Bella Talks TV
Bella Talks TV is a weekly pop culture podcast counting down reality TV's most talked about moments.
Join Amanda Bella (a.k.a. @bellatalksTV) every week as she rounds up the hot gossip about off-screen scandals and recaps all the LOL and OMG moments from your favorite "Real Housewives" and all BRAVO TV shows, "Bachelor Nation"... all into a TOP 5 countdown episode!
"Expect that I will be covering ALL of the Bravo TV, Bachelor Franchise, The Kardashians, Jersey Shore, Selling Sunset, Love is Blind and even Top Chef...you get the point. I watch ALL the reality TV and then report back to you with the most talked about moments" - Amanda Bella
New episodes are every Friday but be sure to follow Amanda on Instagram for the latest updates in reality TV and entertainment news.
Bella Talks TV
bella talks...advent calendar day 2: SOUTHERN CHARM RECAP, RUMORS & MORE!
What if the Southern gentleman isn't so gentlemanly after all? As we celebrate the premiere of "Southern Charm" Season 10, I, Amanda Bella, take you on a journey through the delightful chaos of Charleston's most charismatic personalities. Expect to hear my candid thoughts on the show's surprising evolution since it first graced our screens in 2014. We'll explore the intriguing phenomenon of Peter Pan syndrome among Southern men, as well as my personal fascination with the reality stars' businesses, from the buzzing atmosphere at Schwartz and Sandy's to the chic allure of Leva's bar.
Join me as I unravel the intricate web of relationships that make "Southern Charm" so addictive. We'll navigate through the lives of key figures like Whitney and Thomas Ravenel, discussing their ambitions, controversies, and the male-centric focus that sets this show apart from the rest. With a mix of humor and critique, we'll celebrate the unforgettable personalities and entangled stories that keep us hooked, while also acknowledging the female cast members like Cameron, whose personal growth adds another layer to this captivating narrative.
And of course, no discussion would be complete without touching on the drama—romance, substance abuse issues, and unforgettable scandals that have kept audiences captivated season after season. From Craig's pillow-making entrepreneurial journey to the notorious cheating scandals involving Austin, we'll cover it all. As we wrap up, I'll leave you with a few tips on how to get the most out of the new season, and remind you to check out my advent calendar podcast series for more reality TV revelations. Ready to indulge in the world of Southern Charm? You won't want to miss what we have in store!
Follow me @BellaTalksTV
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It's time to count down reality TV's most talked about moments with Amanda Bella. Hey everybody, welcome back to Bella Talks TV. It's Amanda Bella here, and we are on day two of our Christmas calendar advent Bella Talks TV extravaganza, so thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:I have another great episode here for you today, and my plan for some of these episodes this month are going to be what I would like to call like a freestyle. Some of them call them like a stream of consciousness. Basically, there's just like no plan for these episodes and I just want to like put a mic in front of my mouth, have a topic and just like see where it goes, because we know, with reality TV, it is an endless pool of subjects to talk about. People, comments, moments, you know, viral, viralness, I mean. A lot of these shows have, in our past and present, taught us things and shown us things that we just like never thought we would see on TV. So we are going to be talking today about Southern Charm, and the reason why I wanted to talk about Southern Charm this week is because we do have the premiere of season 10 coming this Thursday, so there have been nine full seasons of this show already and we need to break it down and we need to get prepared for what we're going to possibly see this season on season 10. Now this show is, I think, probably a show that was started with low expectations from the network. It started in 2014.
Speaker 1:So, 14, I was living in Chicago. I was working in a chiropractic office at the time, which is so funny. All roads lead back to Bravo. Talking about the joint. I used to know people that used to work at the joints that were in Chicago. The joint was one of our competitors. It's just funny, some of these different areas you work at in life and different fields that are out there. The chiropractic field was a random industry that I was in for four or five five years, and I was managing those type of offices. I worked in medical management and insurance billing and all kinds of things. So I have a weird work history, but really we're not here to talk about that. We're here just to talk about Southern Charms. So let's get right into it. I want to just start by talking again.
Speaker 1:Okay, 2014,. Like I said, I was living in Chicago. I was 20. I'm so bad at math, you guys. If I was born in 1987, I was 27. I think I was 27 when this came. No, yeah, 27, maybe-ish Something like that when this show came out. Wow, so much has changed in my life since we have met these people on our screens 2014,. It actually is interesting. They kind of go through like the area.
Speaker 1:So I've never been to Charleston. I've never been to Charleston. It's been on my list. I haven't had really like a reason to go there. But I would love to go check it out. I know I heard the food is good. I know I mean I'm so mad at myself, like literally kicking myself in the face for not making it to Schwartz and Sandy's before it closes at the end of this month.
Speaker 1:Like I'm so tempted to hop on a flight. If it was not Christmas, I would hop on a flight to LA immediately and I would be going out there because I am fascinated kind of at these like establishments and leva is also included in that. Like I love the LVP restaurants. I want to go to, you know, meredith Mark's store in Park City. I want to go to like some of these places. I even want to go to like Melissa Gorga's Envy, because now she has one on Long Island. Like I want to just you know, I love embracing this funny, weird culture that we, that we talk about on this show and that we live through our reality TV and Bravo Liberty's lives.
