The Prestige TV Podcast - Four Big Questions About 'Bling Empire'

Episode Date: January 22, 2021

Juliet Litman and Amelia Wedemeyer try to understand 'Bling Empire,' a Netflix reality TV show that follows a group of extremely rich Asian people living in Los Angeles. Hosts: Juliet Litman and Amelia Wedemeyer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Asians are here. Just go shopping. That's the best therapy. It's really hard to flex your apps all day long. You have to hold your breath. In China, my husband's father would be an emperor. And Baby G would be a little prince. Hannah needs your help.

Did you bring Botox? I only want a day for love. I'm so tired of other people's judgment. Kim Lee is a super famous DJ. You got it. Flon it. Cherise airs to huge denim empire. And now Anna's back.

Her father sells bombs, guns. this gun. I think it's very important to have fun. This episode is brought to you by Ultima Replenisher. Health is all about balance, like a salad with fries. So why not have balance in your hydration? With six essential electrolytes and no junk, Ultima provides balanced hydration you can enjoy every day.

That means no sugar, calories, or carbs, and it's not loaded with sodium. Just delicious plant-based flavors you'll actually look forward to drinking. Shop Ultima on Amazon or in store at Target and Whole Food. Market. This summer, serve up the cookout classics, Oscar Meyer hot dogs and Heinz mustard. Grill up a dog, add classic yellow mustard, or loaded Chicago style. We all know it's not a cookout without Oscar Meyer and Heinz. Welcome to TV concierge. This is the ringer's guide to the vast streaming landscape. Today, we are discussing Bling Empire on Netflix. I'm Julia Libman. I am

joined by Amelia Weddemeier. Hello, Amelia. Hi. How are you? I'm You know? Not doing super great because I watched this show and didn't really like it. Were you expecting to like it? I don't know what I was expecting. I was kind of like, you know what? It seems like it could be maybe another, like, to me, it seemed like maybe another Bravo show, but it didn't even really cross that threshold for me. It was just not good. What does that mean? What is the Bravo threshold? that there's like the perfect amount of humor and self-awareness to the to the rich lifestyles or just like the these lifestyles that, you know, aren't ordinary, I guess. Because I watch, what do I watch?

I watch all the real hot lives. Right. Yeah. And I enjoy that show. And I think even though, you know, I'm not saying they have the most self-awareness. I think they have more self-awareness than these people. And it, and the shows themselves don't. always focus on the decadence and being rich as kind of a main plot point.

Yeah. Yeah. So this show is about a group of Asians and Asian Americans who live in Los Angeles and, like, their relationships to each other. And that is, and they're all purportedly really rich or like have connections to really rich people because they're not all actually really rich. Like Kevin, I can't. I don't think he's.

rich. We'll come back to him in a second. And so this show, I think, was, like, inspired by the success of Crazy Rich Asians. Yes. Totally. And the kind of, like, one of the main characters, his name is Kane. He is from Singapore. And so there's that connection. But an important part of Crazy Rich Asians. And I'm true this is, I've been told this is even more true of the books than the movie is that it is about a specific culture of Chinese people who moved to Singapore a long time ago, or, you know, the descendants of Chinese people and about their very decadent culture in Singapore. Whereas Bling Empire, the foundation of it is like just straight up offensive. And we need to talk about it because it's, it's based on Bling Empire, but they,

they group all these people together in a way where it's like, look, they're all Asian. But like, this is sort of like when people are like, look, they're all African. Like Africa and Asia both have a lot of different countries with unique. singular cultures. And like this show acts like because people are Asian or Asian American, they just by default share something. And I actually, I'm white. So I don't know if that's even true, but I suspect it's not.

And I was just sort of like trying to process this central foundation of the show, the central premise of like, Asian people knowing each other in L.A., which is probably kind of a phenomenon. But if it's trying to be based on crazy rich Asians, is super problematic. Yeah, that's, you know, now that you say that, it is kind of weird that they're all in L.A. and is like, is there some rich Asian community that I obviously don't belong to because I'm not rich?

And that I don't know about. I don't know. It's very confusing. And yeah, it's weird. It's weird. It would have been different if they tried to do like a K-Town show, which actually existed once before. Yes. Call.

I think it was called K-Town. Yes. And it was like right after the Jersey Shore. Yes. Crazy. And I, I liked it. Yeah, it was fine. Yeah, they were fun.

