It’s no secret that I am a huge reality TV enthusiast. I have been a “Bachelor” fan since 2018, and I’ve picked up a lot of reality shows as they gained popularity. In the past few years, Netflix has been releasing a lot of original shows. It can be overwhelming when trying to figure out what shows are worth your time and energy, so look no further to figure out the best and worst of Netflix’s reality shows.
BEST: “Selling Sunset”
I think most people started watching this show for one reason: the houses. The Southern California luxury real estate market is absolutely wild; The houses are stunning and way out of our price range, making it the perfect obsession for the average viewer. “Selling Sunset” is a reality series following the agents at the Oppenheim Group, a luxury real estate brokerage in Los Angeles with high-profile clients and multi-million dollar listings. With these agents making six-figure commissions on the homes they sell, they have a lot of time and money to get involved in ridiculous levels of drama that get viewers really invested. The show’s cast includes well-known agents such as Chrishell Stause, Christine Quinn, Bre Tiesi, and Heather El Moussa. An iconic moment from the most recent season was when Stause schooled Marie-Lou on using they/them pronouns.
“My partner is nonbinary,” Stause said. “They use they/them pronouns. This is a simple thing.”
Stause’s swift correction on the misgendering of her partner, G Flip, gaining praise among LGBTQ+ viewers. While their relationship has been neglected on the otherwise heterocentric series, Stause has been very vocal about advocating for the queer community both on and off screen. If you love ridiculous drama and pretty houses, “Selling Sunset” is the show for you.
WORST: “Bling Empire”
What do you get when you take the glamor and excess wealth depicted in “Crazy Rich Asians” and set it in real life Los Angeles? The answer is vapid and entitled rich kids whose petty drama doesn’t even make for good TV. Netflix’s “Bling Empire” was advertised as a “real life Crazy Rich Asians” reality series following Los Angeles’ Asian American elite. The show highlights important parts of Asian cultures, like 100 day celebrations to bless babies with good fortune, but the cast members themselves are spoiled and unlikable – with the exception of Kevin Kreider. He is the only member of the group who does not come from wealth and lives a relatively normal life (for a model with billionaire friends). I gave up watching after two seasons, as each cast member’s toxic traits came out in full force in the presence of manufactured drama – there is no sane reason that Christine Chiu and Anna Shay would have a two-year long feud because of a comment made over a diamond necklace. After finishing season two, I went down a rabbit hole of interviews where I learned Chiu revealed that the cast members didn’t even hang out outside of filming. I turned off the show and never tuned in again.
BEST: “How to Build a Sex Room”
If you pictured a full blown “50 Shades” style sex dungeon, that’s not necessarily what Netflix’s “How to Build a Sex Room” is about. The 2022 lifestyle show is hosted by Melanie Rose, who is possibly the cutest old lady I’ve seen on the internet. She travels to different couples’ homes and teaches them how to spice things up in the bedroom and safely incorporate kinks and BDSM elements into their sex lives. The show is honestly more informative than raunchy, as Rose shows how the ambience of a room can impact a couples’ ability to have a healthy sex life. What I really liked about the show is that it featured many different kinds of relationships and approached them all with curiosity and respect. They feature LGBTQ+ couples, cisgender heterosexual couples, single people wanting to spice up their hookups, and polyamory. It was probably the first time I’d seen a polyamorous family of seven depicted in a positive manner and not treated as weird or “othered.” The show is super binge-able and funny, and honestly more informative than high school sex-ed ever was.
WORST: “Indian Matchmaking”
I was so excited to watch this show, as it was going to bring a very large part of Indian culture to mainstream audiences. I watched the first two seasons of “Indian Matchmaking” with my mom, and we both agreed it was not worth it. The show follows Sima Taparia, a matchmaker from Mumbai (as she will tell you every time she introduces herself) who meets with clients from India and abroad to find them life partners. Taparia is traditional, and the generational gap between her and her millennial clients is apparent as she insists on following outdated customs. Taparia famously tells her clients that they should learn to compromise and only expect 60-70 percent of the criteria they want in a partner (this has become an internet meme among the viewers of the show). While compromise is always important, telling someone their standards are too high for things that should be a bare minimum shows the disconnect between Taparia and her clients – and that’s not even the most problematic part of the show: from telling divorced women they aren’t desirable partners to prioritizing caste and family reputation over genuine connections, “Indian Matchmaking” all but confirms that arranged marriage in India is an outdated practice that is going more and more out of fashion with young people. It doesn’t help that Taparia’s success rate on the show is a whopping 0 percent – it’s not worth the time and energy to watch.
While I limited this list to lifestyle and dating shows, Netflix has dozens of other original shows that have had a lot of popularity with viewers in the United States and abroad. These are just some of the many TV shows that I’ve watched on Netflix recently and I am always looking for more.