Speaker 1:So, 2014, we get Southern Charm and okay, let's run through just some of the cast, because a lot of our OGs are still filming, which is interesting. Okay, so season one we had the introduction of Shep. Shep is kind of our main character. I would say that because the show really is built around the idea that men in the South kind of have this Peter Pan syndrome. That's even the name of the very first episode, peter Pan syndrome. Only they spell it like sin, like S-I-N, like syndrome. I mean, this show has been telling us since episode one like these men are no good, they're just not good. These are some no good men. So the Southern charm is really the idea that, like, these men that live in the South are not great specimens. They're cheaters, they're liars, they're selfish, they are immature, they don't want to settle down, they don't want to have a wife, they don't want to have kids. It's kind of this idea that the men in the South really it's just like their world and the women are just living in it and we're just like lucky to even be able to benefit from their great businesses and all these things.
Speaker 1:Speaking of which, coming back to Leva, we're obviously going to talk about her. That's how we met Leva was through Southern Charm, before Southern Hospitality and all these spinoffs about her restaurants and bars and her husband. I mean there have been rumors that they live separate lives. I mean I would love to know more. That's the thing about these reality TV stars is we praise the ones that show us everything, but there are so many that get away with not showing us shit. They really do. It's kind of frustrating.
Speaker 1:It's really what, like these people get asked to come on the show, obviously because they are dynamic and they have things going on in their lives and there's something compelling about them that we want to see them. But it's also like up to them really who they're going to portray. And we talked about this on my episode when I was talking about Dory, where I'm like she kind of chose to like break her own like fifth wall, like she was the one that was like okay, the producers, like everybody, does have real things going on in their lives. I'm sure producers don't know about their friends don't know about, like even like my own family has. You know, it's like I don't, you don't the things that you do keep to yourself. Now, should you choose to share those with producers like your truest, deepest, darkest thoughts and secrets? I mean, that's really when we're starting to get real here with reality TV. Now a lot of this show, southern Charm, has a lot of that breaking of the wall. It doesn't seem so scripted, it seems really raw and like a real reality TV show for most of the seasons. You know, I think it's impossible that they are not going to start to evolve.
Speaker 1:But I mean, let's talk about some of these characters. So Shep, specifically Shep himself, he comes from from old money, right, his family is of. I mean, don't get me wrong here, I'm not exactly like an internet sleuth, but I'm pretty sure that he's related to the vanderbilt family, which is also related to anderson cooper. I mean these are like old american, you know his family are like affluent charlestonian, like the real deal, I think he also, he really is from Hilton Head which, like I always heard about Hilton Head, but again, I have never been to Charleston, hilton Head, any of this stuff. But he is, you know, 6'5", he gets away with being tall. I mean, over the years of course the charm has started to wear, but in the beginning, when we first met him, like Shep was young, good looking, rich, didn't have a lot of responsibility and was kind of just living the life like he really was. So he's pretty famous for like never having a girlfriend.
Speaker 1:For most of the seasons We'll kind of talk about the evolution of Shep as we go through the characters and stuff, but he comes on to the show again as this like true, charming, smart. I mean he's always the vocabulary, the vocabulary is always popping, like he's always talking about history and like you know, just he's. He's just not your typical, he's not a Jersey house husband, put it that way. So I want to see a little bit more about him. So he was born September 27th 1979. And he was actually born in Cincinnati, it says, which is really interesting. He is the second of three children. He has a brother who is a lawyer and a sister. His family moved to Hilton Head in 1981. So that is really interesting. Actually, he's not. His family probably isn't from there then, but I'm not sure where we'll get into that Now.
Speaker 1:He went to Hilton Head Prep School, a private school, so he was started off immediately. Just, you know, in that upper echelon he went to Vanderbilt, he was in a frat, he got his master's I mean, yeah, he really did the work. Then he went in his 20s, he went to Dubai and he was a real estate agent. That's really, really interesting. In 2008, he moved back to the US because of the recession and then in 2014,. So there were six years from when he came back from Dubai to when he got cast on Southern Charm.
Speaker 1:I mean, andy, of course, we know Andy has his favorites. He really loves Shep and has really, like you know, he even gave Shep a spinoff a few years after, called Relationship, about Shep. Wow, I'm actually reading this and learning things I didn't even know about Shep dating. So he has Relationship. But there was also another web series that was never filmed or never aired on Bravo, but a web series that must've been on like bravotvcom with Shep and Craig and it was called Shepik Fail and another person called Hunter Gardner. I have to look more into that. Okay, so that's pretty much Shep. You know Shep comes in obviously bringing like what we call the Southern charm.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about Craig Craig, another OG from season one. Craig comes on as a boy from Delaware who went to law school in Charleston and met all these jokers, was organic friends with these guys and he is on this show with them. Really like discovering who he is. Even though Craig goes to law school, a big thing that we will come to find out is that he never actually passes the bar and doesn't actually become a lawyer. But he starts episode one season one working in a law firm as a paralegal and his first season storyline is really about the fact that like he wants to party and like ride fame right now and he doesn't really want to focus on his law career because hello, he's just been asked to be on a bravo tv show. So from day one we see that craig like maybe, maybe, was tempted by the red light a little too much, where it kind of derailed his entire life plans. Where shop, I think it really made more sense for him because he wasn't really doing anything anyway, like he doesn't really have to work and he really being on a tv show, that was great for him. So then we have to get into Whitney, because Whitney is not only a star of the show, his mother, patricia, is also a star of the show, but he is an executive producer of the show, so we know that he has been behind the scenes putting a lot of these scenes together, putting a lot of the cast together and then also moving a lot of the storyline along.
