Reality Round-up: All Things Summer House, Girl’s Girls, and Manchildren
This Substack is turning into a Ciara Miller fan account
Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well :)
I’m super excited for this week’s post because we are taking a glorious look at the beauty that is the reality television landscape. We’ll start with a deep dive into all things Summer House, and then I’ll also be sharing some quick takes on some other shows that are currently airing or set to premiere later this summer.
For all my readers with an active social life instead of a crippling reality television addiction, I’ll try my best to provide some context to everything so it’s not super confusing, but no worries if you need to sit this one out <3
With that disclaimer, let’s get started! A couple of weeks ago, part two of the Summer House reunion aired, meaning another drama-filled, Hamptons summer came to an end. For those who are unfamiliar, Summer House follows a group of mostly 20 and 30-somethings who live and work in New York City, but they all share a house in the Hamptons on the weekends. Naturally, chaos ensues.
In terms of highlights, I never thought I’d say this, but I LOVED Lindsay Hubbard this season. With her pregnancy and her also not drinking all summer, I definitely gained a newfound appreciation for how iconic and fun she can be. She handled living in the house with her ex-fiance, Carl, so maturely to the point that I actively wanted her therapist’s deets. I also thought she was a great friend to all the girls in the house! Every time I saw her and Paige getting along onscreen, my heart swelled, and “Girl, So Confusing” started playing in the proverbial background. It’s been a long time coming for those two!
Another undeniable high of this season has been all the woman calling the men in the house out on their shit (!), from Ciara’s read of West’s awful haircut to the Paige/Kyle/Loverboy drama of it all.
As always, I do have critiques. The Lexi and Jesse drama completely devoured the whole season, and we missed out on sooooo many storylines as a result. The clip of Amanda and Kyle fighting that they showed at the reunion…where the heck was that all season? There were also some weird moments where certain cast members like Bailee, Gabby, and Imrul were edited out or barely shown at all this season.
Speaking of Gabby! She has been such a Bravo conundrum for me. She doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of storyline, but I’m obsessed with her vibe, closet, fashion magazine editor job, and washboard abs. She’s basically what I thought I would grow up to be when I was 13, so for that alone, I was a little bummed to hear she’s not coming back next season.
However, I do think the cast for this show needs a major shake-up. I wasn’t surprised to see Paige leave at all, so at this point I think now would be a perfect opportunity for production to bring in some new faces to Summer House and move the OG cast members to the thing everyone’s been asking for—a spin-off in the city!!
Smart People Watch Reality Television!
What I enjoy about Summer House is that it does feel a little less produced and a little more organic than a lot of reality shows with similar cast dynamics. Since some of the cast members are close to my age, the conflicts that come up do reflect a lot of the things that friends and I are experiencing or just thinking a lot about from a cultural standpoint. So with that in mind, I wanted to dive just a little deeper into some of the discourse and more complex narratives that have played out this season.
The Supermodels Hit the Streets
While hookups and breakups have always been a part of the Summer House lineage, I do find some of the parallels between Ciara and West’s romance last season and Lexi and Jesse’s this season to be intriguing. In both cases, we have women who are insanely out of their partner’s league, and the men are just…there.
Yeah, West can crack a funny joke here and there, and Jesse is 6’5”, but that’s the extent of their lore while both Ciara and Lexi literally model for a living. On top of that, Lexi’s past rumored romances include celebs like Brooklyn Beckham and Drake, and Ciara is incredibly funny, empathetic, and intelligent. In season 5, Paige compared Ciara to Mother Teresa, and that still holds up today!
That being said, make it make sense that these women are getting completely played by these mid men who carry the emotional intelligence of lab rats? As hard as it has been to watch, it has been somewhat comforting to know that even the supermodels are struggling on these streets. In conclusion, it’s rough out here!
