Selling Sunset, Netflix’s hit reality show documenting the drama that ensues within luxury Los Angeles real estate company The Oppenheim Group, dropped a new season on September 6. Many fans have complained about the show’s lack of direction, as with each new season the multimillion-dollar houses seem to blend more and more into the background of the over-orchestrated drama piling up on top. When so many of the fights are avoidable misunderstandings, and the real estate, the very thing that is supposed to be tying the O Group together, seems to be a thing of the past, is the show even worth watching anymore? There are only 2 houses actually shown to sell during the entirety of the season anyway…
The hard truth these fans have to swallow is that real estate simply isn’t what these ladies’ lives revolve around anymore. Yes, their full-time job is still real estate, and I’m sure plenty of deals have been closed off-screen, but Selling Sunset has grown to a point that allows their careers to be so multi-faceted that they can’t all devote the same amount of time to selling anymore. This season, Amanza is lucky enough to have her art showcased in a gallery, and many of the other cast members have side hustles too – for example, Chrishell wrote a book in 2022 and Emma started her own business in 2020. Real estate isn’t the only thing they have to, or maybe even want to focus on anymore. And while I won’t deny the disappointment viewers who watched the show hoping each episode would essentially be an hour-long compilation of Architectural Digest: Open Door videos will face, if I’m being completely honest, most of the houses were never really front-cover worthy to begin with. Well, except for the one house this season which actually featured on a front-cover. Regardless, one of Jason’s listings is a house built by the renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando – but only after it was gutted like a fish by Kanye West, left with just its concrete bones (not even plumbing). So, you’re not missing much.
Beyond this, Selling Sunset has never really been selling authenticity. If you wanted to watch a show about real people with real concerns, you wouldn’t be tuning in to watch middle-aged multi-millionaire luxury realtors argue in completely different outfits, complete with brand-new designer handbags, in every other scene. Even if you want to pretend you’re not, you’re watching the show not to get away from the over-dramatisation of scripted TV shows, but rather because of some sick desire to watch these helplessly rich people scurry around like zoo animals inside the glass cages of your Netflix screen for your enjoyment: the exact inverse of what the Hunger Games is to the Capitol. Yes, the drama is heavily orchestrated, but isn’t that what you want to see? Once you admit this to yourself, you’ll be able to enjoy season 8 a whole lot more, because it definitely has its fair share of outrageously unnecessary drama. At one point, some of the girls get together for a comforting post-heartbreak dinner and open fortune cookies as their desserts. When the heart-broken one opens her cookie to find nothing inside, she starts to break down, yelping “I’m doomed” as a discordant piano note hums in the background. No build-up, no confusion, no thought to open another cookie? The over-editing and exaggeration is laughable, but this is precisely what you want to see.
At the end of the day, Selling Sunset has never been about emphasising the ‘real’ in ‘reality TV’. It’s the glamour, the wealth, the fashion, and most of all, the drama, that brings viewers back season after season. If you’re even still thinking of watching, it’s because some little part of you perversely enjoys the absurdity and indulgence. So, while it may not exactly be about the houses anymore, Selling Sunset delivers exactly what viewers are searching for – an unapologetic guilty pleasure.
Ashna