Speaker 1:I think some of the best parts about Whitney are the fact that, like he does get caught up in real drama along the way, stuff that he couldn't predict and because of his own actions. I think he thought that he was going to be able to control, like everyone's mouths, and be kind of like the head guy in charge, but what he ends up doing is kind of like shooting himself in the foot like every single season, getting himself into shenanigans because Whitney doesn't realize that he too is also a single no kids southern charm guy who is just thinks that he's like above the law of life. So I love Whitney. Whitney's one of my favorite characters. So we have Whitney, craig and Thomas, oh and Whitney, craig and Shep. Those are like the three you know main guys Craig and Thomas, oh and Whitney, craig and Shep. Those are like the three you know main guys. Then there's Thomas.
Speaker 1:So one thing about Southern Charm is that it's really around the men. The men are kind of the center focus of the show, which is a lot of different, you know, very different than Married to Medicine and a lot of these other female-centered shows. Vanderpump Rules is kind of the same way no-transcript find you know the logic and the reasoning in what they do and what we do and why so. We have Thomas then, who is another man on this cast who is iconic, legendary, legendary, you know, when we're like she is mother, like he is father. To me he's like one of the fathers of reality TV, like you literally can't make this shit up Like Whitney and Thomas are just two characters.
Speaker 1:So Thomas, jonathan Jackson Ravenel just saying his name, you guys, I'm sorry, I'm a Thomas apologist. I freaking love him. He's an American politician and reality TV star. He is the son of former representative Arthur Ravenel, who we see Thomas's dad in the early seasons of Southern Charm and he's a freaking legend also. In season one there's a scene where him and Thomas go out to like a bar or something whatever, like they're just having a casual scene filming and having a drink. Thomas's dad like refuses to tip the waiter. All he has is like a $5 bill. But it's like Abraham Lincoln on there and you guys know Confederate Union, all this stuff like the history of America. His dad like refuses to, like pay or like use $5 bills because Abraham Lincoln's on them. Like these are the things that you cannot make up about this show that I just find so fascinating, arthur Ravenel.
Speaker 1:So Thomas was on five seasons of the show, which is truly a travesty. He should still be on the show now, but he actually was smart and chose his family and chose his real life over the show and chose his family's reputation, because you know, if he was still on TV, I can't imagine the more of the shit that would have came out about him. But okay, so the thing about Thomas is that he was like an actual Republican politician. He was a state treasurer for the state of South Carolina for six months. He ran as an independent and he was in the US Senate in the 2014 election in South Carolina. So he was a Republican candidate for the US Senate. So he was. He ran as an independent and you see him kind of doing his second run on the show and they kind of talk about his campaign like a first and second season going through.
Speaker 1:Thomas's campaign to get reelected is just again comedic gold and Whitney is his like campaign manager for the marketing. Whitney is so delusional. He's so delusional, he is so great. He's kind of like a female Countess Lillian or something. I don't know how to describe him a female Countess Lillian or something. I don't know how to describe him. He's crazy. But the main thing about Thomas is that during his run in the Senate he was using state treasurer money to buy cocaine buy and sell cocaine. He gets caught. He gets obviously stripped of his title. He's allowed to rerun again because, as you guys know, donald Trump is our elected president and he is a convicted felon. So it's not like if this stuff happens, you can't run and win. So he was like the original Trump, oh my God. No, that makes me not like him, but I do like him.
Speaker 1:I have a very complicated relationship with Thomas Ravenel. But he goes to prison. He has a very fun, fun six monthmonth stint in prison with a bunch of other celebrities at one of these like camps. He gets out, he runs again on the show. He ultimately spoiler alert does not win. But love Thomas, love all the side characters I love like. He's part of the French Huguenot Church. So he is French, charleston, southern, you know all this stuff. He just I don't know, he is true Southern charm Lives on a plantation. I mean, I don't love that, don't love that. So yeah, they were definitely slave owners, but I just love the Ravenel family. I just can't help it. You guys, one of my toxic traits, traits. Okay, so those are most of the men that start season one. I think that's all of the men's that start season one, because we don't actually meet Austin until season four, you guys. So there are three full seasons of Southern Charm without Austin, which is crazy to think about.
Speaker 1:Now, also, on season one of Southern Charm, we got to talk about some of the ladies that were there. We have Cameron, who was from the real world, san Diego. I believe Cameron was a real world girly. She was a great cast. She is from Southern, she is a Southern belle, she's from South Carolina and her family lives down there. Her mom is on the show. Mom is on the show. Cameron is kind of the female version of the Peter Pan syndrome, where she also doesn't want to settle down and get married, have kids, but eventually she does introduce the fact that she has a boyfriend. She actually had a boyfriend the entire time she was filming season one but I'm sure producers on turn they were like you're not allowed to have talk about that. You're supposed to kind of be like, also not wanting to have kids and settle down. So she doesn't really talk about him until season two really. But jason, her doctor husband, who she's still married to and has one daughter with. So we also have jenna now.
