This Is Your Brain on TV

Not Above It! is back above the 49th Parallel with Season 1, Episode 3 of The Real Housewives of Vancouver. Jake and Taija discuss the ubquity of the perpetually hungover "Chelsea Handler woman" archetype of the early 2010s, the comic tragedy of the Housewife side hustle, an anthropology of Canadian drunkenness, and the dubious cosmetic qualities of... whale splooge.

In this episode of Not Above It!, Taija and Jake are back in Vancouver to talk the inception of concern trolling, Christina's suspected South African-ness, the exhibitionism of "playing in one's face," and the special toxicity of Canadian mother's guilt.

We're back! Not Above It! returns to the birthplace of one of its illustrious hosts, the Great White North, the would-be 51st State, the People's Republic of Degrassitopia, a.k.a., Canada. In Season 2, Tasia and Jake are covering the short-lived but legendary exportation of Bravo's Housewives formula, The Real Housewives of Vancouver. In this episode, they get into what it means to be famous in Canada, Vancouver's special brand of income inequality, the anthropology of Anglosphere accents, and the myth of "Canadian nice."

In this final episode of the first season of Not Above It!, Jake and Taija cover all three episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 5 reunion special. Topics include the many age-regressive defense mechanisms of Lisa Barlow; the paternal menace of Todd; a recap of Heather Gay's fall from grace, momentary recovery, and immediate fall from grace again; the season-defining alluring strangeness of Mary Cosby; and Angie K.'s ascendant character arc.

Jake and Taija cover the Season 5 Finale of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in this episode of Not Above It! Topics of conversation include Lisa Barlow's emotional Peter Pan syndrome, the refreshing earnestness of Mary and Angie K.'s friendship, Meredith's neverending quest fo a memeable screengrab, and the conspiratorial menace of Heather C-I-Gay, producer-at-large. Also, a bite-sized review of Good Time Girl, otherwise known as The Year Obsessive Thinking (About Monica Garcia).

On this week's episode of Not Above It!, Jake and Taija cover Season 5, Episode 15 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and finally crack the code of what makes Salt Lake such a singular work of reality-TV art. Also: The brimming intellect of Heather Gay, Britani's strategy-by-chaos, an emerging theory of Bronwyn's duplicitousness, and the subtle genius of a Lisa Barlow tantrum.

In this omnibus episode of Not Above It!, Taija and Jake cover episodes 13 and 14 of Season 5 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: The Muppets take Puerto Vallarta! Malinwoski's Kula ring comes to Bravo, all the world's a stage (and a confessional box) for Britani, Lisa and Meredith are psychoanalyzed for filth, and Heather Gay has her Newtonian apple tree moment.

On this week's episode of Not Above It!, Jake and Taija review Season 5, Episode 12 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, perhaps one of the best episodes since Mary Cosby first smelled hospital. They cover the permissive weirdness of Mary Cosby, Bronwyn's confusing rapid-onset prudishness, Angie and Britani's Hawthornean contest of chastity, and Lisa Barlow's joyful discordianism. Also, do we stand on the precipice of a Bronwyn Newport villain arc?

This week's episode of Not Above It! has the three H's: Hunter Biden, herpetophobia, and Heather Gay's new book. Also, Taija and Jake dig into the waning manipulative power of Meredith Marks, the women's class solidarity against Monica, burgeois rec-room art, Bronwyn's vulgarian tendencies, and the great Cosby Restoration.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear Not Above Iters! Not Above Itistas? Not Above Iteers. Merch coming... never. On this week's episode of the pod, Jake and Taija cover Season 5, Episode 10 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. your favorite reality-TV philosophers discuss the affective science behind Angie K.'s maternal baggage, the curious quiescence of Whitney Rose, Bronwyn's Lady Macbeth arc, Mary Cosby's shocking epistolary romance with Jard Osmond, and the many failed connivances of Heather Gay.