the PK and Doreet scene, I'm trying to like decide if I appreciate these kind of scenes. I thought it was a good scene because it was, it felt pretty authentic as far as a like reality TV marriage counseling session.

Was that person a counselor or who was she? I didn't even catch that. Yeah, she was like a therapist or something like that. I'm not entirely sure. She didn't seem that engaged in the conversation. whatever, maybe that's good. But anyway, I thought it was funny that PKK just said, like, I don't think a lot of your PTSD is PTSD. It's just being obnoxious. That was funny. And I thought it was a real, like I thought it was fairly authentic and felt, felt like they were

kind of communicating about their issues. The thing that I'm not sure about is, do I want this content on these shows? Personally, I watched this for escapism. And it feel like, I feel like they're really leaning into, as I kind of mentioned before, they're really leaning into the marriage, monogamous marriage is really hard. And here's the nitty-gritty of what couples go through. And I'm like, I'm not looking for that content. I have that in my own life enough. Like, I want some escapeism here. So I'm interested in your opinion on that scene and also just the general trend, I think, towards this content. Like, it's relatable content, but I don't know if I want relatable content on these shows. Yeah, that's a good point. I personally, like, I don't

think that this scene was the most enjoyable that I had some like takeaways from it but overall I didn't think it was the most shining example of this type of scene that we have seen you know as you said increasingly recently over the the recent years I I do appreciate this like one of the things that I love about reality TV personally is less like the escapism aspect of it but I do agree that that is important. But the fact that on reality TV, I think you have the opportunity to get fuller pictures of characters than you do in like other narrative programming. I think that reality TV, you have characters that are just so much more three-dimensional than you could ever write in a fictional narrative. They're influenced by things in so many more subtle ways that

that would seem maybe unimportant in a fictional setting, but ultimately it does play into their decision making and how they operate and navigate through the world. And I think it's just a, yeah, you have more real characters, even if they are exaggerated from their own personal. So when you see what is like influencing their behavior and you get a snippet of what they're going through at home, I think that that does add something to this.

But I agree if you're going to watch it and it's like you're looking to get escapism, then that is something that, you know, would be an unwelcome addition. Yeah, I'm torn. I see it both ways. Yeah, I think like one thing that I thought was interesting about this scene was how they cut the therapist into it. Because like you said, she was not any of her interaction was. like very minimal in how they showed this. She seemed like she was just like sitting there laughing at jokes and like not really

trying to drive at anything specifically. They just, it made it look like they were able to work this out all on their own and that, you know, that she wasn't necessary to that process. So I thought it was interesting that they would present it that way. And to me, it kind of gave this,

this vibe of, oh, they're going to be fine because they have the tools already in their back pocket to work these situations out on their own. I don't know if that's what they were intentionally trying to communicate, but that's what it like it communicated to me. Cool. Did you have any other highlights from Beverly Hills? Yeah, Anne Marie shouldn't be blowing out her own candles. We don't do that post-COVID in this world. That's my last thought.

That's disgusting. But I guess they were licking toes at that lunch, so that's the least of their worries. So never mind. Yeah, well, if you've got a non-thin esophagus, you got to use it. You got to fly inside. Yeah, I think we covered most of the things that I wanted to talk about in this episode. I want to touch a little bit about this event at the end. And Anne-Marie is really, like, doing a lot.

And it does come across, like, really forced. I don't think that she's a nice. natural fit for this show, but she's making stuff kind of happen. What I'm finding most interesting is when we see her and Crystal, because Crystal was, like I said, a very rigid character for two seasons. And so when we got that small little scene where they're at the table and Anne Marie is like, brings up the eating disorder and then Crystal kind of calls her on it, it gave me like a little bit of a baseline to compare like Crystal's growth as a TV. personality against compared to where Anne-Marie is now because, you know, Crystal was confident

and was able to be like, no, you, you said that first. Like, I, I didn't say eating disorder. You did. Um, so yeah, I, I think that she is serving a purpose here just like for comparison, but what she's trying to do with Sutton is just like not working. I'm not like interested in this at all. It's not this smoking gun that she thinks it is. It's just like a really bizarre choice. He's like not to change the subject, but sudden's esophagus. I'm like, dude, that is the most not chill subject change you could ever try to pull off. Yeah.