Speaker 1:Jenna king is a very interesting character. She was only on season one. Jenna was the girl with the mohawk who was very kind of like goth. She was one of like whitney's friends. She was supposed to come in um as a girl who was raised as a southern belle who became rebellious in her older years. That was her vibe. She also had a sugar daddy.
Speaker 1:Who? This guy was from New York City, his name was Lou and he was married and he ended up having a heart attack and dying after season one was filmed. So there's a lot of lore around Jenna, lou, her first husband. She doesn't come back to do any other future seasons. I think she is still living in New York City, as I know. I'm sure she was left money from Lou. They were together for like eight years, even though he was married. So he had a private jet and season one. She took on Lou's private jet, shep and Cameron to NYC for like lunch one day. She was kind of balling out in season one.
Speaker 1:I really think Jenna was an interesting character. Keep your eye on her if you're gonna go back and do a rewatch. She I first was like who is this girl? I always thought she was kind of weird. Now I see it. She really played an important character in season one. Then we have Landon. So, oh no, we can't really go to Landon yet because she doesn't really come until season two. But she is important in seasons two, three and four.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about Catherine Now. Catherine, of course she's only considered a friend of season one, but then she is a main character seasons two through eight. She has not been in the last two seasons season nine and season 10 that just filmed that will be premiering on Thursday. So we don't currently have Catherine on our cast. But in season one, episode one, whitney is going through a pile of girls clothing that has been left over from you know nights before girls before that have been over Now Whitney's mom, patricia, was married three times.
Speaker 1:Whitney is an only child. Whitney's mom, miss Patricia, also an only child, and Whitney's dad was also an only child, so he has no cousins, no aunts and uncles. Whitney is just very interesting. Now he has kind of a parasocial or not even parasocial real relationships with the butlers and the help that work in Miss Patricia's mansion because they have this huge estate that they have in South Carolina, which is phenomenal. It is a very cool architectural mansion that is down there. I really want to go down there just to take a look at all the architecture and stuff. But Miss Patricia's house she has a Michael the butler who goes on to also be a very important friend of through all of the seasons of Southern Charm, and we just recently lost him. He had a stroke in 2020. He has spinal surgery. He had a lot of health problems, but Michael was awesome, kind of like a brother figure to Whitney and just some of these scenes with Miss Patricia, whitney and Michael the butler in the mansion are so good.
Speaker 1:But anyways, they're picking up this bunch of clothes and heels and stuff that were left over at Whitney's house and Whitney would be like, yeah, I have girls over, my mom's house is huge. She never even knows all this stuff he goes on to get his own. They call a stabbing cabin ew with Shep, where they both realize they need a place to like bang girls in season two. But in season one they're picking up this stuff and it's like it was revealed that Catherine was one of the girls that had been over hooking up with Whitney. Then Catherine gets brought in to the show. I'm sure Whitney's like, hey, I'm filming this show, she's 21. You guys, in this episode in season one Whitney is like 40 at the time. He's now like 50 something. So he meets Catherine. He's hooking up with her. She's young. She gets invited then to come to a party on Southern Charm in season one and she comes. Craig thinks she's hot, shep thinks she's hot, but she's already hooked up with Catherine and then Thomas goes in for it. So now all four of the main men are all basically either hooked up with her or wanting to hook up with Catherine. She's a hot commodity coming in. She's redheaded, she's five foot 11. She's 21.
Speaker 1:And she comes from a very well-known political family who is the Dennis family. Her great grandfather or grandfather, I believe, was the vice president. No, it had to be. Her great grandfather was the vice family. Her great grandfather or grandfather, I believe was the vice president. No, it had to be. Her great grandfather was the vice president. So I mean, yeah, thomas notices right away. He's like I need this girl to be my wife and the mother of my children because she comes from this really affluent presidential family. I am a politician. It's a match made in heaven. But all the guys are kind of fighting over her. Craig wants to sleep with her.
Speaker 1:Shep ends up meeting up with her and hooking up with her at republic one night at love is bar, before she's cast on the show and then so she's hooked up with whitney in secret. She's hooked up with shep on the show. Craig hasn't hooked up with her yet but like in every confessional, he's talking about how he wants her and then she eventually hooks up with thomas. Thomas is chasing her around town and Thomas is the oldest of them all. He's already like 50 in season one. So he's double. Her age was 49. She's 21. And I mean this is just the makings of. I mean thank God she was 21 years old. Obviously this isn't like pedophile territory, but we're getting close here. These men are double her age. It's really gross. Craig was the only acceptable one, that was that was in his 20s. That could have, you know, hooked up with her.
Speaker 1:Everything happens for a reason, though. You know who would. Who knows where Craig's life would be if him and Thomas would have switched season one, because then Thomas and Catherine end up spending most of season one on a pregnancy scare storyline. Thomas hooks up with Catherine. They don't use protection.
Speaker 1:Catherine is convinced that she's pregnant. Takes them a little while to figure it out. One of the most. I cannot believe they showed this. They get wasted one night. I mean I've never seen people on TV like this drunk before, thomas and Catherine Drinking margaritas. They decide to go to CVS, get up under pregnancy tests. Catherine ends up getting an error which they say can only happen if you like, dunk it in the toilet, or if you use like water or alcohol. So I think that she did purposely screw this test up. So I think she wanted to keep Thomas like on the line a little bit. Catherine is crazy. You guys Don't underestimate how Catherine is totally bananas. So I think that she kind of fucked with the pregnancy test a little bit to get Thomas to think okay, shit, like what if I did get this girl pregnant.
