We laughed, we cried, we gawked at leaked wedding photos! This week on the pod, I'm joined by the wonderful Kelsey McKinney, co-owner and journalist at Defector Media, for a two-part conversation: first, a general chat about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's epic wedding at Madison Square Garden, then a recap of the Netflix rom-dramedy "Voicemails for Isabelle."

Though neither of us particularly wanted to pay attention to l'affaire Swift-Kelce, this splashy event has a gravitational pull on the discourse. We chatted about how Swift's choice of wedding venue clashed with many people's expectations and assumptions about her taste – including ours – and what it means that the word "tacky" has been thrown about so liberally. We also got into the spectacle of billionaire weddings and conspicuous consumption at this particular moment, as well as what it signifies that the couple made massive charitable donations in conjunction with the wedding.

Then, we turned our attention to a Netflix romance that we both liked much more than we expected: "Voicemails for Isabelle." We unpack how deeply creepy the concept of the movie is, and how many unsettling choices the male lead makes... and why we found ourselves getting on board anyway. We got in our feelings about how the movie captures the joy of sisterhood and the devastation of grief, and we recapped the whole thing – the silly moments, the millennial-core details (a gourmet dessert nacho food truck? hell yeah), the satisfying physical comedy and goofy side characters, and every moment that made us cry.

Hope you enjoy! xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

By the beginning of July, I have entered my now-annual "Love Island" fugue state. I fall asleep watching new episodes, and I wake up and immediately reach for my phone to scroll social media reactions. I try to recap the major plot points to my husband, who is usually baffled by the onslaught of details and my feverish emotional state. It's all I know how to think about about at the moment. So I was thrilled to get a chance this week to chat with, Anna Peele, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of "Enter the Villa: The (Unauthorized) Reality Behind 'Love Island.'"

As a relative newbie to the "Love Island" universe, I'm always looking for more insight about the show's history, influences, and impact, and Peele's deeply researched and reported book is the motherlode. She analyzes the show's forerunners and how executives put together the show that has evolved into an international mega-franchise, and breaks down that franchise's rocky introduction to the American market. She offers insight into how producers actually shape – or don't shape – storylines and character arcs, and into how contestants perceived their experiences.

In our conversation, we discuss the evolution of the "Love Island" format, what made it tricky to bring to America and how it contrasts with "The Bachelor," the significance of the show's hosts and inimitable narrator Iain Stirling, how contestants experience being in the bubble of the show's set, our takes on the most recent "Love Island" USA seasons, and much more.

Hope you enjoy! xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

It's a hot romance adaptation summer. After years suffering through a rom-com movie desert, streamers have discovered that rom-com television series might just be where its at. At a time when heterosexual dating has never seemed bleaker and toxic men are wreaking societal destruction at the highest levels of government and tech, it makes sense that a lot of us are yearning for the uncomplicated fantasy of safe men to love.

In mid-May "Off Campus" became a runaway hit for Prime Video. Based on the first book in Elle Kennedy's sexy hockey series, millions of viewers fell in swoony, embarrassing levels of love with the romance between Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) and Hannah Wells (Ella Bright). The show shot to the top of the streaming charts, launched a viral soundtrack, and spawned a spate of thinkpieces about why women in their 30s and 40s couldn't stop watching. (The two of us were among them.)

So when we saw that "Every Year After," a show based on Carley Fortune's bestselling novel "Every Summer After," was also coming to Prime Video, we were anticipating another banger. Unfortunately, where "Off Campus" broke through with fans and critics, "Every Summer After" decidedly did not. Is it still #1 on Prime Video? Certainly. But it feels like people are doing more hate-watching than crush-watching.

These two shows share surface-level similarities. Both are part of Prime Video's obvious push to recapture the magic they found with "The Summer I Turned Pretty," both are based on popular novels, and both feature young hotties finding and bungling and finding love again. So we wanted to dig into what made them land so differently.

Part of the issue is tone (fun vs. somber), part is that ineffable chemistry between two leads that either leads the audience to invest in a love story or detach from it, and part of it might just come down to structure. Where "Off Campus" effectively integrates trauma into a sparkly, sexy series, "Every Year After" seems to view grief and trauma as totalizing. (Even "Every Year After's" big sex scenes somehow manage to feel dark and dour.) As Angie Han wrote in her review of "Every Year After" for The Hollywood Reporter: "So besotted with its own heartbreak, it forgets to sell the romantic fantasy that would make it worthwhile in the first place."

