selling sunset delivers...

... nothing. and that is the point.

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There are quite a few folks new to the newsletter — if that’s you, then welcome, and thank you for being here. You may know me from TikTok or Instagram, but I've also been happily writing away on Substack for over a year and a half on issues like the celebrity apology industrial complex, why gossip is good, actually, influencers and labor strikes, the Spanish Football Federation, FIFA, and Rubiales, and why Millie Bobby Brown is the next Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a healthy range of topics, and it means so much to me that my little interests and fascinations and obsessions have found an audience. If you are new and are reading the newsletter for the first time — I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to peruse.

Today, in Escapism Content, we are talking about Selling Sunset, one of my favorite shows about nothing.

Between all of them, they sell maybe three houses during the entire season. Industrious! (Photo: Netflix)

This is not the first time I say this, but I am obsessed with the vacuum in which Selling Sunset exists. What must it be like? I can't imagine any of these girlies (a term that obviously includes Jason, Brett, and Romain) cracking open a newspaper and reading about anything other than LA luxury real estate and Chanel flash sales. It is a closed universe featuring unwearable outfits and expensive houses that have yet to be homes. 

Before we get into the many deranged details from these ten new episodes, I need to discuss the two themes from this season: Chrishell Stause's exemplary boundaries and the real nemesis of the Oppenheim Group — the mansion tax.

Chrishell's development from the first season in 2019 to now is enough to make a girl emotional. This season, even when contractually dragged into catty-adjacent interactions with Nicole, Marie-Lou, and Amanza, she repeatedly made it clear that this was work, and no one was going to catch her caring more than was strictly necessary. Skipping superfluous group dinners? Telling her ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend that they didn't need to be friends? Sitting far away from Yzma's boring long-lost cousin, Nicole? Renting her own villa in Cabo? Chrishelle is really teaching us all about work-life balance, and I personally was taking notes.

The Oppenheim Group every time the mansion tax was mentioned.