Speaker 1:But then, throughout all of this, and then finding out that she's not pregnant, she gets pregnant, pregnant and they end season one, all of season one wraps. It actually ends with Thomas and Catherine getting in a huge fight and deciding to break up. So the end of season one fades to black. And then all of a sudden it says nine months later and Kenzie is born, little Kensington Ravenel, catherine and Thomas's daughter is born at the end of season one. So then we have season one. You know they don't always do a season one reunion. They do a season one reunion for Southern Charm in the clubhouse with Andy. Season one is so good you guys have to go watch it. So then we come into season two. Little Kensington is born, thomas and Catherine are together but they're not in love and the rest of the show really starts to film and unravel from there. Now again it's all.
Speaker 1:The regular players are back Craig, cameron, thomas, shep, whitney, catherine and then we are introduced to Landon. Landon plays the girl that comes in who is actually a Southern belle, charlestonian, who had moved to LA, got married to some affluent guy and then was married for a few years and got divorced and then she had to move back to Charleston. She's friends with Shep. She ends up developing a crush on him and kind of trying to get Shep to change his Peter Pan syndrome ways. But he doesn't Spoiler alert on that also. Landon kind of chases him for a few seasons and then she also kind of fizzles out and doesn't come back.
Speaker 1:After season four, season four, they did a big retooling of the cast. That's when they got rid of most of the main people and they brought in Chelsea. They brought in Naomi who was dating Craig. I mean, leva was technically even in season one as a friend of Cameron's but she kind of becomes a more prominent guest and friend of. We also have Madison, who Madison was really introduced to as like a friend of Patricia and a friend of the group and a friend of Leva. They were all kind of friends with Cameron and then she doesn't really get introduced with Austin until season four. They were all kind of friends with Cameron and then she doesn't really get introduced until Austin with Austin till season four.
Speaker 1:So really, season three, season four, a lot of the drama in the first couple seasons was was Craig, was Thomas and Catherine was Shep, shep fighting with Craig and having like friendship fights. They had a really interesting gay that was involved in a lot of the seasons which his name is Cooper, and Cooper, kind of like, had a lot of gay that was involved in a lot of the seasons which his name is Cooper and Cooper, kind of like, had a lot of drama in the first couple of seasons too. So I mean that's kind of like the gist of the main cast and what you're going to get through most of the seasons. Now Catherine and Thomas. Now Thomas and Catherine have another baby, they have a little saint and saint comes in and that's really when things start to hit the fan with them, when they realize they cannot be together. That's like in season four and when they decide to bring in Ashley, who Ashley was dating Thomas, seasons five and six and Ashley is an evil cunt that came in to ruin Catherine's life and she was there to expose like all the ways that Catherine's a bad mom and let's let's remember like Catherine's not perfect. She definitely had some substance abuse issues. She really started to get into some some drama and personal problems on the show. Her and Madison didn't really get along. I mean she had some drama.
Speaker 1:So, catherine, there was one episode where they all are on this boat ride from hell and they you can tell that they started to switch from alcohol to doing a lot of cocaine around season five. And Thomas, as we know, he was selling and buying Coke for many years, so this wasn't like a huge shock to me that the cast was using. But sometimes it's just so blatantly obvious what substances they were on and they get into this huge raged out coke fight on this boat. There's this one scene of Catherine in the barefoot running down the pier after Tom is fighting with him in the fur coat. I mean there are a lot of iconic fights on this show. We also have to talk about the fact that Craig was again going through a lot of his personal battles on the show, his personal demons of whether or not he was going to just be a reality TV star who was getting fucked up, addicted to Adderall. I also think Adderall was a code for coke.
Speaker 1:Also, you know, a lot of these substances being used like people don't realize too, like if you're not somebody who's used substances, you know I was a recreational user of some things back in the day. I'm obviously a lot older and light now and I you know I'm not like that, but I can recognize it in other people sometimes still, and when I think of page two and like the summer house, like it's just it's obvious to me sometimes how some of these fights happen and how next day everyone can be like, well, how can they just like forget that happened? It's like, yeah, because they're not high anymore, so things become a little bit clearer in life. So you know just a lot of substances being used on this show also and a lot of things that happen on the show. So a lot of the girlfriends again, the men are the main part of the show here, the nucleus, and then the women that are dating the guys on the show start to become a lot of the drama. So Catherine coming and dating, being with Thomas, chelsea had some drama with Austin and dating Shep and Austin. We had Madison coming on and then dating Austin. Now, again, one of the biggest, most famous scenes ever is when Austin cheats on Madison and has threesome and then Madison comes over and Austin like comes out of that. She has the camera set up so he doesn't know, and then he comes out of the bedroom and he's like pushing his boner down into his underwear. It's such a famous video though you guys and he's going, madison, madison, oh my God. And then you guys so messy for the season finale that your chef brings one of the girls from the threesome to the season finale party to mess with Austin. I love the producers of this show. I love it.
