‘Salt Lake City’ Reunion Exposes Cracks in the ‘Housewives’ China

By Emma Chance | TV | January 24, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | TV | January 24, 2024 |

Bravo’s version of reality television (read: housewives) has always worked like this: a gaggle of wealthy, out-of-touch, mostly white women are brought together to expose their lifestyles for a viewing audience, and to offer colorful commentary along the way. In the beginning, with shows like Real Housewives of Orange County, the women were friendly before filming, or maybe even related in the case of New Jersey, but as time went on the shows became more numerous and popularity grew, so casting got more creative. Now, beyond the cast members who have been on their shows together for so long that they have come to consider themselves friends, you’d be hard-pressed to find any Housewives who actually hang out outside of filming.

The other thing that got lost along the way was a sense of humor. Vicki Gunvalson and her early aughts peers were established in their lives and their selves and so were not seeking fame and fortune when they were cast. Teresa Giudice and her family members were going to fight like cats and dogs whether cameras were there to capture it or not. Those early seasons are pure camp; the antics harmless and humorous—like having a breakdown when a car rental company sends a “family van” to shuttle a family to an airport instead of something more spacious, or flipping a table in a restaurant when a new acquaintance lies about how many times she’s been engaged—and the leading ladies were so outrageous and unreal that viewers could feel confident in their schadenfreude. Schadenfreude used to be the whole point.

But schadenfreude is no longer appropriate when these women, outrageous or not, need these shows; when being a Real Housewife has become a career for so many of them. It became Vicki’s and Teresa’s careers by sheer seniority, but it works for them because they really are the characters they portray on screen and they were before they were being filmed and will be after; there is no disconnect. With the women of Salt Lake City, though, we’re watching as they attempt to portray the characters they crafted to be cast in the first place, then desperately cling to them as their egos inflate.

This is why the Salt Lake City finale, and then the reunion, was so distressing, because it felt simultaneously too real and unreal. It was such good television because it was such a perfect story, but it didn’t feel real because it was such a perfect story. So much of the discussion became about how badly Monica Garcia wanted to be cast on the show, what she did to make that happen, whether or not producers knew about her Instagram identity, whether or not producers knew about who gave Heather Gay the black eye, how Heather put producers’ jobs in jeopardy by lying about the black eye, what they’re hiding from the show, what they’re lying about for the show, et cetera, et cetera. When so much of the drama of the show is about the making of the show, what am I actually watching? A documentary about the making of a fake show about allegedly real women and their allegedly real lives? And when your identity is wrapped up in that—who the hell are you?

Garcia’s introductory season has exposed the cracks in the Housewives model because she achieved Bravo stardom by meticulously planning her casting, her storyline, and her inevitable downfall. Make no mistake, she was prepared for the Reality Von Tease thing to happen, and now she’s basking in the glory.

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But even after all that, we still don’t know who Monica Garcia is, and it’s clear that she might not either. That’s not fun to watch, that’s just sad. Now she’s being praised for saving the franchise, and the franchise has responded by putting her on pause, which will only make her more of a legend in the eyes of the viewers and give her time to scheme up a new identity for her sophomore season, whenever that might be.