Before we wrapped up the episode, we took a slight detour into Bravo-land to give our high-level thoughts on "Summer House: The Aftermath." (TLDR: It was mostly a nothingburger, West deserved to be fired, Ciara forever, and Lindsay did some good tough love work.)

Hope you enjoy! Xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Three full weeks of "Summer House" reunions, and not an ounce of genuine remorse from Amanda Batula and Westling Wilson in sight. And yet, we persevere and we watch and we take notes in painstaking detail because as Michelle Obama recently said on her IMO podcast... "Reality TV is sociology."

There was a whole lot of telling behavior to analyze during part three of this reunion. Amanda was detached and monotone, West was detached and monotone, Ciara was both vulnerable and strong in her reads of them both, and Kyle was much more of an emotional "mess" than Carl ever was. Although it's hard to create closure on a situation when the two people at its center are incapable of and unwilling to take true accountability, at least Ciara got the chance to say her piece and move on to bigger and better things. (We hope she's having the time of her life in Fiji right now.)

Unfortunately, one thing we did not get was clarity. No one can seem to nail down a clear timeline of West and Amanda's relationship, and the pair manage to fully evade Kyle's direct questions about what the hell was going on between them at the Super Bowl! But one thing we did get confirmation of? West is a diabolical fuckboy. He admitted that he had been "unclear to a zillion women that [he's] dated," that Meija believed they were in an exclusive relationship, and that he was not monogamous with Amanda until their joint statement dropped. (A.k.a. When his roster dried up because he was enveloped in scandal.) After this reunion and the bonus "Aftermath" episode we're getting next week, I think we've seen enough from West. He doesn't need to appear on our TV screens ever again.

Before fully moving on from "Summer House," we discussed the timeline Jesse Solomon dropped on his Instagram, and dipped into Amanda's behavior towards Kyle on the most recent episode of "In The City."

We rounded out this episode of Rich Text by diving into what we've been missing on "The Valley," namely the way that Danny's actions are being reevaluated by the audience now that we're being shown more of his behavior. It's an overdue reckoning for Danny, who admitted to drunkenly sexually harassing fellow castmate Jasmine and groping her partner Melissa. This season, Jasmine is finally being given the space to call out the inequities she faced and continues to face as a Black, queer reality star. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether most of her castmates and the audience are ready to really, truly listen to her.

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Another week, another feast of televisual content about the high crimes and misdemeanors of Amanda Batula and Westling Wilson! Tuesday night brought not only the premiere of "Love Island USA" (see our coverage over on Love to See It), but part two of the "Summer House" season 10 reunion and episode three of "In the City." Both Bravo shows now revolve primarily around investigating how long this couple have been sneaking around, and the more episodes come out, the worse it looks!

The second installment of the three-part "Summer House" reunion didn't ease off the gas. Amanda is pressed to consider whether West would take their relationship as lightly as he's taken his past romances, which actually seems to strike a nerve – and leads her to flee the stage in tears. Ciara and Kyle reveal, in side chats, that they've been in touch with West's recent ex Meija, and have learned just how serious and longstanding their relationship was. Dara offers a devastating read on West, who, meanwhile, sits in vacant silence for most of the episode. Kyle is asked about his tantrums this season and his self-admitted history of being inappropriate with other women, which he attributes quite liberally to Amanda's coldness and their dead bedroom. ("Hurt people hurt people," he explains.) We discuss Amanda's fragility and lack of remorse, the void onstage where West should be, Kyle choice to lean into a victim narrative, and the coming reckoning over West's secret off-camera girlfriend.

"In the City" kicks off with its own perspective on the Amanda-West-Ciara-Kyle saga. Amanda welcomes the other two tripod legs of her "perfect little trio," West and Ciara, outside the building where she's signing a one-year lease on her new apartment. (So much for that one-month trial separation.) West calls her "Manders!"; Ciara gives her sound advice about staying involved in Loverboy so that she's aware of her and Kyle's joint financial situation.