Speaker 1:One random friend of we don't get to talk about too much is John Pringle. He's only on seasons seven and eight. He is a random side character that like, just he is a random side character that like just keep an eye out for Pringle. And so pretty much you know we still have our constants when Craig starts dating Naomi. Let's go back to him a little bit. So, speaking of Paige and Craig and Summer House, before Paige there was Naomi, and Naomi came in with her cat and we always knew Craig was really into Naomi's cat. They really bonded.
Speaker 1:It really showed this side of Craig that made, like America fall in love with him. He was this really he wanted to like build a home. He wanted a wife. He wanted to build a home. He loved his sewing. He was like I'll be okay with being the homemaker. Like you can go to work, babe. Like I'll stay home with the cat, I'll take care of the kids I will sew. And he got really into making his pillows and I think like he was obviously in his deep in his Adderall addiction and like not sleeping. And when he wasn't going to law school anymore and he wasn't working in the law office anymore and he got fired from his show, he was like what am I going to do? And he would come up with these crazy ideas of businesses he could run. And one crazy idea that he had was to start making pillows. Pillows and aprons and caftans for miss pat.
Speaker 1:So we see his character arc of when he's dating naomi, him trying to figure out like what he's gonna do. And one problem naomi had with him would be like I want to date like a real man, craig. I want a man that doesn't lie about going to law school, a man that is a real lawyer, a man that has a real drive in life to be a partner, have a practice. She wanted the idea of Craig and Craig and Naomi right there were not going to work because they were in love with the idea of each other. Craig's always been attracted to these strong alpha females like Paige also because even like how he was into Catherine season one and how all the men were chasing her. Craig's always been into women like that because I think that he really appreciates that he's able to see the benefit that a powerful woman, an orange woman, brings to his life and I think he wants to be part of a power couple like that, so he doesn't want to just have some kept woman at home. He wanted to kind of have an equal partnership in his marriage and I've always appreciated that about Craig.
Speaker 1:I'm not like a big, huge Craig stan. He's not really my type. I don't really think that he's physically or personality my type. But I appreciate the type of guy that he is and I do understand what he's built with sewing down south. I think it's iconic, I think it's great. I think that he would have made more sense going into maybe like having like weed dispensaries or something or like having some kind of like. I could have seen him doing that even really, you know, not the bar. I think the bar restaurant business is really hard. Lava has a chokehold on that monopoly down there. I'm sure she's not happy when her friends and family try to open up bars that are in competition with her and she can be intimidating and so can her husband, lamar. So I don't think people or is it Lamar? Whatever, I don't think people really do that down there.
Speaker 1:Now, whitney was somebody who also tried to open bars and restaurants in Charleston and get into that using Miss Patricia's money and he failed. But he was, interestingly enough, in business, partnership and friendship with this guy, brian, brian Johnson, who is the creator of Planet Hollywood yes, the mega resorts of Planet Hollywood and his friends Lisa Vanderpump Lisa Vanderpump before she had her own things kind of going on with Caesars, she used to take the girls to Planet Hollywood, go back in the old seasons of Beverly Hills Before Lisa had her partnership with Caesars. And did you know Vanderpump Cocktail Garden and Vanderpump Papari and all these places? She was taking everybody to Planet Hollywood because she was friends with Brian Johnson. Now I'm wondering if that is how Whitney got the executive producer role of the show, role of the show In 2014,.
Speaker 1:Vanderpump Rules was out. Some of these, some of this lore about Bravo and how all roads you know lead back to Andy Very fascinating. So Naomi and Craig eventually do break up because, like we said, naomi couldn't really handle the fact that Craig was never really going to kind of get his shit together. Now he used that as fuel and that famous quote of him being like what's wrong with my sewing? To make the sewing down South and he kind of skyrocketed from there and then that created room for him to actually he had a little bit of a couple of bender seasons.
Speaker 1:The seasons after Ashley was on there was a really crazy season reunion. I want to say it was season seven where Craig is truly again coked out and he's at this reunion and he comes for everyone's throats because he was single at the time. He didn't give a fuck, he was just there to make sure that he was going to have his spot on the next season and he really went for Craig, really went for Whitney, really went for Thomas, cap and everybody. Go back and just watch the terror of Craig in that season reunion. I love that. Every one of the Southern charm reunions are so good. You should do a show of just what if you ever want to just catch up to. I bet you could just watch all the reunions and find out what happened in every season. So so good. The first season reunion was shot like 19 days after Kensington was born, like in the thick of Thomas and Catherine figuring their shit out, okay. So then that brings in also talking a little bit about the girls that they date.
Speaker 1:Chelsea Now, to me I was never again people like loved Chelsea. I thought she was kind of boring. She also stood for like strong, independent females in the South Standing up to like the Southern charm boys. So we liked Chelsea. She was kind of like you know she was okay, she was a main character. She was a guest and a friend three and four seasons and then five and six. She was a main character member. Then she left. Okay, we talked about Leva. Leva again is in season one. She is considered a guest of seasons one through seven and then she became a main character cast member of southern charm seven, eight, nine and season 10. So we're going to be seeing still a lot of love in season 10 this year.
Speaker 1:Addison, like we said, started really um dating and getting into the mix of the. I would say season six. If you're a big madison fan, that's the one that you want to watch. That's when she first starts dating Austin and she was always calling Austin a beta. He's in Southern charm. We haven't really talked about Austin yet. Yeah, we got to do like a little bit of an Austin deep dive here, but OK.