No one wants to talk about that, as Garcel was saying. Totally. Did you have any small weird highlights that you wanted to call out? Yeah. On the note of that conversation, I thought it was extremely weird that a housewife has finally used the term gaslighting correctly. Congratulations, Crystal. I hope I'm right. I hope I know what gaslighting is, honestly. But I'm pretty sure she used to do. Oh, yeah. And she said that she didn't need a dictionary for it, too. She didn't need to look it up in her medical dictionary, which was a great line. Or any dictionary, because it's, yeah, not highly understood. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't have anything weird that I wanted to call it with us.

So let's dive into Real Housewives of Miami. I'll just start. I think like when I was trying to identify a theme for this episode, it seemed to be about privilege to me. And that's something that is like commonly explored on on these shows. But I thought it was interesting. When we got to see like Alexia going through the apartment and it was, you know, too small. to this, to that. And we also saw that with Larsa and Marcus when they were exploring that at the

dinner table, that very, like, ghoulish dinner. And her talking about like, oh, are we privileged? And Marcus was like, well, I didn't get on a plane until I was 16. But he's talking about, like, I didn't get on a commercial flight. I know. At first I was like, oh, how is that possible? But yeah, no, the other, the flip side. Yeah. And we saw that with Lisa as well when she was talking about the downgrade that they're going to have to do from a 20,000 square foot house to a 3,000 square foot apartment, which is still big. Like that is still very big. Yeah, I thought that that was the most pronounced theme that we saw on this episode. Totally agree.

One other thing that I thought was really interesting in terms of how they explored things more cinematically was at the party with at Marisol's party at the end. I thought that they started with like a very objective point of view. So it was like very static shots from the point of view of like an observer at this. And it slowly started closing into like a more like subjective point of view. And we got this transition where they were like cross-fading between shots of Gertie as she is like being overwhelmed. And it goes like into a fully like subjective up close shots, handheld shots, following the action of Gertie like making the decision to leave the party. I thought that that was just a really evocative choice that they made to present this scene that way. those were the like the highlights for me in terms of how this episode was was presented nice i love this

um what were what were your highlights um i enjoyed the little clip of marisole at the beginning explaining sort of her her childless status and her sort of moment at 49 when she kind of realized that i think those are the real sort of that sort of character building those real moments that that's one that I'm really interested in learning about people. And so I thought that was really a nice touch. And she keeps it light, but it's clearly very serious, but she also keeps it light because that's her style. So I thought that was a nice little bit of information about her background. Yeah, that that relationship that she's got as like a step parent, I thought, was really warm and healthy. Marisol is someone that has a lot of unhealthy relationships, both

externally and internally. So to see a seemingly very healthy one at home, it was a nice welcome contrast. Totally. Yeah, exactly. Another little clip that I really appreciated felt a little chilling was, I guess it was in the context of her having the medium come in, but it was a flashback to her mom, giving a like devastating read of Larsa and I found that to be just like oh she said you are very worried about men and she's like oh yeah you're just repeat you're very worried about men I'm just

just like oh that's like succinct beautiful that was a bit of a little bit of that theater you know that that that drama there so I really appreciated that moment yeah totally it was like a much more accurate read than the medium could have made. What other highlights did you have? My other one that I thought was very interesting was, so there's this whole thing about why Nicole is now the outcasts of the group because she invited this woman who has a history with Marisol and Alexia. And so they believe that Nicole plotted this whole lunch to set them up.

And so now she's cut. But really, it was Adriana who invited her and was the orchestrator of that. that, but Adriana is really backed off and now wants, like, to be completely not connected to that and is really concerned about, or was, about it coming to light. Turns out it doesn't matter. They still hate Nicole and don't. Yeah. And just know this is, they said, Adrian is always an asshole, so it's nothing new. But what I found was interesting was in the moment where Julie is having, well, Julia was also acting weird and that was a bit interesting, but she was about to sort of tell them at the lunch table. And Adriana is talking, I think in front.

because I think I could understand it. But either way, she's saying like, no, no, no, do not say anything. Do not say anything. And I don't know if I've seen if it's rare when you in real time see housewives like freaking out that much that they're trying to like suppress information from someone else in the moment, right? Like usually they just, you know, you roll with it and they're telling each other's secrets constantly. But she was like really, really trying to make that not happen and desperately.

And I thought that was fascinating. Yeah, that was really interesting. I think it reminded me of we saw the scene with Shannon this past season on Orange County, where they were talking about John and her really not wanting that information to be presented in front of the camera. And it's curious that this is coming from Adriana, who is all about making sure that the mess is in front of the camera. and this seemed like the best possible outcome for her to, you know, stir stuff up. So she must, like, feel like her best chance of getting more camera time is because Alexia and Marisol, she's on good terms with them.

