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Finally, the Housewives get their comeuppance
by Hemal Jhaveri, posted Nov 16th 2009 5:07PM
Is it wrong of me to be finally, justly, overjoyed at the financial ruin that has befallen the Real Housewives of Orange County? When the Bravo show first started, we were on the brink of a national recession. Now, a few seasons later, we're waist-deep in financial hardship, the likes of which has just hit the overly-tanned ladies of Coto. After seasons of watching the Housewives -- and pick any permutation you want here, from NYC to Atlanta -- gobble up jewels and homes and indulge in a kind of narcissism that many parents wouldn't even allow their toddlers, it's supremely gratifying to see the house of cards they built on credit come crashing down.
In the OC, Tamra and her husband Simon seem to have been hit the hardest by the economic downturn. In a scenario many will find all too familiar, they owe more on their home than it's worth, and Simon's "tequila business" isn't doing well. With very little money coming in, the couple is being forced to sell their home at a devastating loss.
But, I'm watching Tamra get choked up over having to sell her house and rather then feel a stab of sympathy for her and the family, all I can manage is a delicious sense of schadenfreude. Finally, after seasons of watching her fritter away money on $40,000 diamond watches, she's been forced to deal with the very real consequences of her financial irresponsibility. The only thought running through my head is a vicious, gleeful sense of satisfaction that she's been busted for her spendthrift ways.
I have slightly more sympathy for Jenna, who's had to sell a few of her fancy cars so she can keep her house, but even that barely registers. Unlike Tamara, she at least realizes her need to go out there and work hard.
Even before the recession was a hard fact of life, many of us, while not struggling in the same way we are now, still couldn't afford million dollar mansions, luxury SUV's and breast implants. The appeal of Housewives has shifted from the slightly aspirational and voyeuristic quality of the first season, when watching women with too much money and too much free time behave irrationally was all in good fun, to something darker and more nihilistic. Bravo's reality series isn't so much about celebrating the values of over-consumption and narcissism, but, now, with the recent turn of events, has dovetailed nicely into a warning sign about the pitfalls of such obscene decadence. People on Bravo, as Washington Post critic Hank Stuver pointed out, "one way or another, always get what's coming to them."
So, how does the recent turn of events make you feel viewers?
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