But that was like a specific subculture, right? Right. Yes. It was like people living in Ktown. It was mainly Korean people living in Ktown. Right. And that like made sense. And like Jersey Shore, they're not all Italian, though it's like very closely associated

with Italians. But again, like that was tapping into a specific subculture of people who go to the Jersey Shore every summer. Right. Right. Exactly. And so this leads to one of our before big questions about bling empire. Amelia, do the people on the show even know each other?

Like, did they know each other before the show? I don't think everyone did. I think it is kind of like real housewives where some of these people knew each other and some of them didn't know each other, but they've all been kind of forced to be with each other in the last few months because of the show. Do you not feel that way? Well, no, I obviously it is like real housewives.

Like they don't necessarily. come into it knowing each other, but there's like some context maybe, but then they get to know each other. But like, when I watched the first episode, I was just like, is this the television equivalent of someone writing a ransom note using the letters they cut out of magazines? Because it's like stitched together in such a bizarre way that I'm like, okay, there's a ton of pickups here. You can really see the scenes. And it seems like they did casting kind of around Kane, but not completely. and just like threw in some like rich people that they could find. Yeah, that sounds about right.

That sounds about right. So we should just say Kane is like kind of the main narrator. And the show begins really around Kane and his friend Kevin, who is allegedly new to Los Angeles. Came from the East Coast. Instagram quickly reveals Kevin is not that new to Los Angeles. Of course. Oh my God.

Of course. What do you think about Kane? Kane, I just, I get so distracted by his cheek implants and all the Restolin in his lips. Is that what that's called Restelin? I think so. But he's fine. Again, I don't, I really don't feel a connection to any of these people, to be honest. And I feel like you need at least one person that you can at least connect with or not even that, but just side with and be like, hey, they're funny or I like them enough that I'll ride hard for them, you know?

That's a good point. It's hard to build a show around detestable people. And they're not even like all necessarily detestable. Like, Kane seems like a nice enough person, right? Yeah, he does. But he doesn't really have a huge personality, which is fine. But it's like if you're going to be on a TV show that is a reality show that's supposed to be about drama and stuff, you know, you kind of need a bigger personality, I feel like.

And that leads to our second question. Should being rich even get you a TV show at this point? Like, is that enough? No. clearly as we've as has been evidenced in this show I really think you need to have more than just money you know to be a good character on TV I think money can help I think it's a support for someone to act certain ways but you know you kind of need more I agree with that because there are like some interesting parts of this show right like there are some elements of the show that I feel like

you could have gotten more sympathy around like if they just was like about Christine and like her her struggles to get pregnant. I think that, like, actually would have been more interesting than, like, her being, like, really decadent and rich and, like, constantly talking about her husband being a descendant of the song dynasty. Because, like, that actually is interesting, right? Like, yeah. Do Chinese dynasties, like, have bearing on, like, the social order today?

I would love to know more about that in, like, an Indian matchmaking kind of way. Sure. But instead, it's just played for, like, laughs of, like, oh, she's interested in the dynasty system, which doesn't exist anymore. Right. Right. And I think it's also interesting when she, when they were having like a, they were talking to the embryo people in the second episode. I only managed to watch like two of these episodes. But she was saying that she didn't really want to do a surrogacy because his parents are very traditional and they would cash shame upon them if they used a surrogate. So that was interesting. That was interesting, right? Like there's a piece of this where you're like, oh, there's, there's, there's, if you pulled back. like the layers and like moved away from this crazy rich Asian conceit. It actually could be interesting. Totally.

But that then leads to the next question, which we kind of alluded to, why do they group Asian people together? Like it's a single country. I don't know because production budget, I don't know. So Anna is another major character. She looks like one of the real housewives of Miami to me. I'm not even kidding. That is so funny you say that because I thought in the preview at first, I thought it was

Elsa's mom. Do you remember? Yes, that's who I'm talking about. Yeah. I thought that was her. Anna, they say, is half Russian, half Japanese. Again, that's interesting. Like, that's, like, two backgrounds that I think, you know, don't often collide.

Don't often come together in a single very rich human. Yeah. Give me more background on her. Yeah, like, how she got her money, you know? And they're like, at one point, we learned that, like, Anna's reclusive. But you're just like, what does that mean? And why? And then why did she decide to stop being reclusive?

