A few weeks ago I was watching what I thought was going to be a two hour episode of
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, with the first hour ending with Brandi Glanville having had a sitdown with Scheana Marie, one of the women Brandi's ex-husband, Eddie Cibrian, had committed adultery with.
Brandi ended her talk with Scheana with the quality of the video suddenly changing, like the colors were more saturated, or something. And then I realize I'd been tricked into watching the beginning of the first episode of
Vanderpump Rules.
Well, I really like the Real Beverly Hills Housewife, Lisa Vanderpump, so I gave her spin-off a chance.
I was appalled. Really really really bad Reality TV. Seemed really fake. And the cast of really fake real people seemed really unlikable.
Particularly a self-absorbed, totally un-self aware person named Stassi Schroeder.
Well, my DVR recorded the following episodes of
Vanderpump Rules, with me forgetting to cancel the recordings.
And so I watched them.
Vanderpump Rules is so bad it has turned out to be good, in a really bad train wreck TV sort of way.
On one of the ubiquitous TV Forums I read one viewer opine...
This show is a delicious trainwreck. Sort of a combination of Jersey Shore meets The Hills. I actually enjoyed watching this disaster this week.
All I know about
Jersey Shore and
The Hills is that both are or were on MTV and that I have never watched them.
All the self-absorbed cast of unlikeable work at Lisa's SUR restaurant in Beverly Hills. With most claiming to be Mactors. As in models/actors. Or wannabes.
One of the couple pairs are both models, and I assume actor wannabes. That being Kristen Doute and Tom Sandoval. Kristen prefers not to wear makeup, while Tom won't leave home without being madeup. Kristen is not very attractive, either looks-wise or twisted personality wise. Tom looks like he shaves his forehead and says really dumb stuff.
But it is Stassi Schroeder and her demented relationship with sometime live-in boyfriend, Jax Taylor, that is the core wreck of this train wreck. Stassi is not all that attractive, though she seems to think she is Marilyn Monroe combined with Elizabeth Taylor combined with Mae West. I have seldom witnessed such a sense of entitlement. Or delusion.
Will Stassi get her needed comeuppance? Would seeing that keep me watching? I don't know. Stassi is already getting her comeuppance, viewer reaction-wise. As in she is being shredded in Internet TV forums.
I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that
Vanderpump Rules is not the first time Stassi Schroeder has annoyed me on a Reality TV show.
Way back in 2005 Stassi, along with her mom and dad and brother, were on
The Amazing Race 8, known as the Family Edition. Stassi was 17 at the time.
The Schroeders lived in New Orleans. Early on a leg took teams to New Orleans. The Schroeders thought they had an easy first place, due to being in their hometown. But they got eliminated.
A month after the end of
Amazing Race 8, Hurricane Katrina arrived in New Orleans, badly damaging the Schroeder home. Fellow racing family, the Rogers, helped evacuate the Schroeders to their home in Shreveport for a temporary refuge.
I do not remember Stassi having personality problems when she was on
The Amazing Race, certainly not of the memorably demented sort she exhibits on
Vanderpump Rules.
I can not help but wonder if Lisa is happy with
Vanderpump Rules. It is interesting seeing her play the boss role, so well, in her restaurant.
Will I keep watching this train wreck? I don't know.