Speaker 1:So Madison, because she always did miss Patricia's hair. She was always dipping in and out. But she starts to date Austin Because, again, austin's been on the show now since season four. He joined, so four and five he was on being single, hanging out with chelsea, all this stuff on the show, and then that's when madison really kind of gunned it and was a main character in season seven. So the madison and aust Austin relationship is a very important part of Southern Charm lore. They start dating Madison gets cheated on, which Madison is obviously so hot, so cool, has a successful hair business, she's funny, she's strong and she's a single mom and so I think that that was always her chip on her shoulder.
Speaker 1:She always felt like men weren't going to want to be with her. There were so many women in Charleston Like, even though she was amazing, I think a lot of guys did not want to date her because they didn't want to settle down, they didn't want to have kids of their own. So were they going to be a stepdad? No, probably not. So I think that there was a lot of just you know interest around Madison and if she was going to get some of these guys to settle down and ultimately she wasn't really able to get Austin, you know, even though she was such a catch and so, like anybody's so lucky to be with her, madison ends up marrying somebody off of TV. She ends up marrying a Mormon firefighter from Utah. So I think that she just really was like I'm going to separate my personal life and my TV life and that's something that never really worked for me.
Speaker 1:With Madison as a character, even though I think she's lovely and funny and I want her on my show, I think that she's. If anybody's on this show on here just for a paycheck and here just to play a character, it is Madison. So she's probably like the least real out of everybody on this cast. When we have people like Catherine who bear it all, it is kind of hard to hold the candle. So Madison, austin, they have all of their drama.
Speaker 1:Now Austin's main thing again, of course, is that he comes on and he has really big competition with Shep. Him and Shep are known as the boys about town, the two six foot five men. They kind of look alike. They both have similar personalities. They're into the same things, personalities. They're into the same things, they're into the same girls and they're often going out and having these like situations where they're going for the same person and they're fighting and they're having to like test their friendship like bros before hoes, basically. So that's like their ongoing storyline.
Speaker 1:Now Austin, of course, when he's with Madison all of those years, that's when he kind of like really is grappled with his own personality and he's always kind of like dating these girls and trying to like have girlfriends but then do his own thing. And that's what makes him a fuck boy is that he's always trying to be like no, I am a good guy, like I do want to settle down. I want to have Madison. Oh no, I cheated on her and had a threesome. I want to have Olivia as my girlfriend, and then he goes on to be a fuckboy with her and kind of like cheat on her. It's just the same with Chelsea. So that's Austin's recurring theme and that's why a lot of people on Bravo are like no, he's the biggest fuckboy of Bravo because he's constantly doing this.
Speaker 1:That brings us to Taylor Ann Green, which is my arch nemesis of this show. She's one of my least favorite characters and I think that she just comes on as this young, naive Southern belle who all she cares about is just. I'm going to just stand by my man, even if he's wrong. We're just going to pray about it and as long as we know God and we know that we have faith in our relationship, we are going to be able to get through anything, and those are some of the people that annoy me the most in the world. So we really have her just coming on as a friend on dating Shep in season seven and she's always like I'm friends with Austin and I'm dating Shep and she really is Shep's actual girlfriend, lives with her and is trying to get engaged to him actively, while she's, I believe, now never been confirmed and they come to deny it in in season nine.
Speaker 1:This is the main plot was whether or not Taylor and green cheated on or lied to shop behind his back with Austin. Austin denies it, but everybody believes that something happened with Austin and Taylor and green behind Shep's back. Now that is the ultimate disc, because there's like the one girl that Shep actually was like I actually do love her and he considered making you know. I think for even a 5% he was like I can maybe marry Taylor and then for Austin to still, out of all of the girls, go behind Shep's back and hook up with her, like they always end up sharing girls. So that is really the point of Southern Charm the sharing of the girls, the lying of the bro code, the constant need of the men to like having their ego stroked and hooking up with girls. That is the point of this show.
Speaker 1:So there are many other side characters. There's JT the short, our short king that comes in in season nine, who basically is the guy that's brought in to the cast to finally take down Austin. And in the end of season nine it ends with a fight where JT has to crawl up on a bar stool to be as tall as Austin to be able to fight him and they headbutts him so good. Now there's rumors that in season 10, jt and Vanita Vanita is one of the only women of color on this show. It's very controversial that on this show we don't have very many people of color because, again, it is a show from the South and in season whatever, when 2020 was airing and there were a lot of problems, everybody wanted Catherine Dennis canceled from Southern Charm because she was a behind the scenes racist and she was sending behind the scenes racist and she was sending monkey emojis to people and black content creators from Bravo. And even though I love Catherine, I cannot stand behind that behavior.