Like, she must see that as her path to being on the show more. And it kind of, like, spoke to something that we saw, or actually the core. of this conflict between Alexia and Marisol and Nicole is about protecting the camera time. So I think that the invite, it wasn't about this past beef. They did not want to welcome another friend of on who is going to steal the spotlight. I think that's where the core of their concern actually lies. And so to see all the housewives be so calculated about, you know, the camera and be trying to protect their time in front of it, it is definitely, we're getting a lot of gameplay as a result because this is all about, you know, managing information, managing your position, like managing your popularity. and yeah, someone that is not typically affected by that, at least from what we've seen recently, is Adriana.

So for her to be that frantic about that and being increasingly threatening when she's saying, you know, don't bring that up now. Stop it. Like, yeah, it was, it was remarkable. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I guess, I guess, and it's interesting, like Nicole was like, mark my words. I won't show up to another group event. Like, I mean, can mark your work. Like, it's your own, you're going to, you're going to, you know, you're the one that suffers from that and you're not invited to the group events now.

So that'll be easy for you. Yeah. You know, I was watching this with, with my wife, Jess. And she said the same thing. Like, yeah, right. But I do kind of believe her, like, if anyone is going to say this and it's going to be believable on this cast, I feel like it's Nicole. Like she has, she would be the least affected by having like no screen time because she's got a busy job. She's got so much money.

It's not about any of that for her. So yeah, I also thought about this scene that it was, I was surprised by how affected she was by not getting this invite, though. That's one thing that really stood out to me. Yeah, it seems like she genuinely is hurt by this. she was breaking, she was sort of crying a little bit or trying not to. Do you think that the, so the camera time thing, is it money based or is it like fame based? What are people driven by here? Yeah, that's, that's a great question.

I feel like it's probably different for everyone. I feel like I've heard Housewives like off camera who are no longer on the show talk about how it's something, like you crave the, the attention and like the, you know, the opinion of the fans and the interaction and the engagement, whether it's positive or negative, it just becomes addicting. I feel like that is probably what it is because Miami is unique in that it was off the air for like 10 years. So these, most of this cast has the experience of, you know, having that taken away. And so it might make it a lot more real for them to want to protect it now that it's back. Yeah, interesting.

Did you have any other highlights from rehearsals in Miami? No, I think mostly that was it. Yeah, we covered a lot of what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk back about, our circle back on something that we didn't talk about, the scene at the bank with Lisa and her son. I thought it was a nice little comedic insertion in this episode. You had mentioned this is like kind of a middling episode and not a lot. happened so they've got room to add things in like this and this was both funny because it started

off with Lisa getting like an umbrella stuck in the door as she was going in and her son is like so cute but dressed up in like a suit and like bringing in this a safe for his his deposit and it and it does like circle back to this this theme of privilege that we're seeing like he's there he's dressed up like someone who is clearly, you know, upper class and depositing $400 that he has saved up to his new bank account. I feel like it would be tough for a child that age to hold on to $400 and wanting to spend it unless they were having their every want fulfilled by their parents' lifestyle. So, yeah, I thought it was a fun choice to include this scene here because who's to say, like, chronologically, when this actually took place over the course of the season because there's nothing that really ties it into the story to indicate that. So it seems like a deliberate choice on the choice of the producer or whoever is the story editor to include that on this episode when they are focused so much on privilege.

I thought that that was really fun. Another thing I wanted to mention, you touched on like Julia acting weird when she was entering the party. And this really like stood out to me. And it was it was kind of confusing because the way that they introduced her on this episode, they gave her this like gunslinger entrance. So we'll see this office. on housewives where someone will enter the scene and they'll start kind of like on the boots and then end up like panning up to like that that hip-up gunslinger shot where you know it's

basically like a western where someone's kicking the the dust off their spurs and then she came in and i was expecting that to indicate that she's going to be like fighting and she kind of did that in her own way but she was so awkward about it and i was I was curious, like, what your thoughts on, on Julia's entrance and how she operated at this party? I mean, I, she indicated she was nervous. I guess she felt like she was betraying her friend, right? She had, and she's now that has this loyalty to Alexia, I guess, or something. Or a desire to, yeah, not be cut out from the main group, whatever, that could, that could tie in.