Bed Bugs, Don’t Let the Girl’s Girls Bite
I don’t know when so many people latched onto the term “girl’s girl” for dear life*, but can we please retire this label? There’s been a lot of discourse on whether some of the “bedbugs,” aka Ciara, Paige, and Amanda, are girl’s girls based on how they’ve navigated the Jesse and Lexi drama. Are there some small instances where they could have been more supportive of Lexi? I actually do think so! But striking them down with this label as though it’s equivalent to social suicide doesn’t make sense to me.
In general, social dynamics between women can be extremely complex, so it’s ludicrous to boil down a woman’s edited behavior on a reality show to a label that’s so reductionary. While I do think there can be a clear difference in the behavior patterns between women who center men and those who don’t, quickly deeming someone as not a “girl’s girl” because they don’t blindly support or follow the lead of other women in their social circles seems pretty counter-productive.
*Now that I think of it, I’d like to trace the rising popularity of this term back to the Ariana and Spongebob of it all!
Justice for Ciara!
I’d like to piggyback off the girl’s girl discourse to once again declare my love and admiration for the queen that is Ciara Miller. This season, I noticed she got a lot of flak about the dynamic between her and Jesse, but homeboy was making all the moves, and she never initiated anything or took things to another level. I know some people were comparing the Jesse/Ciara/Lexi drama to the Austen/Ciara/Lindsay drama from a few seasons back, but that was a completely different situation because Lindsay was practically throwing herself at Austen!
Now that that’s settled, I 100% believe that a lot of the critiques hurled at Ciara this season had a racialized element to them. Instead of holding Jesse’s feet to the fire for flirting and acting inappropriately when he was in an exclusive relationship, a lot of criticism has been misdirected at Ciara, painting her as this desperate seductress. To me, this dynamic is so intertwined with the Jezebel stereotype and remains reason #1892 you won’t catch me on reality television (even though my boss gave me permission to apply for the Bachelor).
On top of all that, I find some of the heat Ciara took from both her castmates and viewers for setting boundaries when it came to West to be quite odd. The two of them had just ended their little situationship a couple of months before filming started back up again. Can’t a Black woman be a little petty and protect her peace?
Some other quick doses of reality!
What I’m Watching
Love Island USA: So I just finished up watching season 6 of Love Island USA, since I didn’t have my mom’s Peacock password (lol) when it was airing last summer. It’s safe to say I’m obsessed and looking forward to catching up with the new season soon! I have been following some of the casting drama surrounding season 7, and I have two words for producers: do better!*
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: It’s back, baby! The drama this season was non-stop, and at times, maybe too much (cue gasp)? I’ll never get over the irony of these moms being obsessed with “taking down the patriarchy” and “changing the world,” when they all treat each other terribly! Unfortunately, I eat it up every time.
The Valley: I saw a TikTok from Tell The Bees that called The Valley the “Ultimate Millennial tragedy,” and truer words have never been spoken. For a show centered around mostly married 30 and 40-somethings, you would think that at least some of them would be happy? Wishful thinking, I guess.
*aka stop casting racists!
What’s on my watchlist for later this summer
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: I ate this show up last summer, and I’m curious to see where this sophomore season goes! I’d love to see them address the national spotlight that the series has put on the team since it aired last summer and how that has altered the team’s dynamic. The streets say that there’s been some drama playing out on social media between some of the girls, so I’ll be curious to see if production picked up on any of that!
Bachelor in Paradise: It’s back!! ABC recently announced the Week 1 cast, and it’s a bit of a funky batch. What is Dale doing here? Last time he was on my TV screen, I was watching Clare and Tayshia’s COVID Bachelorette season from my college apartment. I’m also a little nervous to see how the “Golden” castmates will be included (pls tell me they invested in air conditioning this season), but only time will tell!
Love Island: Beyond the Villa: Speaking of season 6 of Love Island USA, a spin-off with the cast from that season is incoming! The trailer was just released this week, and while it does look hella scripted (it’s giving The Hills), I am excited to see what everyone has been up to.
Woo hoo! That was a lot! Thanks for reading!
Talk very soon,
Mel