Also a woman with a sledgehammer just like knocking down her own walls, which she's like, I guess trying to expand her closet. So she's knocking down the wall. That was really funny. That was funny. But to act like Anna, who's half Russian and half Japanese, like by default or definition has anything necessarily in common with Christine, who is of Chinese descent. And they like pit of them against each other as like two queens.

I was just like, I was just like, it could be. any random two people who live in Los Angeles. Like the fact that they're both Asian has nothing to do with like what's going on here. Yeah, that was the least interesting element out of all of it, honestly. And I just, I don't know. I feel like not only is that really stitched together and just like, okay, well, I guess, you know, they're both Asian. So let's work that out.

I think a lot of the drama is, and you shared this with me offline, but like, it's really contrived. Like that necklace thing. was the lamest drama I've ever watched in my life. And the necklace was over. Explain the necklace drama. So the whole necklace thing was, so Anna had thrown, I guess,

like some kind of ball benefit. And Christine decided to wear, to buy and wear this really decadent Louis Vuitton necklace that apparently Anna had as well. And she wanted to kind of like play an homage to her. And she was just like, hey, we have the same necklace. And Anna was so offended.

She was like, I can't believe she wore that necklace. This is my party. And then she changed around the seating arrangements so that Christine couldn't sit by her. And she, it was so, it was like, over one goddamn necklace. Are you kidding me? It was right out of the real house where the Salt Lake City was not as entertaining. Exactly. It was just like, this is, this is insane.

Like, me telling you this drama is making me laugh again because it's, It's so just what? This isn't drama. This is a sad attempt at a storyline. I got the impression that filming must have been hard because it seemed like they were a lot of disparate pieces of this. Like they just like threw cameras onto a bunch of different people and like hope for a show to emerge. And it did really. It didn't really.

And so there's like so many different strands. Like Kevin and Kane are kind of like off doing one thing. Christine's doing another. Anna's doing another. Like these people don't actually. like interact outside of the show, at least with the real housewives, you could conceive that the women would hang out together or like attend the same events or whatnot. This is just like people who actually have like nothing in common. No, and that's so funny you say that because like on the

real housewives, I don't mean to continuously bring it up. But sometimes they're related. Yeah, sometimes they're related or sometimes they have known each other for years upon years upon years. So it actually is more believable that these women would be interacting with each other side of being on a show, you know? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's particularly how it started. I mean, but yeah. They're not, so like, they just sort of like had this idea of like crazy rich Asians. Exactly. But reality. And it just, it didn't work out. Yeah, it was, it's like the real, you know, when Laguna Beach came around and it was like, the real OC, this is like, this is the real crazy rich Asians. However, that did work. And it worked very well. It did. No, yes. But because they all

knew each other because it was actually like from a real high school, a group of friends. Yeah. But actually, actually have heard the show was supposed to. come out like last winter, fall, like right around the time of the pandemic. And it didn't because they thought it was like in bad taste, like to be like so decadent or whatever when everyone's like home. And, you know, I think if you look back at the beginning of the pandemic, things remain really scary and sad. But it was even scarier at the beginning because you're just like what's going on. Right. Right. Yeah. Which, but still, I mean, you know, again, like I didn't. It doesn't play right now. It really doesn't being just being, just being rich.

for no reason and like having no purpose just doesn't really hit right. Yes. And I was talking to my friend about this because I asked him if he was going to watch it. And he was like, I'm just really tired of watching rich people. And I was like, same. Same. Especially rich people with no value or like no extra parts to them. It's just just rich people. Like, okay. It was just, ugh. Yeah. There's no organizing principle around this at all. No. And they're actually bad people. Like freaking Andrew, not a good guy. That's our final question, which is. is how could anyone want anything other than for Kelly to break up with Andrew? Oh my God.

So Kelly and Andrew are an abusive relationship. There's no way around it. Kelly was previously dating someone who committed like major fraud. So she went from being really rich to having no money. And it seems like she moved to L.A. and met Andrew who was in a Power Ranger movie but wore a helmet the whole time. So no one knows his face. And actually, I think it was a Power Ranger TV show.

Sorry. wasn't even the movie. And he was the Red Ranger. And again, yeah, like you said, no one's on his face. So no one cares. No one cares. But moreover, he clearly went on the show to get famous so that people could see his face. Yes.

