Carla Hall's great new show • Love is Blind's silencing attempt • Capote • Traitors
Dear newsletter friends,
Happy Groundhog Day! Though it occurs to me: it's probably not happy for that poor groundhog that gets manhandled as if it's some kind of weather AI.
This week, I looked at a small detail in a story that broke earlier in January: another Love is Blind lawsuit.
The fascinating part for me was that this participant is suing as a response to what producers did to her: they demanded she pay them $4 million.
What I don't understand is what Love is Blind’s producers were trying to do here.
I mean, they're trying to silence her. But why? What is there to hide?
The Netflix show's creator, Chris Coelen, loves to say the show is just following people living their lives, so why not let them talk freely about it?
This lawsuit is challenging the legality of those confidentiality clauses, and if it succeeds, that could affect other reality TV stars who signed similar contracts. More here.
🍨 A recap and 4 reviews
My The Traitors recap:
A review:
Carla Hall’s Chasing Flavor highlights food history—and one of TV’s best
🍦 This image of Carla/moment from the show still makes me laugh
True-crime reviews:
Devil On The Web and Web Of Make Believe: two takes on cybercrime
A rundown of Capote media—what to watch and what to avoid
🔥 Questions, answered
In this week's Ask Andy:
🗓️ This week's reality TV premieres
This week's reality show premieres include new seasons of Vanderpump Rules, Farmer Wants a Wife, and Next Level Chef; the UK's Love Island: All Stars, which is now on Peacock; and a series that follows a youth choir after they appeared on America's Got Talent.
Documentary and special premieres include a look at Martha Stewart; the The Greatest Night in Pop, which is about the recording of "We Are the World"; Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story; and Nature docs about gorillas in Gabon and whales with legs.
💬 Comments of the week
On this review, Bad Mitten wrote,
Netflix reality seems to be struggling a bit with their finales (surviving paradise and squid game both had similar problems imo). Which is a disappointment considering they structure the drops in a way where the finale is the only stand alone episode.
On this review, Claire wrote:
Well, I wasn’t going to watch, despite my fascination with these social X-rays, as Tom Wolfe dubbed them. So much of Capote’s life was a sad, sad tale brought about by his sometimes-poisonous nature. Your review definitely put me in a different frame of mind, so I’ll be diving in!
On this Ask Andy story, Raph wrote:
CBS and Probst are still stuck in COVID mode and cost cutting mode of that era and need to move on and “reinvent” the show or its going to continue to lose ratings and just become a streaming, fast fwd skip to the challenge and votes show. shock and awe of anything is possible is gone.
🗞️ Reality TV news
Ratings news: The Traitors murdered its rivals; we’ve watched Survivor for 1.2 million years (really!)
Eddie Jackson has a new deal with Food Network
Rachael Ray’s new deal
JoJo Siwa's return to SYTYCD
Antiques Roadshow’s new cities
how a new Steve Martin documentary came together
Temptation Island moves to Netflix
🤩 I recommend
This collection of Capote content
I hope you have a great weekend, and stay safe if you're in the path of this next round of winter weather.
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 368 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 2 February 2024, and it's been watching a lot of Below Deck.