The Frank 9: Charli XCX's BRAT, Summer House reunion, and more
The week’s culture recommendations
THE FRANK 9
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West Wilson
Oh, West. Turns out that NY Times profile was him getting ahead of a pretty rocky Summer House reunion performance… where it was revealed he ended things with housemate Ciara Miller because he was getting attention from other women thanks to reality TV fame. Not to mention breaking up with Ciara after taking her to a wedding and to meet his parents! It’s very easy to see why female fans of the series are now upset with him and how that absolutely sucks for Ciara. And even worse was the revelation that he was in their group chat calling this the “best season ever” while two of their friends (Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke) spent the entire season watching their relationship crumble! Read the room, buddy.
But here’s why I’m not mad at West in the context of the series. Summer House is a spin-off of Vanderpump Rules and that series became a LOT more interesting when they started acknowledging that everyone on the show is famous because of the show. Summer House has always skirted around this a bit, even last summer when Paige DeSorbo blasted Lindsay for not having a job. My love, you all have the same job! You’re professional reality TV stars. This season, we broke the fourth wall a bit when Carl began to realize that his conversation with his parents about calling off his wedding was going to air and piss off Linsday even more. So he had to discuss it with her. We’re in a new era of reality TV where viewers are savvy enough to know what they’re watching is produced. But what resonates now is watching people figure out how to live their “real lives” when their “real lives” is what they’re famous for.
I found it utterly fascinating that West dealt with all of that in one fucking season of the show. That crash and burn usually happens to Bravolebrities after a few seasons, not their first. This is only a good thing for the show! Without Lindsay and Carl’s drama, the show was in danger of becoming stale and now they’ve got two new stars in Jesse and West who are realizing that the usually Bravo fuckboy shtick has started to wear on viewers. Even people like Craig and Austen and Shep have had to reform their personas on Southern Charm to some degree.