Porsha Williams’ Spinoff Are Damage Control ‘Housewives’

Not available Real housewives Maximum consistency, franchise expansion rather than “owning it”. The two-word advice most associated with the woman who made it her catchphrase, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘Lisa Rinna, but the concept predates her and extends far beyond the West Coast. “Own it” is simply a reminder that being on a reality show means facing (in front of the camera) the less polished aspects of your life: divorce, legal issues, tabloid headlines. Housewives can usually slide through a season or two without getting hurt, but eventually every member of the cast will find herself with a goal on her back and the very way she handles her time in the chair. Hot will decide her future on the series.

During the above eight seasons The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Porsha Williams got her fair share of her controversies and general discomfort – her Divorce from Kordell Stewart, which she found out on Twitter; she false accusations of attempted sexual assault of Kandi Burruss, being fed to her by another member who did not survive the dust; and that time she thought The Underground Railroad is a literal railway line, which she has outstripped with her work as an activist for the Black Lives Matter movement. Porsha’s ability to weather the storm, and her personal growth both in front of and away from the camera, have made her one of the most energetic and lovable Housewives in any city.

So on paper, a Porsha-centric spin-off feels like a logical next step for Bravo and for Porsha herself, who has earned the right to step into the limelight outside of her compilation. RHOA. However, in reality, Porsha’s family affairs is a frustrated cop. Faced with a controversy that’s hard to escape – allegations that she robbed a castration friend’s husband – Porsha decided to bail in the series when she could be held accountable for hashing everything out. The more friendly terrain of a spin-off allows her to call the shots.

To be fair, it’s not Porsha’s family affairs whispering about the movie. The series largely revolves around Porsha’s new relationship with businessman Simon Guobadia, whom she first met when he was married to Falynn Guobadia, a recurring presence on the most recent season of the series. RHOA. Nothing escapes the reality of the situation even as Porsha and her new lover work hard to smooth the flow of time. They are said to have not started talking to each other until Simon and Falynn called it quits – Simon says Porsha DM texted him shortly after announcing their divorce, while she insisted that he made the first move. And yes, they technically announced their engagement before Simon’s divorce from Falynn was final, but they swore they thought Simon’s marriage would officially end first.

The most interesting thing about Porsha .’s family affairs it’s a blatant attempt at fixing Porsha’s image but not all of it is as effective as damage control. Porsha alternates between being really hurt about how fans don’t understand her new relationship (what’s the point?) to saying, “Fuck everyone. What the hell are they supposed to say.” About For his part, Simon asserts that “it’s no one’s business to get involved too quickly.” Porsha is at least still charming on screen, and flashbacks to some of her lowly moments on RHOA help her recover empathy in her predicament. But Simon was unconventional, looking sleepy and untidy in his confessionals. In general, if a housewife’s spouse (or near-spouse) has a knack for talking, it’s because he has something intriguing to say. Simon’s half-performed performance doesn’t exactly have any effect on the theory – being told by Porsha’s ex, Dennis McKinley, that she’s with Simon because of the financial security his bank account provides .

Dennis turned out to be the spinoff’s surprising breakthrough. Above RHOA, he’s mostly just obnoxious, another unfortunate romantic choice who cheated on Porsha while she was pregnant with their child. Above Porsha’s family affairs, he emerges as the voice of reason, the only actor (so far) who really says what the audience is thinking. Dennis is right that no matter how Porsha and Simon work to contextualize the timeline of their relationship, Porsha looks like “the man-stealer of the century.” And who better than Dennis, a man who tried and failed to make a life with Porsha, analyzed, “Porsha flies fast, and she falls hard.”

Aside from Dennis, there’s definitely something interesting about the series, including bigger well-deserved roles for Porsha’s sister Lauren and mother, Diane, like never before. Housewives. But in the end, the spinoff goes as far as possible to “own it”. While it’s true that Porsha may have simply given up on reality TV altogether, giving her a show of her own allows her to have the cake and eat it: She can get her story back. yourself after some really damaging headlines on the blog without risking editing a villain. Every housewife can try to make a redemption spin, but you have to be willing to get the job done, and that means showing up even when you run out of knives.

Can’t help but think about season 14 of RHOA would have been the same if Porsha had chosen to stay. There’s no doubt that her arch-nemesis (and behind-the-scenes producer/damn stirrup) Kenya Moore will be staging a showdown between Porsha and Falynn, which will most likely invite her. later unannounced to a cast meeting. The wars will turn ugly, the darkness evil – even Porsha’s allies are forced to admit her quick involvement with Simon doesn’t look good from the outside.

Porsha has every right to opt out: No one is forced to face music if they want to opt out. Kim Zolciak leaves RHOA behind when it became clear that no one wanted to film with her anymore and focused all of their attention on her spin-off, Don’t be late. And when Lisa Vanderpump was accused of leaking disastrous story about another Housewife on Radar Online, she stopped filming RHOBH half season. Now she exists only in her appendage, Vanderpump’s Rule (and another post about pet dogs that seven people watched). These ladies have had success with the long-running Bravo series outside Housewives appropriate, but even with those precedents, Porsha’s family affairs is the clearest example of jumping trains to get an extra.

That’s important because Porsha’s choice to take her most compelling storyline and only tackle it on her own show could be the start of a disappointing trend. At a time when so many Housewives are walking away instead of dealing with the consequences of their latest mistakes, it doesn’t seem like a smart move to give them the option to skip the series. their main for a softer, more tightly controlled subsection. What could stop Erika Girardi from deciding that she’s sick of fighting Sutton Stracke for her half-truths? RHOBH and try to negotiate an Erika-focused series with Bravo instead? What happens when The Real Housewives of Salt Lake CityJen Shah concludes that she’s too enamored to document the aftermath of her alleged crimes on a set series and should have a spin-off of her own? The end result is that the original Housewives programs suffer the consequences – not to mention the fans who watched them.

It can Porsha’s family affairs would ultimately provide a satisfying conclusion to her lightning-fast engagement to man storyline. “I promise you one day it will all make sense,” Simon told Porsha’s friend Shamea Morton during the premiere, and maybe he was right. But letting Porsha and Simon dictate their stories doesn’t just make for a mediocre series — in a larger sense, it’s reality TV negligence.