Hello everyone! Welcome back to BirthMay 2022! Today’s post is about some shows I’ve watched recently: Selling Tampa Season 1, Love is Blind Season 2, and Bridgerton Season 2.

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In case you’re new, every May I blog every day and call it BirthMay! Why? Because it’s my birth month and I’m super extra.

Also, I am incredibly slow in watching shows, so that’s why I am always super behind the hype for shows to share my thoughts on them! Whoops! But better late than never! Spoilers ahead for every show, so make sure to skip this post if you don’t want to be spoiled!

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TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Selling Tampa Season One

Now, I spent so long watching this season that I barely remember the start of the season anymore! But the end of the season was super dramatic.

What I do remember though, is that it felt very, very scripted right off the bat. Unlike to original Selling Sunset that did do a pretty good at feeling more organic during it’s first few seasons, Selling Tampa felt very scripted, much like the current Sunset seasons do. I remember one particular scene after the ill-received announcement of the new commission split scene where Anne-Sophie and Colony were looking at a home and Anne-Sophie pulls out her phone to calculate the potential commission under the new split. While I have no doubt that the potential commission was important for Anne-Sophie to know, I found it a bit silly to think that she hadn’t 1) already calculated the split and 2) spontaneously decided to calculate it right at that moment.

I also found that the brokerage seemed poorly managed in general. There was Juawana who was put in charge despite everyone openly despising her, Alexis who was allowed to work and cover for the other agents despite a track record of doing a poor job (although she was eventually fired), and Sharelle reacting in such a hostile manner towards Rena after Rena questions the new commission split.

While I don’t necessarily want to compare Tampa to Sunset too much, I couldn’t help but do so now. In Sunset, Jason and Bret don’t even really manage their staff, they leave the agents to their own devices and only step in when they really have to. But with the smaller and newer Tampa cast, Sharelle seems to be almost completely checked out while Juawana is wayyyyyy too involved.

To be honest, while Sunset‘s early drama was fun to watch, Tampa was kind of… uncomfortable. Sunset‘s cast had a history together and the drama was centered around the new girl at the start of their show, and the new girl eventually won (almost) everyone over. But with Tampa the drama was mostly about the commission split, and when Rena voiced her dissent, Sharelle reacted so poorly that it made me feel almost sorry for the women working at the brokerage. Sharelle seems like an inspired businesswoman with an amazing story and mission, but her poor management style right off the bat when faced with her staff disagreeing with her was so uncomfortable to watch.

Now, Sharelle did make a great impression when she finally addressed Alexis’ shortcomings and talked to her, giving her another chance before eventually firing her, but then she made massive steps back when Rena told her she was thinking of starting her own brokerage and Sharelle took it so badly. Instead of recognizing that her sudden commission split changes and aggressive defense of the changes had consequences, she seemed to just be mad that Rena would think about leaving. And she took the fact that Rena had been testing the waters with Colony and Anne-Sophie quite personally. Now, I’m not saying Sharelle shouldn’t have stuck by and defended her decision or been annoyed that Rena was trying to poach her staff, but she should have been more realistic and understanding that her decision could be taken badly and recognized that it might cause some people to question if they wanted to stay or not.

Anyway, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the season, I did overall as I loved Anne-Sophie, Colony, Rena, and Karla. I really appreciated Sharelle’s vision for her brokerage. And I loved the glamorous parties and get togethers too! But there were a few things that just made the season less enjoyable overall. Even so, I’m looking forward to the second season and getting to know everyone more. Personally, I hope Rena does open her own brokerage and Anne-Sophie does work to get her broker’s license, and that Sharelle maybe takes a business management class or two. We’ll see what happens!

TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Love is Blind Season Two

Oh boy, here we go! I loved Love is Blind season 1, so I was looking forward to season 2! And… I hated it! I honestly was floored about how terrible everyone on the cast seemed to be portrayed. Now, I did get spoiled quite a bit because, like I said, I watched the season super slowly but also because this season was set in Chicago so Chicago TikTok spoiled a few endings for me.