Exactly. But it backfired because he is an abusive person. He doesn't, we don't see him physically abuse her, but he definitely emotionally abuses her. And it's like a really upsetting relationship. Even when she explains it to Anna, she'll be like sometimes he, he doesn't, he's, He just, like, won't respond to me for 12 hours. Or other times, like, we'll just yell to each other in a room until we settle it.

It's like, well, neither of those is a healthy way to respond. Right. And, well, and we heard him be verbally abusive on the phone after, because in the first episode, Anna and Andrew and Kelly all go to Paris because they're like. It's the weirdest, most random thing. It's just like, why? In the middle of the episode. And someone was like, yeah, you know, Anna has been to Paris more times in the last year

than she has Silver Lake. but um and they so they landed and like everyone was tired but Anna and Kelly wanted to go shopping and Andrew was sleeping and Kelly didn't want to disturb him because they had just you know taken this long ass flight and so they went shopping and she gets this phone or she gets these texts from him being like where are you how dare you leave me and then she calls him and they go back and forth and she's like in this calm voice and he's just screaming at her being like oh my god you abandoned me and just like goes just crazy insane. And it's just like, I didn't need to hear that.

No. And then, and then Ad is very openly like, how do they get back together? Like, it's everyone around her. It's kind of like Ron and Sam, everyone around her is agreeing that this is just not right and it doesn't work out. But it's just sort of like, it's not, it's like, you know, not to be too frivolous about it. It's not fun to watch a relationship like this. But moreover, it's also like not right. And it's not right.

And also people, and I saw on social media, some people were saying like, this show needs like a trigger warning because he is literally screaming at her and doesn't understand what he's doing. And it's just, and they go to a therapist or a, I think it's a therapist in the second episode. And he talks about, you know, dealing with abandon issues. And obviously that's really sad. But it's like just because, you know, you have to deal with these issues doesn't mean you. you have to put them onto other people. And she clearly is doing that with her. And it's just like, I hate seeing that because it is textbook abuse. And it's just, oh, it's just frustrating to watch. Therapist willing to go on television and televised therapy, they should lose her license. I've never been more anti. Bethany used to go on, go to therapy and have her therapist on all the time.

And I was just like, what is this man doing? Any medical or like dental professional who's willing to be on TV? Dental professional. Both. I'm just just both. It's a no for me. Like I used to love Dr. Paul Nassif, but I just can't. Terry Dubrow. I'm just like, no, guys.

You're just botched is just, it's wrong. It's all wrong. I hate, I hate reality TV medicine of any kind or emotional, emotional coaching. Dr. Drew. I have problems with Dr. Drew. I really used to really like Love Lion. For some reason, radio is like kind of different to me, but when they brought it to TV, interesting.

You know what I really did it for me? Drew is when he used to host the 16 and pregnant after shows and try to do like these five minute interventions. I was just like, this is not accomplishing anything, dude. Oh, totally. Well, and the fact that he has made so many TV shows just to make TV shows, it's like, do you really want to help these people? Or are you just trying to make money? Yeah, exactly.

It's a bummer. I want a Blame Empire to be better. I do think there's a space for like a really good LA subculture show. Not right now, obviously, as everything is shut down. But like, there is an idea here that could have been good, but they didn't crack it. No, and you know who did crack it, the real housewives of Beverly Hills. It's true. It's true.

Love that show. Me too. Well, Lisa Renna is unparalleled, right? I love Lisa Rina. Oh, my God. I love Rina, too. You know, I think people seem to like Bling Empires because it's like available and it's like, it's something like a Netflix reality show where you can just watch all of it at one time.

So you're just like, you can just watch all of it at one time. so you just like, you know, take it like a shot and then you're done. And it seems like if you just race through it, people seem to enjoy it. But I wouldn't recommend it. No, agreed. Yeah. Watch LuPen. If you're going to go to Netflix, just watch LuPan.

It's way more fun. Okay. I mean, it's not reality, but I like it. Okay. I'll do that. I just finished a cobra Kai. So I need something else to watch enough. You've got some time.

Check out Lupin. Also covered on TV Concierge. So check that out as well. For Amelia Weddemeier, I'm Juliette-Mier. We'll be back with more TV concierge. next week. This episode is brought to you by Netflix's remarkably bright creatures. What if a Pacific octopus held the key to a mystery that could heal your heart?

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