Real Housewives of Vancouver - Episode 3

Last week I said that the Real Housewives of Vancouver had cured me of my addiction to the entire Real Housewives reality TV franchise. Nevertheless, I could not stop myself from watching the third episode of RHOV this week. I don’t know what happened. I am so ashamed. It was terrible.

There were two horrible, horrible women named Ronnie and Jody, a fabulous, self-deprecating, fun-loving, slightly vulnerable girl named Christina, one sweet lady named Mary (who I don't think in fact has bizarre looking cheek implants as others have suggested; I think that while she might have had a bit of filler, like everyone else, underneath that filler she just has naturally pronounced cheek bones anyway), and another woman, Reiko, who I fully expected to despise but found myself strangely and reluctantly admiring (well, minus the shameless show of material excess and the potential impact this kind of irresponsible materialism has on humanity and the environment, as well as on the rest of us “working class” folk who have to live in said environment).

And while I’m pontificating about the environment, I might as well throw in my condemnation regarding all the designer label and brand name dropping that goes on in these shows. Do these “real” (fake) “housewives” (no one is married to a house) have any idea what kind of human misery and environmental destruction goes into producing goods just so they can look Jessica-Rabbit-beautiful, prance around in tiaras, and feel superior?

The Real Housewife of Vancouver I really want to rant about is Ronnie. This woman is your classic self-centered, manipulative, alcoholic jerk with a cruel streak. They say in the show that Ronnie, who is rarely without a glass of alcohol and who is shown stinking drunk at least twice, only recently went through rehab. Say what?

I guess it’s safe to say that her rehabilitation was as effective as her cosmetic surgery – not only does she look like a freaky clown, but give her some alcohol and she acts like one too. Ronnie could be the poster child for how rehab does not work because you cannot rehabilitate an asshole – that stuff is inborn.

The result is that Ronnie comes across as petty with a hard, judgmental edge. She is a “mean girl” and nowhere is this more evident than in her vicious treatment of the lovely Mary Zilba.

Mary seems like one of those gentle flowers that predatory, parasitic people like Ronnie feed off. Imagine, recently going through rehab, showing up obnoxious and already drunk (or “massively buzzed” as she put it) at your friend’s lucrative scarf business, insisting on more wine, insulting everyone there as well as the scarves themselves which did nothing to deserve it, and then the next day blaming your innocent friend for “enabling” you.

Well, that is exactly what Ronnie did to poor Mary. Then Ronnie gets even more nasty, calls Mary “pathetic” and says something along the lines of, “and you wonder why you’re single at 48”. So low.

Do not even get me started on what she and that other bully, Jody, did to the charming Christina.

*Sigh* - apparently my Real Housewives addiction is more serious than I thought.

And that of course is the problem with addiction – it tends to be refractory and has a high relapse rate. Even after successful intervention and a period of abstinence, addicts can find it hard to resist the allure of addiction. So they don’t resist, and this causes an internal struggle or cognitive dissonance because intense craving competes with logic.

The addict, even the one whose addiction lay dormant, is well aware of all the reasons why she should not give into her cravings. She is aware of it, but that does not matter because she has two coping skills at her disposal: denial and rationalization, which conveniently allow really anyone to proceed in a destructive manner.

So there you go – I will most likely keep following The Real Housewives of Vancouver and continue this destructive pattern even as my cerebral cortex rages against it.

REAL HOUSEWIVES OF VANCOUVER EPISODE 4

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REAL HOUSEWIVES OF VANCOUVER EPISODE 6