I was super excited as the season started, with the cast dating in the pods. Immediately I hated Shake and Shanye, but more on that later when I get into each couple. Honestly, the portrayal of each cast member was just brutal this season! While season 1 hit a good balance of good and bad for each person, this season just seemed to zero in on all the negatives! It just didn’t have enough positive moments to balance out how bad the negatives were too.

Eventually the couples got engaged and the show moved onto Mexico, which was a mostly fun time last season if I remember correctly. But at this point, I was thinking “wow none of these couples should be getting married”, especially since one of the couples had realized they didn’t even know if the other person wanted kids or not as they’d never talked about it (I think this was Iyanna and Jarrett?). Yikes!

Once everyone was back in Chicago and meeting the families, things seemed to mostly settle down. It was nice to see that Shaina finally acknowledged she wasn’t prepared to make it to the alter with Kyle, but it was annoying that she was still causing trouble later on. And it was honestly shocking how many family members weren’t more vocal against the weddings. In season 1 I think it was still shocking enough that it was understandable how the families would accept the “experiment” results, this time I was a little more skeptical about how well everyone took it. Also, can we circle back to how annoying the use of the word “experiment” in the show is getting? It makes it sound so legit and scientific when it actually isn’t!

Anyway, enough about that, onto the couples!

First up, Shaina and Kyle. It was so cringe watching Shaina in the pods, as she confidently told guys that she was super popular and well-liked by everyone while a montage showed the guys were clearly not enjoying their conversations with her. Kyle, on the other hand, seemed very intent on finding a wife (to be fair I think they both were too intent on that goal when the goal should have been to find the right person), no matter what, that he didn’t seem to care about Shaina’s reservations as long as they ended up getting married, which they didn’t. I was very relieved we didn’t have to make it all the way until the wedding episodes to see them go. It was nice to see Shaina admit she should have never said yes to the proposal, and that both Kyle and Shaina agreed it was for the best that they broke up.

The next couple was Iyanna and Jarrette. While I did love the two together, it just didn’t seem fair that Iyanna was settling for someone that had considered her the second choice. However, at the reunion, someone pointed out that many people end up divorcing their first choice and finding someone else that is a better fit, so that does make sense. In the long run, people do go through multiple partners before finding “the one”, although it was so weird that the time frame was so close together from one failed proposal to the successful one. They seemed happily married at the reunion though, so that was nice to see!

Next was Nick and Danielle. Now, I for sure thought they were going to break up SO FAST after Danielle had that weird breakdown in Mexico about how Nick went to the party with everyone and left Danielle to cry (in a closet, according to Danielle), even though Danielle had said it was okay for him to go when she was too sick to join in. It was so weird! But it was funny to hear how Danielle and her friends would break furniture and see Nick’s panic immediately rise so I’m glad they stuck it out. They also seemed happily married at the reunion still so good for them!

Moving onto Shayne and Natalie… yikes! As I already said, I hated Shayne almost immediately. Also his eyes creeped me out, I’m not going to lie. I had to keep covering up the screen every time he popped up because it was just creepy to me. I kept thinking that Natalie totally deserved better and it was so weird to see how committed she was to getting married while on the show and getting married to Shayne specifically. I got the impression that it was more stubbornness than anything after having to put up with Shaina’s antics. And so when Natalie was saying she wasn’t sure on the day of the wedding I was shocked! I had already given up on Natalie honestly. But she did say no at the wedding and the two went their own ways, thank goodness. Last I heard, Shayne was talking shit about Natalie on some podcast or something, so honestly I think Natalie made the right decision.

As for Deepti and Shake… another yikes! It was too funny watching the reunion and realizing that everyone hated Shake. And it was mind-blowing to hear that everyone revealed that the show actually toned down how crazy Shake was during filming! Apparently the entire cast had tried to warn Deepti against getting married, and it was such a relief she did eventually listen. Also, it was so funny that he tried to say “love is blurry”, to which the hosts replied that he was on the wrong show! How he made it onto the show is beyond me, unless the casting people were worried there wouldn’t be enough drama. Although, one thing that I think was weird was that Shake did basically admit the cast was strongly encouraged to make it to the wedding episode and everyone else said he was wrong. Honestly, I did think that there was a strong pressure for them to make it that far and the fact that the cast all strongly denied it was surprising.

Finally, Mallory and Sal. I totally thought that after the drama with Jarrett that Mallory was going to totally marry Sal so I was a bit surprised when they didn’t go through with it after all. Although Sal was the one that said no and went first, it seemed that Mallory wasn’t quite sure herself if she would have said yes. It was nice that they were to each other after the wedding and how Sal addressed Mallory’s family so kindly to express his sorrow that they had to witness that. Even though they didn’t get married, it was such a nice and respectful end to their short relationship.

Overall the show seemed even more cruel in the second season. This season seemed like there was just so much pressure to find a person to marry instead of finding the right person, which the first season did better on focusing on. Am I still planning to watch any future seasons of this show? Of course! And it is cool that the couples who do get married do end up staying together long term. But overall the matches do seem to be pretty unsuccessful.

TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Bridgerton Season Two

And now for the second season of Bridgerton! I’ll be honest and admit I didn’t love it as much as the first, but not because it wasn’t as good, since it was. But I think the first season was more new and came at the right time, just when the pandemic and quarantine were beginning. The show provided such a beautiful escape at that time. Now, it is still beautiful, but it just didn’t feel as new and exciting as the first season did.

Even so, it was a wonderful season! The character of Anthony was super annoying, so it was weird to be rooting against the main Bridgerton of the season unlike in the first season when I was rooting for Daphne. However, the Sharmas were a delightful family and a great addition to the cast! The entire time I was screaming “Kate, just TALK to Edwina!” and also “Edwina, OPEN YOUR EYES WOMAN!”. The acting was just phenomenal! Kate in general was just a great character. Also, it was so funny that at 26, Kate was considered a spinster after failing to secure a husband, but I’m sitting here at 30 thinking I’m way to young to even begin thinking about marrying anyone!

It was also nice to see so much more of Daphne than I expected. I totally thought she’d disappear after the first episode since she was married and happily living with her husband and baby. But I loved that she was back and tried to give her big brother good advice, even if she was much younger. I also loved that the older Bridgerton kids all got some sort of storyline while Hyacinth was able to shine a bit too.

Ah, and poor Eloise! She was so nervous when she was going to be presented to the queen! A polar opposite to her cool-headed older sister. It was pretty funny how hard Eloise tried to not be courted after that and filled up her dance card with a bunch of fake names. And it was nice that she was able to maintain enough independence to continue her investigation into Lady Whistledown. But it also seemed wild that Eloise didn’t seem to understand how important her reputation was in her world and that even if she didn’t appreciate the limitations of her status, that she didn’t seem to see the clear privileges either.

I do think the fact that only one Bridgerton is highlighted at a time is both great and annoying. I love how we get to see the world of each Bridgerton so deeply leading up to their marriage, but it is sad to know that then we’ll move on. We barely saw Daphne after doting on her character all through the first season. Although there was plenty to keep us occupied in the second season, it was easy to miss her character after getting to know Daphne so well. I’m sure we’ll continue to see plenty of Anthony as the rest of the Bridgertons still live in his house, but still!

Oh, and that Featherington story was insane! I feel like they would have needed their own spinoff show if they had moved to America with Cousin Jack. Actually, that’s not a bad idea, is it to late for them to move? Wait, no, we still need Penelope to be Lady Whistledown, drat!

Overall, the show is still fun, and the vast differences between each Bridgerton kid makes it exciting to see where it’ll go next. I’ll miss the Sharmas and continue to miss Daphne but I can’t wait to see what the next season brings! Now, I haven’t read the books but I did get spoiled on them all already (whoops) but I wonder if any of the stories will be different.

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So those are the shows I’ve been watching lately! Let me know your thoughts if you’ve watched any of the above. I’d love to know!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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