But she was feeling like she had to betray Adriana. So, but I mean, I, yeah, I agree. Like, she was set up as this sort of like, she would take a confident walk in there and kind of, and then she just sort of seemed really dazed and confused and awkward. Yeah. So I don't really know what to make it. She's always a little awkward, but this was like extra for sure.

Yeah. If we want to read into the kind of like Western dynamics that this party scene had, which I think we're there. and I don't think it's like fully reaching to to highlight them but like she came in as kind of the white hat cowboy and she ultimately was like driven by her her morals like what she fundamentally believed to be right she ended up doing it she just didn't do it with the confidence that I was expecting given the way that she was introduced also I really loved that Kiki was wearing like a big flat brim black hat like a like a bad guy from a from a Western and and she was there ready to stir up shit. The first thing we see her say is, oh, is everyone invited to this party? Is everyone coming?

And she, like, makes it clear. Like, she's asking if everyone was invited because she wants to get into, like, why is Nicole not here? And it's something that she keeps, like, driving at the beginning of this scene. And then again, at the table, she's, like, needling about it.

And she's like, oh, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on because I don't understand. but clearly trying to stir shit up. I appreciated her, like, you know, her living up to the black hat villain villain role that she came dressed for. Totally. She's good.

She's good. Yeah, she was great. Yeah, also, I thought the story that we're getting from Gertie so far this season is, I'm just loving how she's facing this, like, head on. And she came to that party. She was like, she was the best. dressed and just we're getting to see the way that she takes on a difficult situation and

getting a full picture of how she like she operates throughout um throughout life um yeah just really loving gerty this season i think it's i think it's great this would be a really tough thing to go through on camera as well i think and the fact that she's not shying away from any piece of it i think is uh is really great totally uh anything weird that you wanted to call out? I guess, like, it might be worth its own conversation, but I did not understand Marisol's gifting lunch, and I kept reading the, the, what, caption thing that came on is Marisol's grifting lunch. And I was like, what, like, is this her products or what is happening here?

It just seemed a little odd. Like, she said, I just want to have a lunch and give my friends all sorts of things. I just don't have a context for understanding that. I've been suspicious. Yeah, it seemed like a pop-up market. Like, it was very, very strange. And Adriana was like, oh, this is what Marisol does best. She uses her PR contacts to buy friends. And like, maybe that was what it was. She's lined up all this sponsorship and it's just, like, handing out gifts.

I thought that that was really, really funny. To buy the friends that she already has on the show. Like, maybe if it was, like, new people or something, I don't know. I don't think she needs to buy friends. She likes to try to get rid of friends. She's not a mojito holder yet. So she, uh,

maybe she wants that full time mojito. Then she should invite production to shop at her market. Or Andy, I don't know who makes these decisions. There were more gift bags there. There were more gift bags there than there were people. So. All right.

Well, maybe that's, maybe we cracked the code then after after the cameras went off. Everyone was getting goodies. How about you? Anything weird? Yeah, the little weird thing that stood out to me that I thought was notable was when Alexia was talking about Nicole's motivation. She's like, she's got the highest IQ. Of course she was like plotting. I thought it was really funny that, you know, she's using IQ as a metric for like positioning people in her mind in terms of how devious they have the potential to be. Yeah, I like the idea of a not just like an intelligence quotient, but a deviousness quotient.

Who has the highest potential to be deviance is a really funny idea. And I think it is something that could be applied to these housewives. It's like there's this cross section of like deviance and successfulness at your deviance. Like it should be less apparent that you're deviant if you have higher IQ, but whatever. but yeah aside from that i think that uh that's about it oh also at this larza dinner that we got with sophia one thing that made it like feel really icky to me was just how coercing larza came across when she was um talking to her daughter about marcus like the fact that she was like oh it it's hard to see someone else other than your dad right but

Um, if you had to, it would be him, right? It would be him. It would be him. And so it was just like, kind of like quietly like, yeah, it would be him. It was so, uh, cringy and picky. And it was weird. Yeah. It all is.