Speaker 1:I do believe that again we've talked about how Catherine she also, you know battles with her own substance abuse issues. She too has been known to use cocaine and I think she had quite a few. You guys will watch if you please watch. I hope this convinces you to go back and watch every single season. But you'll notice this season that Catherine's heavily using. She bleaches her hair, bleaches her eyebrows. She's a hundred pounds soaking wet and I love Catherine. You guys. I'm sorry she's my problematic sister from Southern Durham, but she is known for being a little problematic and it's kind of like why she ends up getting fired from the show Now. I would like to have her come back. If Stassi can be having redemption, if all these other people can be being brought back to Bravo, why can't we have Catherine back? Justice for Catherine. But I would love to see her come back and Thomas come back. I would love them both to come back for the next season. We need storylines for season 11, because season 10, it does sound like some of these people behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:Now, vanita, like we said, vanita is a woman of color on this show. She was always known as like Madison's bestie, she was like a friend of, and last season she started to get into the mix a little bit more because, of course, everybody was like, hey, we need more people of color on the show. Like let's give Vanita a storyline and give her a little bit more time behind the red light. But she had this like base boyfriend no shade, sorry for listening, but he was just nothing special and he had no charisma on camera. And so we knew that Vanita was really going to be a breakout star, which she is. She's our fashionable girlie. She's very smart. We love Vanita as a person.
Speaker 1:If she's going to be a TV star, she had to get rid of this boyfriend. She needed to either be single and date a guy on the show in the mix, have some drama or something needed to happen, and so she did end up dumping this boyfriend and it looks like for season 10, we're going to get a JT date and storyline. But it has since then been revealed that they faked this and they manufactured the storyline for the show and that Vanita and JT didn't actually date and that obviously Vanita knew that if she needed to be on the show she needed to be dating somebody. Jt, too, also was like shit, I need to have somebody that, like, I am involved with I also think. You know I don't like to speculate about people's sexuality, but that's all I'm going to say about JT. They obviously concocted some kind of plan and then it was exposed because JT is dating other people and wasn't able to keep, I guess, his mouth shut. And then it had to be exposed online.
Speaker 1:Jt's girlfriend if you I don't have the video on today again, but I'm doing air quotes girlfriend JT's girlfriend came forward and said oh, I think it's funny that his storyline is dating some other girl this season when he's with me. So this whole time he was faking this when he was filming. We hate this for us. We hate this for us. We hate this for us. We're not happy. Jt has since quit the show. He will not be on Watch what Happens Live. He will not be apparently shooting any more of his confessionals. It does say he's contractually obligated to come to the season reunion, but we know a lot of people don't come to the reunion when they quit the show. Lvp cough cough. Some of these people don't end up coming to the reunion. I don't think he's going to end up coming, but if he does, it will just stand in the longstanding traditions of Southern Charm, reunions always being must-watch TV.
Speaker 1:Besides that, there are some other friends of on here. I mean we talked about Olivia a little bit. I was never a huge Olivia fan. She was kind of just there to start the drama with Taylor and Austin. She did her service. Thank you for your time, olivia. We really only needed you for that. So thank you, john Pringle. Again, would love to bring him back one day.
Speaker 1:Okay, so somebody that's new on this new season is Sally Carson. Sally is from Bachelor Nation, then she was on last season of Southern Hospitality. They've been trying to get this show, this girl, cast on one of these Bravo shows. I mean this is like her third attempt, fourth attempt at reality TV. Let's see how she does in Southern Charm, because it sounds like she hooked up with Austin, she hooked up with Shep and she's got Tion Craig. So we're going to have to wait and see.
Speaker 1:Another person that has been a floating friend of for many seasons was Dani. Dani recently just got married. A girl named Dani who dated shep and a bunch of the other guys kind of she I always thought was so random on the show. I think she was a little bit of a producer plant that would come in just to like move storyline around and like date some of the guys and say things on camera. So she was interesting. Um, we talked about ashley again thomas's girlfriend gosh she goes down in history. Jennifer snowden she was an interesting character on the side. Oh yeah, jd, who was Thomas's friend, gosh so many people.
Speaker 1:So in February of 2021, main character cast members in Austin were involved in a joint spinoff of Southern Charm and Southern House titled Winter House, in which Conover and Kroll joined stars of Summer House for a trip to Stowe. That's where we got Southern Charm. Winter House. That was so good. We also had some of the other. I miss Winter House, you guys. I really miss Corey and Sam. That was like my favorite era of Winter House. Southern Charm New Orleans was also a show that was a spinoff of Southern Charm.
Speaker 1:I don't have enough time to talk about that today, but that is a really good watch. On Peacock, there are only two seasons, maybe three. Go back and watch that and, yeah, my goal is to get to Southern Charm and do a Republic. I want to go to Republic because I need to come back and do a episode just like this with Southern Hospitality, who is Leva's bar Republic, and all the people Vanderpump Rules style that work at her bar, that really work there. You guys, and they really are broke and live in studio apartments. I need to urge you all to go watch Southern Hospitality as well. So, yeah, I think that that is it for today on this little Southern Charm freestyle episode. I hope you guys enjoyed catching up about it and I hope this gets you hyped up for season 10 premiering this Thursday on Bravo.
Speaker 1:I will be talking about it all season and, yeah, so this is day two of my advent calendar, so please, again, make sure you're following me at Bella Talks TV. Make sure you rate and review. I'm here giving you all the Christmas content this season. I know a lot of us are traveling, working from home, needing extra podcasts to listen to, so that's why I'm doing this. I really hope that this can get us to connect over some of these different shows that I just love talking about and that made me fall in love with reality TV. So thank you again for all being here and have a great rest of your week. I'll be back tomorrow with another surprise episode. Ciao Bellas, thank you.
