Once upon a time, watching Basketball Wives and the Real Housewives of whatever region, but particularly Atlanta, allowed me the opportunity to escape from my regular non-red bottom, Louis Vuitton-less life and essentially feel better about myself for not being as ridiculous as the women on the show. That time is no more, because when it comes to these shows, reality TV has become raunchy TV filled with women whose acting skills aren’t quite good enough for the big screen. They are cast into a world full of drama created by no one other than themselves.
We can be honest. Sometimes we don’t mind a good fight–a good, organic fight that is. Someone may get all the way outside of themselves and forget who they’re talking to and the person on the receiving end has no choice but to lay hands on the other to remind them not to do it again. It’s sort of like a kid being spanked. What we’re seeing with these football, basketball, house, I’m-not-really-a-wife wives is people making up physical reactions to real-life situations that don’t even require all of that.
If you haven’t noticed by now, and I may be late, Evelyn Lozada is off of her rocker intentionally. I refuse to believe that anyone walks around with that much anger for no reason, and if she did, she wouldn’t have been able to hide it for three seasons. Though she proclaims her ex-best friend Jen is the one who has changed since starting the show, she’s the one who’s feeling herself now and thinks it’s cute to be known as a bully who’s ready to throw bows at the drop of a hat. There’s nothing attractive about being the friend that no one can take anywhere because she’s going to hurl an expensive bottle of wine at someone or jump over a table and try to “pretend” tackle someone (she knew security would stop her). She’s putting on a full-blown show, and though I don’t appreciate anyone acting as something they’re not, why would you start to behave in a way that actually makes you look worse? Her story line isn’t even entertaining anymore, it’s pathetic and predictable, and that does not make for good TV—reality or otherwise.
Despite having a few years on the Basketball Wives crew the Housewives aren’t much better. That’s because, like the other reality ladies, their drama is overly fabricated. On this season of the show, there were relatively few fights—Sheree and Nene got into it, Sheree and Marlo got into it, and other than that, there were a few arguments and disagreements. It’s that fact that makes me wonder what all the fuss was about on the reunion show Sunday night. If these women could manage a 10-day trip in South Africa together without any real problems (aside from Sheree and Marlo), why is it they couldn’t sit on a stage together and have a sensible discussion during the reunion? Sheree and Nene went at it as though they’d been beefing the entire season, but what happened to agreeing to disagree and being done with it? What’s worse is that Nene tried to act as though she was better than everyone else, while proving she’s just as classless by the way she argued and threw shots at the other women. If she thinks growth is such a wonderful thing when is she going to start to show some?
It’s exhausting rather than entertaining to look at these women argue and bicker and banter all day long over absolutely nothing. I’m not sure who’s giving them direction that viewers want to see predictable and unbelievable drama every time we turn in, but they are definitely wrong.