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How Selling Sunset Became The Most Toxic Reality Show

New realtors means new drama…

Credit: Selling Sunset/Netflix

Whether staged or not, reality shows never fail to give viewers their fair share of drama. But Selling Sunset’s newest season has positioned the show as one of the most problematic of its kind.

We all love to have a look at people’s houses, regardless of if it’s those we know or on a tv show. And with Selling Sunset’s main premise being selling houses to the rich and famous, it undoubtedly has a large audience to cater to. Unfortunately for those of you who were simply looking for a billionaire’s Homes Under The Hammer, very few houses are actually shown, with the focus point falling on the drama between each of the realtors.

That’s not to say the gossip wasn’t expected, however, with the trailer for Season 4 highlighting that there’s a lot of scandals to come. The source of most of the problems stems from Christine Quinn, the show’s resident villain character. She’s outspoken, theatrical and in the words of Chrishell Stause “calculated”, but evidently good at her job. So why exactly is she causing so many issues?

Well, to put it bluntly, she’s an easy target. Her personality makes Netflix’s job of moulding an unlikeable character even easier because she’s already halfway there. There’s no denying that what everyone says in the show is truly coming from their mouth, but we all know by now that everything we see is heavily edited. Whatever is said is then blown way out of proportion and it’s starting to get very repetitive. One minor comment is then spread across different scenes, one with a small group of girls discussing what it could possibly mean, another of someone confronting who said it and so on.

But Jason and Brett (owners of the Oppenheim Group, the real estate agency the show revolves around) are also partly to blame for the escalating situations, inviting new women to join the group, including ones which they know will stir the pot. Emma Hernan is just one of the new faces we are introduced to this season, with twin brothers Brett and Jason knowing the unpleasant connection she has to Christine, even though they proceed to recruit her and even have her fill in for Christine whilst she’s on leave to have her baby.

Selling Sunset/Netflix

Christine isn’t the only problematic individual, with nearly every person that features on the show appearing either sneaky or two-faced. Fan favourite Maya Vander is even seen to be throwing in comments that will knowingly affect the group dynamic. And the same can be said for the other newbie of the season, Vanessa Viellela, who acts as a peacemaker throughout but it ultimately just ends up with her getting involved in everyone else’s business. 

It’s all just unnecessary bitchiness that evidently makes for ‘good tv’. What the entertainment industry classes as enjoyable, isn’t truly what the audience wants to see. Anyone who watched the previous instalments will have likely been following each member’s lives on social media, meaning that most of what we were seeing on screen isn’t something we’d already seen on our phones. 

Many fans were expecting to see the likes of Heather Rae El Moussa’s wedding, or the emergence of a relationship between Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim, neither of which were shown, but instead teased at the end of season 4 with a trailer for season 5. And it has also been revealed that a spin-off show is in the works, which will follow the same concept as Selling Sunset but will instead be based at the new Oppenheim Group agency in Tampa. 

Selling Sunset/Netflix

If all the drama you watched this season has put you off reality tv for life, there’s plenty of Christmas movies to watch on Netflix now that the festive season is quickly approaching. I think it’s safe to say that a show supposed to be about selling houses isn’t quite the package deal you get. After all, there are only 20 houses (I counted so that you don’t have to) that are available for sale across all ten episodes. That averages at 2 houses per episode, and when you’re watching a 30-minute-long programme, that’s definitely not even half of the time spent looking at a house.

Reality TV is brutally edited to shape the viewer’s opinions on each individual shown, but the toxicity we’re seeing in newer productions is uncalled for. And unfortunately, Selling Sunset is no different. So maybe just stick to Homes Under The Hammer next time?

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