As Amanda sits for a confessional, beaming and gushing about her best friends, the camera glitches out and jumps forward to May 2026; producers ask a more sullen version of Amanda whether she had a crush on West at the time of this scene, and she dutifully denies it. Chilling stuff! Meanwhile, Lindsay goes on a bad date with a hunk ripped straight from "And Just Like That...", beefcake-themed nostalgic food delivery business and all. Whitney's boxes arrive from L.A. and Kenny, spiraling at the prospect that his new live-in girlfriend will actually have decor and possessions that take up meaningful space in his apartment, teases her until she cries – laying the groundwork perfectly for Lexi and Yvonne to tell their new pal that Kenny has been telling the guys that he questions their "spark" and sees their future as "murky." The Kenny-Lindsay clash continues over a group brunch. We discuss all of this, plus our overall take on "In the City" so far.

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Between Ciara Miller absolutely eating Amanda Batula up at the "Summer House" reunion, "Off Campus" becoming a full-blown obsession (check on your millennial friends, people!), and right-wing pink pill influencers melting down about Alex Cooper's pregnancy... we had a lot on our minds this week.

So what is the Rich Text podcast for other than brain dumping to each other and all of you?

We started this episode by getting into part 1 of the "Summer House" reunion. The entire Bravo-verse has been eagerly awaiting this moment of catharsis for Ciara Miller. And it was, indeed, satisfying to see Ciara eat Amanda Batula and West Wilson up, with strong assists from Mia, Carl, Kyle and Lindsay. We discussed Amanda and West's detached affect, whether they were actually there to apologize and take accountability (spoiler: no), the messiness of the timeline, and what it means for Ciara to be allowed to have her anger on full display. We also detoured briefly into some non-Scamanda standout moments, including Bailey going hard after Ben, and KJ opening up about his mental health struggles.

After a lengthy discussion about "Summer House," we took some time to dive into our latest all-consuming television obsession: "Off Campus." The Prime Video hockey romance series is firing on all cylinders. The fervor that it has inspired among so many viewers reminds us of the heyday of the WB (complimentary). We got into Claire's massive crush on Belmont Camelli, why the show is hitting so hard, the show's construction of healthy masculinity, and what the cast's press tour can tell us about this particular cultural moment.

Finally, we talked about the deranged meltdown some women on the right are having in the wake of Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper's pregnancy announcement. Turns out that you can have casual sex, date around, get married and have a baby in your 30s! Who knew?

Hope you enjoy! xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

After 10 seasons of anchoring "Summer House," it's time for the show's preeminent Peter Pan party boy, Kyle Cooke, to say goodbye. Kyle, along with his erstwhile wife Amanda Batula and longtime friend Lindsay Hubbard, are being shipped out from the Hamptons share house to the new Bravo series "In the City."

On Tuesday night, Bravo aired a finale-premiere combo that saw Kyle, Amanda, and Lindsay closing one chapter and opening the next. But this transition didn't hit the way production clearly anticipated while filming last summer; there's no clean break, no bittersweet transition to a new era. Instead, there are dangling threads galore. We already know we're gearing up for a season of watching Kyle and Amanda's marriage fall apart, and their current storyline has far more to do with their "Summer House" ex-colleagues West Wilson and Ciara Miller than with their new "In the City" cohort.

Despite the spanner thrown in the works, the "Summer House" finale packed a punch. Carl and Lindsay finally sit down and talk for the first time since their on-camera breakup two seasons ago (so that Carl can profusely apologize, of course). West explains to Ben that he knows Ciara couldn't handle casually dating and he doesn't want to lead her on, just hours before kissing her and trying to get her in bed. Ciara tries to give Amanda the kick in the ass she needs to do something about her crumbling marriage, and they share an emotional goodbye. And then Amanda sits Kyle down on the stoop of the empty house and tells him she was going to stay at a hotel – alone.

