This column initially appeared in Brian Moylan’s e-newsletter, The Housewives Institute Bulletin. Join right here to be the primary to learn the following version.
The OG of the OC’s return is a worst-case state of affairs for returning Housewives.
Picture-Illustration: Martha Galvan/Bravo
I have to admit that I used to be genuinely touched when Andy Cohen shocked Victoria Denise Gunvalson Jr. by giving her orange again reside onstage at BravoCon. How may you rejoice the twentieth season of a franchise with out one of many ladies who indisputably made it what it’s right this moment? She additionally positively deserved her berth on Final Ladies Journey: Roaring twentieth. When you’re assembling the Avengers of OGs, how are you going to not have the OG of the OC? However with Ladies Journey within the rearview and this season of RHOC trundling to an in depth (not almost quick sufficient for a lot of tastes), it’s time to take a superb, laborious have a look at Vicki’s return and ask: How is she doing? Within the immortal phrases of Dorinda Medley, “Not properly, bitch.”
I believe the second the shine totally wore off of Vicki’s return is when Emily Simpson known as her a “Debbie Downer” on RHOC and Vicki wouldn’t let it go, probably as a result of the label described precisely how she was behaving on each of the exhibits, which aired concurrently. I’m unsure precisely when it occurred, however Vicki’s character has calcified into somebody who works on a regular basis and doesn’t like something. Her workaholism has been a part of her model from the start, however when she’s pulling her laptop computer out on the Sprinter van throughout UGT, she’s actively working in opposition to the premise of the present. Vicki’s job isn’t simply emailing about insurance coverage, it’s additionally being a reality-television character, and should you may try this together with your nostril buried in a MacBook all day, I’d have the world’s most profitable tv profession. Again within the day, Vicki would depart occasions early or present up late due to her job and it was fantastic as a result of it didn’t impede the motion, however right here she is gumming up the works and searching down on anybody who doesn’t behave like she does.
That’s Vicki’s different downside. She appears to assume that as a result of she began Housewives, she is aware of the right way to do it greatest. Nonetheless, the sport has modified round her and she will’t admit it. The primary era of Housewives — like Vicki, Ramona Singer, and Teresa Giudice — by no means needed to do something apart from present up and be themselves, and that’s what made all of them so nice at their job. They couldn’t act like Actual Housewives as a result of Actual Housewives didn’t exist earlier than them. Now you have got the RHORI and RHOSLC crews, who had been followers of the style and present up with a form of high-octane, drama-driven method that Vicki can’t embrace. Whereas Vicki has receipts for her expense account, she wouldn’t know proof, timeline, or screenshots in the event that they purchased a coverage from her.
However for all Vicki’s faults, this season of RHOC can also be doing her no favors. She walked right into a scenario that’s principally the identical as she left it, with Shannon Beador, Tamra Decide, Gina Kirschenheiter, and Emily within the solid, with the added bonus of her longtime co-star Heather Dubrow additionally kicking round. This return meant there was nothing new for Vicki to have interaction with, no new bonds to forge, no new tales to seek out. As an alternative, she and Tamra are nonetheless arguing in regards to the fallout from the Brooks Ayers scandal that occurred greater than a decade in the past, and he or she’s making an attempt to as soon as once more restore the Tres Amigas. What is that this, The Golden Life?
Because of this I’ve by no means been a fan of bringing again Housewives as soon as their tenure is over; the present’s future just isn’t previously. Nonetheless, I’ve been fallacious a couple of instances just lately. Carole Radziwill’s return to RHONY has been phenomenal, however she’s going through a really completely different set of circumstances. Nobody on the present was there the final time she was on, and he or she’s in a brand new section of her life and freshly again within the Zeitgeist due to Love Story and (gulp) the Epstein information. She’s additionally out from underneath Bethenny Frankel’s shadow. It looks like we’re attending to see a facet of Carole we by no means explored earlier than, and whereas she is a hyperlink to the glory days of RHONY, she hardly ever mentions it as a result of there is no such thing as a one there to reminisce together with her. Monique Samuels additionally delivered a grasp class in solid comebacks final season on RHOP. Whereas she knew extra of her castmates than Carole does, she shortly apologized to these she had wronged, cast relationships with the brand new solid, and confirmed off how a lot she modified within the intervening years. It looks as if Robyn Dixon is taking a web page out of that playbook together with her return, although it’s nonetheless very early within the season, however simply the truth that she’s not taking part in Gizelle Bryant’s lackey is a big change for her that bodes properly for the long run.
Vicki, nevertheless, was by no means able to making such a change, although I really feel like there’s a means that she may have come again that may have been profitable. Possibly if she was simply on UGT and we didn’t get uninterested in her shtick. Possibly if RHOC itself was in a unique and more healthy place. Possibly if she bought her knee surgical procedure earlier than taping these two tasks back-to-back and wasn’t in ache the entire time she was filming. Possibly. She deserves her place as a revered and revered pioneer. However after this season, it’s clear that RHOC is not serving Vicki, and it’s going to take much more than one OG to avoid wasting a sinking franchise.
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Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all of the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for devoted college students of the Actuality Tv Arts and Sciences.
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