I’m not gonna lie, “Selling Sunset” has been a guilty pleasure for the longest time.
I was all in for the drama, catfights and high fashion. I mean, these ladies are catwalk ready every single day.
And here I am, working from home in my PJs. Hides.
I was looking forward to season 5 to finally witness all that hype around Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim’s romance.
Of course, it was a tad hard to suspend belief during their lovey-dovey on-screen moments as, thanks to social media, we know how it ends.
But let’s unpack the new season ahead of the upcoming incendiary reunion episode.
There is a lot of tea to be spilt with plenty of wooing going on for several of the cast, a wedding and a feisty new addition added to the mix.
Simply put, the show is underpinned by a smidgen of diversity with the inclusion of Chelsea Lazkani, who brings a different dynamic with her firecracker personality.
This petite London-born mother of two shoots straight from the hip. And she takes no prisoners.
In many ways, she can be likened to being Christine Quinn’s sister from another mother. It also explains why the two get along like a house on fire and Chelsea defends her “girl” to the hilt.
The first episode kicks off with Chrishell and Jason, having made their relationship “official”, enjoying some downtime with close friends in Athens, Greece.
Talk about a picturesque setting. They nailed it.
Of course, the holiday bubble doesn’t last long and it is back to business with the Oppenheim Group expanding into Orange County.
Walking through the door of the offices, Chrishell barely has time to catch her breath when the ladies corner her into giving them all the details. Most of the ladies, especially Mary Fitzgerald and Amanza Smith, openly root for her and Jason.
It goes without saying that the new relationship between boss and worker makes for interesting office dynamics and, at times, the topic of favouritism crops up.
It is common knowledge that there is no love lost between Christine and Chrishell – the two cannot stand to be in the same room together – and Christine never misses an opportunity to take a stab at her either.
But her comment about Chrishell getting deals because she is “f****** the boss” was a low blow (maybe not for her because she always hits below the belt), and it was one that Mary, who is now a partner in the company, was having none of.
Mary calls Christine into order.
After going from Christine’s ride or die in season one to persona non grata in season four, Mary was clearly done pandering to her and made it clear that her dark humour – more like vitriol – is only funny to Christine.
Meanwhile, Emma Hernan, who hinted at a missed romantic opportunity with Ben Affleck (before his rebooted romance with J-Lo), finds herself drawn to a dashing hot developer.
And Vanessa Villela is madly in love with a guy from London that she met online.
Where things spiral into toxic territory is when Christine ropes Chelsea, a new member of the Oppenheim Group, into her war.
Unclear on the history, Chelsea defends her new BFF from what she feels is “bullying”.
Although Heather Young tries to explain that there is history that she isn’t aware of, it appears that Christine’s influence held greater sway, to the point where Davina Potratz gets caught in the crossfire.
The season ends with Heather’s dream wedding to Tarek El Moussa, a pregnant Maya Vander leaves the team to focus on family and a startling revelation leaves a big question mark on Christine’s future at the Oppenheim Group.
There was a time when Christine was hilarious with her irreverence. But her lack of empathy combined with her constant need to criticise and speak ill of her co-stars makes her an ugly person.
She may have married rich, but no amount of money can change the fact that she is a narcissistic, shallow and manipulative person.
And the time might have come for her to reap what she has sown over the seasons. Payback is a b****.
“Selling Sunset” season 5 is on Netflix.