‘Real Housewives of London’ Review: Campy and Addictive
The British audience has an insatiable hunger for reality television. “Big Brother” is still on screens after 25 years. There are countless reality shows where well-to-do people have passive-aggressive arguments about salad, or discover that their partners have things (although I suspect they would still be behind it, given that there is a film team).
Yet there has been a surprising lack of innovation in this genre for a while. Of course, there are new competition -reality shows such as ‘Race around the world’, but in the specific genre of ‘people who act very publicly with all their dirty laundry’, not much has changed for a while. “Made in Chelsea” is about to debut his 29th series. “The only way is Essex” is about to start his 34th. And although there have been countless American streaming dramas in the UK, from Lena Dunham’s “too much” to the soapy political series “The Diplomat”, only a few reality shows have made the same transatlantic leap. An exception is of course, Alan Cumming who says seductively “wallrrdderrrrr” from his Scottish castle on “The Traitors” us
So far. “Real Housewives” launches a London series. The franchise, which started in Orange County, follows the life of prosperous and successful women. Storylines explore friendship, rivalry, sadness and hardships, where cast members are so open and transparent about literally everything you can’t help but watch. The franchise is known for its arguments between Cast members, such as the time “Real Housewives of New York City” Cast member Aviva Drescher took off her own Proshetic leg and threw it over the table through the argument. There are also story lines with high effort that you did not see coming, such as the arrest of Jen Shah of Salt Lake City for her role in a national telemarketing fraud. So as you can imagine, with a new British series, the marketing word play around the cast is endless.
This is not the first time that ‘housewives’ have crossed the pond. “Real Housewives of Cheshire” has been adorning British screens for more than a decade. Another in Jersey only lasted two seasons, but neither of them managed to make a cultural conversation beyond the relatively niche British canal viewers on which they were both broadcast. “Real Housewives of London”, brought to screens by the Reality streaming platform Hayu, feels more an ambitious (and costly) effort to change all of that, with a production much more in accordance with its other iterations to the state.
Yet launching a British version of shows is never an easy task. Fresh of the success of the reality show ‘Selling Sunset’, Netflix tried a similar British series called ‘London Buying London’, but the usable expensive (and demonstrably fairly ugly) property was not good with viewers during the middle of a cost of life. The only reaction it caused for viewers was that they wanted to eat the rich.
“Real Housewives of London” does not shy away from a similar eye-watery extravagance, but it gets away with it. Why? Because it’s all camp. One of the housewives proudly has a filled swan called Gertrude. Camp! They are all not aware of the existence of the very good public transport network of London, which keep driving in constant stationary traffic. Camp! A small dog called ‘Monty True Madness’ is waiting for the leg and leg (a dog cannot be waited by hand and foot, it is a dog) that he has worn everywhere, with his legs that touch the floor for only a few seconds in the debut episode. Camp Camp!
‘Real Housewives of London’ does not even feel like an accurate title. It is more like “Real Housewives of Belgravia with a little Chelsea and the countryside in it.” Good luck with them navigating through a British street that has no Balenciaga store on it. Scenes often swing in the ridiculous. Skincare -Entrepreneur Amanda Cronin was introduced to viewers with a recognition that she is actually ‘a real private person’. Before you even have the time to respond with “Amanda, do you know that you” real housewives? ” Are?” Teaches that Portia, one of her boyfriend’s dogs, has just had a face. While you are launching chatgpt on your phone and AI asks if Labradors can have facials (apparently they can do that!), Juliet Mayhew is wearing an outfit that fell from Queen Elizabeth I’s wardrobe from the 16th century. For no reason. It is never explained. Scenes like these take place for the rest of the episode.
It is inevitable that almost all housewives need a lot of time to scoop over their proximity to the royal family, as if you are somehow more royal as you are geographically closer, you are at all times for them. If that fails, they argue for a thin link to some dead historical figures. Do you know that the partner Tiggy from Event Planner Mayhew is a distant family member of William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace who lived from 1270-1305? Not you?!
In accordance with the Housewives brand, there are citable one-liners from the series of constant arguments. An argument about someone’s alcohol intake is reacted with “How is that the Ozempic that you have shot in your body for the past five years?” In a trailer after the first episode, a heated argument leads to a dramatic shouting of “Back to Paddington!,” That an internet meme has already become, despite the episode that has not yet been broadcast. It would not have to point out, but I will do it anyway – I think she means the train station, instead of the bear.
None of what I have written above is a criticism of ‘real housewives of London’. That is why it actually works. It is more stupid and pleasant. Yet a challenge is whether the British version will be able to support such bizarre arguments and unnecessary situations with high efforts that have made the original franchise so popular.
The first dispute in “Real Housewives of London” is above someone who chooses his dentist instead of them from a situation that took place before the cameras started rolling. It was delivered in such an unnecessary complicated way that at some point I almost stopped looking to find out what actually happened by writing it all on pieces of paper, attaching it to a plate and linking these papers together with string. Yet this was not the problem. It was that the argument was surprisingly forced and was sandwiched in the plot instead of spilling naturally, although at reality television everyone knows that the reality can be anything but.
It is now difficult to train, because there was only one episode available to view a preview, but perhaps there is a cultural challenge that “Real Housewives of London” will have to navigate. In Britain we are less inclined to throw wine at each other’s faces during heated arguments. Instead of screaming, disputes often remain unsolved, sometimes for decades, because we do not communicate our frustration to the person who has insulted us so much in the first place. This often results in pure hatred against the other individual that is brushed away in our subconscious mind, sometimes without the other person ever knowing that something is wrong. Only Mutuals have a conflict because Snark and jokes are shared between them on WhatsApp.
It is this culture that “Real Housewives of London” will have to navigate, or have to find a powerful way. Believe me, this culture runs deep. To be honest, it makes you proud to be British.