Um, do you still, are you still on the like, it's a fake relationship thing? Like, just going to keep going. Um, yeah. I don't know. Like, I, did think that. I still kind of think that. But there's a little bit of a level of like cringiness to their interaction that seems almost authentic. Like yeah, you would be a bit more careful in how you presented yourself if it was fully, um, a fake thing. So exactly. I don't know,

TBD. Unless her IQ is just so high that she's like double tricked us. Yeah, there you go. Um, one thing that we forgot to do for Beverly Hills, we'll get back to that, uh, is just choose our, our stars. Who, who are your stars from Miami? Miami. I'm gonna, um, I'm gonna, I like Marisol this episode and Marisol's mom. Oh, yeah. She just wins it for me, the witch. Uh, so those are my two stars and then, do I have to give a third star? I don't want to. No, you can just. Those are my stars. I liked Gertie a lot this episode, just, again, for all the reasons that I mentioned.

Also, Julia, just, like, being a little unpredictable and falling into this, like, lawful, good part of the chart. And, yeah, I think that those are my two stars. for Miami. How about Beverly Hills? Who are your stars there? I mean, I'm always going to, Sutton's always a star for me and especially for her toe licking this, this episode. She gets a star.

Oh, man. I'm going to, I'm going to give Amory a star for her dogged commitment to the esophagus storyline. I mean, it's awkward and terrible, but I kind of appreciate it. That's all I got. How about you? Yeah, that's, that's fair. I had written down Sutton, like always, always going to be a Sutton fan.

And, you know, she puts it all on the table. I love it. The other highlight that I have to call out was Teddy, who's always going to be a star in my mind as well. I thought of you. She had one moment in a limousine. Yeah. No, and she brought up the, she called back to. to Garcel calling her a gnat.

So, yeah, always working hard. Will they bring her back? Will they bring her back? Have your letters worked yet? No. Yeah, no, never. They have told me to stop contacting them about it. And many other things, I'm sure.

But I love that she, like, can be this agent of chaos, even though she is not on these shows anymore with her podcast with Tamara. Like, she's still able to stir the pot. and I just love that for her. And I don't like the trend that we're seeing of people using like podcasts or whatever, anything off screen as a device for inflicting chaos on the show. But one, Teddy gets a pass because she's Teddy. And two, that mostly just applies to people on the show, in my opinion. And if like Teresa or Melissa used their podcast and it's like, you know, trading barbs off camera, I don't really care for that.

I want the story to be told by a storyteller, like these production companies. Those are the experts at doing this. I don't want to see this game going on off camera so much. And I especially don't like it when it's just like fans that are like trying to insert themselves into this drama. and really that's so out of place that I just, I don't like it. It's really annoying. Do you listen to the two T's in a pod podcast? On occasion, it's not like something that I listen to every week.

Again, one of my like New Year's resolutions for this show was to like step away from the off camera stuff. Like I feel like there's lots of podcasts that talk. about that. Like, there's like pretty much all the Bravo podcast, they'll weigh into the stuff that's going off on, going on off camera and get into the gossip. And, you know, that's something that I don't think that when we've tried to do that, we have done it particularly well because I'm always just like two days late on it anyways.

And I don't really have the like strongest opinions either way because I care more about like what's happening on screen and how that comes across and trying to dive more into analyzing it as art, which I think is kind of our strong point on this show. I think that there's not a lot of other podcasts that are doing that. And it's the most fun part for me. So yeah, I've been kind of trying to step away from that and not looking at what's going on in social media as much anymore. And yes, I mean, we're only 12 days into the year. So we'll see what happens.

And, you know, within those 12 days, we had a huge Bravo scandal that broke on screen that involved social media and the off screen. So it's obviously going to be something that's unavoidable. But honestly, you know, when it comes up on screen, I think we tackle it. When it doesn't, then I don't really care about it. Listen to someone else who's funnier than us. Yeah, fair enough. Anything that you want to circle back on before we close it out here? I think I'm good.

I think I'm good. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this, Sandy. And like, thank you for stepping in while Dylan's off, like, living his vagabond lifestyle. He's going to be returning next week, I believe. So, but this has been an awesome run. I've really had a lot of fun. I appreciate it.

I'm happy to jump back in. It's lots of fun. For sure. We'll be seeing you soon. Do you want to let everyone know where they can find you? Sure. I'm on Instagram at Corporial Curios if you want to check out my art made of hair. Awesome.

I'm Craig Midwinter. You can just find me on Instagram at Bravo Outsider or our other socials. We're on TikTok. I don't pay much attention to it. We're on X. We're a little less active there. You know, leave a comment on YouTube. Be sure to like and subscribe.

that helps us out a lot. Tell your friends about this podcast. Tell your parents who don't watch Bravo to listen to it. Try to change their mind and convince them of the artistic validity of this medium. And yeah, until next week, keep on white.