Letter of Recommendation: ‘Vanderpump Rules’

so beautifully written! though i never watched the show i enjoyed every word and every thought, I can really identify with this! so good.

I've never watched the show but have seen some of the cast on Watch What Happens Live (love you Andy Cohen!).

Considering most of them aspire to fame in some capacity, they are achieving their goals so the NYT writer's premise is moot (although entertaining).

Wonderful- honest without condescension, thank you for acknowledging a breathe of fresh air...even if found in an unlikely place!

This is perfect -- Naomi Fry captures it all.

've often watched the show and thought what an anomaly it is in the reality genre...it's kind of a sad depiction of what happens when people who expect to become successful don't manage to. For every successful actor/model/comedian that moves to LA to seek their fame and fortune, there's one hundred SUR waiters doing what the cast of this show do - bide time until they either get their break or (more likely) give up the dream and do something else. The show is like purgatory.

I've often watched the show and thought what an anomaly it is in the reality genre...it's kind of a sad depiction of what happens when people who expect to become successful don't manage to. For every successful actor/model/comedian that moves to LA to seek their fame and fortune, there's one hundred SUR waiters doing what the cast of this show do - bide time until they either get their break or (more likely) give up the dream and do something else. The show is like purgatory.

most of the housewives episodes incl. beverly hills edition with Lisa V. are often so bad they're actually good.
however, with "Vanderpump Rules" it's like watching reruns of "Joey" after the series finale of "Friends".

This show is like passing a multi-car pile up and being fascinated to see who might emerge from the wreckage. All of the supposedly "hard-bodied" cast are emotional messed up Peter Pans who just can't grow up and the fact that they have caught and transmitted serious STD's is quite a feat. The horror this season is to watch this all white cast finally add some color to it in the form of one of the SUR servers basically being used as booty bait for Ms. Vanderpump's son and to then hear narcissist James deliver the line in his narrative that the kid is "taking one for the team" by sleeping with her so that his path to Lala is wingman free. At that point it became super easy to not tune in to this show again.

You wouldn't think the NYT/Vanderpump fan cross over exists but I'm glad to see it put so beautifully. Sometimes it's nice to turn your brain completely off.

This was delightful. I have a hard time explaining to myself why I watch Vanderpump Rules -- I'm just going to borrow this piece from now on and, in the spirit of the writer, not aspire to have my own explanation.

I am well aware of the "it's so bad it's actually good" theory with regards to television and movies but I just don't think it applies here. The first few seasons of Real Housewives (of varying cities) WERE "so bad they were good" HOWEVER, as with the one or 2 episodes of Vanderpump Rules I watched and later seasons of Housewives, they're just "so bad they're unwatchable."

Great summary of this show. You've clearly expressed why I love this show too!

This show is a fever dream out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. I love it.

Thank you Ms. Fry - Vanderpump Rules is that perfect tv bonbon when you want oblivion.

What a great synopsis of this show! I too watch it to forget my own stress of daily life for awhile...watching this group somehow makes me feel better...it's funny how much drama is created over basically nothing. I enjoyed your article, it's very much the way I feel concerning Vanderpump Rules also!

I'm dying over this: "Watching it is like having my brain stroked to a very low-grade, consequence-free orgasm — a pleasurable sort of noninvolvement"- Id like to make a shirt that reads this....

Wow, and I thought it was just about a group of hedonistic and self-possessed twenty/thirty-somethings with little on their minds but sleeping with one another, dissing one another and getting drunk at every possibility. Who knew that it was akin to War and Peace. BTW, I watch every Monday night.

Excellent writing. Thank you.