Shit My Wife Makes Me Watch: Summer House Season 10, Episode 1
Notes from a reluctant Bravo viewer
With the NFL essentially on pause until the Super Bowl, I figured I’d take this opportunity to explore some different ideas for projects during this slower time of year. I wasn’t exactly sure where to start until I walked into my apartment and was informed that the 10th season of Bravo’s Summer House was premiering later that night.
In our early dating days, I was admittedly a hater of Summer House and many of its characters/”cast members”. While a number of these people still annoy the shit out of me, I’ve reluctantly become a fan who enjoys watching weekly with my now-wife.
I thought it would be fun to jot down some thoughts and offer a potentially unique —and extremely unprofessional —perspective as a once-unwilling male viewer.
Again – I want to emphasize that I am not as deeply involved in the podcasts, spin-offs, and lore as 99% of the people reading this. Regardless, I watch the episodes and have my opinions – so let’s dive in.
With tons of different storylines that vary in terms of seriousness and overall relevance – I think the easiest way to stay organized is to break this down by cast-mate. Let’s start with the newbies.
KJ
I loved how the pictures/videos of him as a kid instantly exposed him as a former nerd who experienced a major glow-up. Seems like an overall cool guy.
I imagine his anxiety centers around the expectation that he needs to fight and/or fuck immediately to remain relevant and stay on the show. Just keep doing you dude, I’m rooting for you.
My wife has officially ranked him 1st in her attractiveness power rankings.
Levi
“Hold my beer Maya”. Having a 12-year relationship end before you make your TV debut is certainly interesting.
I don’t envy her having some of her first flirting/dating experiences outside of her HS boyfriend broadcast to the entire world.
I hope she has fun though!
Bailey
I kind of like her weird, quirky personality. We haven’t had that from any of these girls in quite a while.
It definitely was kind of crazy to bring up the Sweet Green incident on night one, but the fact she cried about it makes me feel she needed to get it off her chest. Good for her for being able to share.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the Australian Bachelor dude is into her. Speaking of…
Ben
He’s about to get a rough “homewrecker” edit but I’m curious if there is any actual validity to it.
There’s no way he hooked up with Amanda in Italy right?
I feel like the only time Amanda smiled the entire episode was when she was telling the story of how they met – so who knows?
Overall, this seems like a pretty solid group so far. Hopefully, they can add some much-needed levity to a season that will seemingly be bogged down by all of the pre-divorce drama. Before diving into all of that, let’s touch on the rest of the non-original cast:
West
I was a huge fan of him in his first season. He seemed like the first “regular” guy they’ve ever had on any of these shows, so I liked how he was somewhat relatable.
I was super pumped when he won Ciara over. I was equally pissed off when he screwed that up for seemingly no reason.
Am I wrong for hoping they get back together?
Ciara
Is and always has been the best girl on the show.
I hope she doesn’t stop “being a bitch”. She’s one of the few people who puts some of these idiots in their place.
She seems to have her pick of the litter between the new skater guy, sober Carl, a rehash with West, and per the previews…Jesse Solomon?
Jesse Solomon
I was super amped to not see his ex from last season. Hopefully, he gets back to being the fun-loving weirdo from summers past.
Him playing middleman between West and Ciara was pretty funny. For some reason, they both trust him with information that he drunkenly tells the other the second he sees them.
The previews seem to insinuate that Jesse is going to try to hook up with Ciara. I’m tentatively rooting for a West/Ciara rekindling, so I’d really like to avoid any sort of love triangle related drama. In general, doing that to one of your friends is just an overall shitty thing to do. Speaking of shitty:
Lindsay
It was so nice not seeing her for 95% of the episode.
I’m surprised she didn’t berate Carl for picking up running in her forced facetime cameo.
“OF COURSE HE GETS INTO RUNNING, HE ALWAYS RUNS, HE RUNS FROM COMMITMENT, HE RAN FROM OUR RELATIONSHIP…”
Carl
This guy is beyond broken but somehow this washed life-coach character arc kind of works for me.
I like that he wears karate outfits in his confessionals and calmly checked Kyle on multiple occasions.
I don’t know what gets him so riled up in the preview, but I assume I’ll be rooting for him to beat Kyle’s ass.
Kyle
He is a total moron to not expect this DJ thing to blow up in his face.
I will say, he’s doing a much better job than Amanda of at least pretending like he’s trying to make things work.
That is…until the last scene where he completely overreacted to a see-through bra. That line has been crossed countless times on this show. Even if she did it purely to get a rise out of him, I don’t understand throwing a hissy fit (unless he’s concerned about the Australian guy?).
Amanda
Is it wrong to say that she kind of did sign up for this? He hasn’t been an entrepreneur in half a decade. His job has always been partying on camera/in-public. Now he just plays music while he parties.
I’m not saying Kyle’s a good person or that his behavior is even somewhat acceptable in a marriage. But the signs have always been there and she continuously ignored them.
She is also the clear aggressor and berates him in front of the group constantly. I’m curious if others feel the same, but she’s not going to come across as a sympathetic figure in this eventual break up if this is how she acts all season.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty solid premiere. I like how a majority of the cast isn’t treating a weekend partying in the Hamptons like some sort of burden or obligation. It seems like actual fun will be had and the occasional relationship drama will be mixed in sparingly. The Kyle and Amanda situation is the obvious outlier but at least we know this is the grand finale of that drawn out saga.
If you enjoyed this at all and want to read more, please let me know! If you hate me and prefer I stay in my lane, that feedback would also be appreciated!