"In the City" opens with the news of their breakup this winter, and a scene the couple filmed after the news broke that Amanda was dating their friend West, before the episode rewinds to last September when filming commenced. We see some brutal post-couples-therapy conversations between a frazzled and angry Amanda and a clueless Kyle; we meet Lindsay's baby daughter, who already has the same death glare perfected; we meet Bachelor Nation's own Whitney Fransway and her extremely unlikeable boyfriend Kenny, who keeps calling her a "doll." Plus, Amanda questions the murky origins of Danielle Olivera's relationship with her married boyfriend, and Lindsay's bestie Yvonne cheerily admits that her husband once didn't notice when she went to San Diego unannounced for multiple days. Weird vibes!

We dig into all of it in this episode. Hope you enjoy! xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

When we stepped into the Lawn Club in downtown Manhattan last Thursday night, we immediately knew we were among our people – reality TV people, that is. Reality stars, producers, casting directors, content creators, podcasters and journalists, all together in a room listening to the dulcet tones of John Denver as remixed by DJ Kyle Cooke, thanks to Vulture’s Reality Masterminds event.

The wide-ranging content package and celebration were a great reminder that reality television has become a legitimately important piece of the entertainment industry, complete with its own media ecosystem. After 10+ years of covering reality television as journalists, podcasters and cultural critics, it's satisfying to see that ecosystem taken seriously and given its due. Plus, we got a great party out of it.

So on this week's podcast, we decided to gossip. We review Kyle's DJ-ing, discuss which members of the "Summer House" cast were there to support him, and talk about our favorite reality sightings -- Boston Rob and Rob C. hanging out together! Kristen Kish! Kathy Hilton! Andy Cohen! Ariana Madix! Various gorgeous realtors! We also got into the Jenn Fessler-West Wilson drama that came out of the night and then share all of our many thoughts about the latest episode of "Summer House."

In the back half of the episode, we wanted to dive into a few other things that have been on our minds, including the way that Threads is melting Claire's brain, and the intense discourse about Olivia Rodrigo's babydoll dresses and bloomers. Are her fashion choices subversive? Tools of the Epstein class? Somewhere in between? Emma and Claire have slightly different viewpoints on this topic, but we can agree on one thing: Social media platforms are where nuance goes to die.

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

In 2006, “The Devil Wears Prada” was already on the brink of being a paean to the bygone glory days of magazines. The hollowing out of print media was already well underway. The brief boom of digital media was in the offing, but that would quickly collapse as well. The prosperous era of Vogue that the original movie was satirizing has ended. Twenty years later, we are all – magazine editors, digital journalists, freelancers and self-employed newsletter purveyors – fighting over the meager scraps that remain. 

This is the world that “The Devil Wears Prada 2” places us in. A world where plucky journalist Andy Sachs has found professional success and acclaim, neither of which protect her from her insolvent publication laying off its staff. A world where Miranda Priestley’s Runway still has prestige and cultural impact, but must chase web traffic and produce fashion spreads on shoestring budgets. And a world where, just as in this one, tech billionaires treat vital industries like playthings. 

It is the sad state of the media that brings Andy, who has just been laid off via text while receiving an industry award, back to Runway. The magazine has been savaged online for spotlighting a brand that a later exposé revealed to be using sweatshop labor, and their prodigal daughter, now a respected and unemployed investigative reporter, is hired to restore the publication’s journalistic gravitas. Meanwhile, Miranda is fighting to save her promotion to global head of content for Elias-Clarke, which owner Irv Ravitz has been dangling over her head. But before their happy ending, Andy and Miranda also must navigate McKinsey consultants, tech bros, and billionaires who see no distinction between the art of fashion and A.I. slop. To save their careers, ultimately, they have little recourse but to find a billionaire they trust more than the other billionaires.

In this episode, we discuss the film’s depiction of a media industry that has been ravaged by late-stage capitalism, of goofy tech billionaires, and of billionaire divorcées. We get into the idea of the “good billionaire,” who uses her wealth benevolently, and why it always seems to be a woman. We also talk the changing face of fashion, as unevenly depicted as it was in this movie. And we discuss “TDWP 2” as a girlboss movie (complimentary?!), and the space it makes for female ambition.  Hope you enjoy! xo

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

"Summer House" and "The Valley" are two Bravo shows about young(ish) people on opposite coasts working through a plethora of banal relationship horrors. In this episode, we dive into the last few episodes of both shows.

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription