If You Weren’t Watching ‘Real Housewives Of Beverley Hills’ In 2021, What TF Were You Doing?

Being a lifetime reality TV stan is not always easy.

It often requires blind faith that a series or season will get better; that a show’s last bad season will be its last bad season. It involves committing to a show for richer or poorer, in boring storylines and lacklustre casts. Because we are always waiting for that perfect season, a once-in-a-lifetime season when the stars align and pure magic is made.

Australian reality TV has seen a few eclipses in its time. This year’s Farmer Wants a Wife season that spawned months of feuding certainly won’t be forgotten soon, neither will the cheating saga that dominated The Block this year.

But nothing in Aussie reality television history has quite compared to the momentous Season 6 of Married at First Sight: a perfect storm of characters and conflict that would make household names of Martha Kalifatidis and Cyrell Paule, and turn Jules and Cam Merchant into ultimate reality TV couple goals.

The reality TV format has struggled to recapture the magic ever since, because after all once perfection is attained, the only direction to go is down.

But turning to overseas reality TV, perfection is what reality fans got with the 2021 season of Real Housewives of Beverley Hills. Our prayers were answered.

The payoff was especially satisfying as Real Housewives as a franchise is known for often being inconsistent. Good seasons come and go, and great seasons are especially fleeting. For instance, just look at Real Housewives of New York City: this series was once an unshakable pillar of the franchise, featuring arguably the best cast across the dozens of the US and international versions. When it comes to iconic reality TV, look no further than Season 8 of this show for jaw-dropping drama and nonstop entertainment.

Sadly, RHONY has well and truly entered its flop era, as the latest season was the dullest and most unwatchable the show has ever been. But as one phoenix dies, another rises from its ashes and that’s what has happened to Beverley Hills this year.

Every episode was An Event which cultivated group chat conversations. If we were allowed to go into offices and hang around the water cooler, RHOBH is what we would have been talking about… and possibly COVID too, but probably not.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why the season was such a success, but you can’t go past the drama caused from Erika Jayne’s legal woes. On any other season and with any other housewife, legal drama is often just one of many storylines driving a season. But it was a whole new level of low when Erika was implicated in her estranged husband and famous lawyer, Tom Girardi, being accused of embezzling millions of dollars from burn victims, orphans, and widows.

Along with Tom’s alleged crimes, Erika herself has been accused of spending over $25 million funnelled out of Girardi’s law firm. This is an especially tough pill to swallow, as fans have watched Erika shamelessly flaunt her wealth from the moment she arrived on the show in Season 6. Erika as a character is also one of the least forgiving and most likely to come down harshly on others, yet she’s a housewife who has largely evaded judgement and criticism during her tenure on the series. This makes her downfall all the more satisfying. It’s pure, unbridled schadenfreude.

But if the season was just about Erika, it wouldn’t have been nearly as iconic as it was. With the dark, must come the light and Erika’s gruelling legal dramas were offset by the arrival of Kyle Richard’s kooky sister Kathy Hilton, along with Sutton Stracke and Garcelle Beauvais having their strongest seasons so far.

Here are just some of the reasons why the 2021 season of The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills was one for the history books:

Erika, Erika, Erika…

This season, viewers met a lot of different Erikas. At first, it was Erika pretending her marriage with Tom was still intact. Then there was single and free Erika, who started to let loose for the first time in several seasons, while dropping bombshells claiming that Tom was unfaithful during their marriage.

But Erika’s energy changed completely as her legal woes worsened. She started lashing out at everyone — but especially Garcelle and Sutton. In Lake Tahoe after Garcelle mentioned to the other girls that Erika had told her that Tom still calls her regularly, Erika lost it. Then at Kathy’s dinner party after Sutton tried to ask a few questions about what Erika knew about Tom’s alleged crimes and whether the housewives were at risk of being involved legally, Erika truly unleashed on Sutton.

Erika has long been known by Housewives fans and even the cast as a cold person, who rarely shows emotion, but on this season we saw all the many shades of Erika Jayne — and they weren’t all pretty.

Introducing: Sutton The Savage

Sutton became the voice of reason this season, which was shocking coming from this Southern Belle who rarely made waves last season. Sutton was the only one to stand up to Erika when the OG housewives bent to Erika’s will, refusing to call her out for acting like she was the victim of the situation — rather than the actual victims who claim they lost out millions in settlements.

Sutton stood up for the victims and for her bravery, she may have suffered Erika’s wrath but she also won over a legion of new diehard fans.

Garcelle said what we were all thinking

Garcelle was already a beloved housewife for being the only person to defend Denise Richards last season when she was under attack by the other housewives for personal matters that aren’t even worth retelling. Garcelle proved that she stands up for what’s right and she says what we’re all thinking. This season, she took on everyone — from Erika to Lisa Rinna and Dorit Kemsley — and Garcelle was one of the only housewives to come to Sutton’s defence over her criticism of Erika.

She took no shit from Dorit when she was called a “bully” for simply speaking her mind and correctly stating that Dorit talks a lot. And her obsession with Denise’s vindication by hammering Rinna to apologise showed that she was a loyal friend.

Kathy-Fucking-Hilton

An icon was born on this year’s season. Kathy Hilton is unlike any housewife not just on Beverley Hills, but any version of this show. She has specific needs, like requiring a fan to sleep at night, or a can of red bull and a newspaper to accompany her in bed.

While she’s a woman of the world, she is perplexed by terms like “hunky dory”, instead employing her own language like saying she was going to “have a gorilla” which she later clarified to mean, “You know, I’m being dramatic”.  When she’s not wearing her glasses, she can’t tell the difference between Garcelle and her own sister, Kyle. Then there was the time that all the housewives were discussing Erika’s legal drama, and Kathy simply replied, “I don’t know her,” despite meeting Erika already at least a handful of times. She is truly one of a kind.

Kathy was a breath of fresh air for the franchise, and along with the nonstop drama Erika inspired, this season was simply unmissable reality TV.

–

The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills can be streamed on Binge and Hayu.