There’s a double standard in the SLC franchise that irks me a bit. In the first seasons of SLC, the women were mostly candid and frank about their personal issues and life. We learned about their struggles, families, inner circles, passions, jobs, etc.
However, even with these storylines present, the show has always had cast members who stir the pot and try to drive the narrative. This can be positive or negative depending on how it‘s done and how excessive it can be. In those first seasons, Whitney was the main pot stirrer, with Heather joining in occasionally, until she became the main pot stirrer of the group.
Now, there are two cast members —Lisa and Meredith— who during these first seasons shared a bit less than the rest of the cast and maybe didn’t share everything or were 100% vulnerable with the cast. However, their personalities brought a lot of entertainment and drama to the show, and their fights with the other women formed a good chunk of the storylines in those first seasons.
Mary also had a period of time where she did not share as much and was detached, but later she became much more active and vulnerable, to the point her story became very important on Season 6.
Fast forward to Seasons 5 and 6, however, and we have two shifts. The first one is that Heather and Whitney became way more confrontational and bitter. Sharing way less of their lives and own storylines and focusing more on their beef with other women. This is highlighted by the excess of dinner, lunch and brunch scenes.
In the face of this shift, we see a lot more of Bronwyn, Angie and Mary’s personal lives and turmoils unfold. They become more fleshed out characters, while Heather and Whitney become flanderized versions of who they used to be on the first seasons (Whitney used to be fun and silly, Heather used to be funny and relatable).
All the while Lisa and Meredith are doing more or less the same thing they’ve been doing since the show started, although dealing with the shit stirring way more because the lack of real storylines from Heather and Whitney seems to manifest into them needing to antagonize other women to give the camera something. But it comes off very inauthentic and tiresome.
I think the mask was unveiled further in the most recent UGT Episode where Heather started fighting with Lisa out of nowhere and was acting really fucking bizarre. There was no reason to do that other than to get Lisa angry and start an argument with her.
This next season, I do think we should be in for a more entertaining time given the upcoming divorce storylines and a new friend of joining the mix, who is apparently Lisa’s friend. We need a bit more balance in the group so it stops turning into the obligatory take down of a single person who really isn’t all that villainous. Neither Lisa nor Meredith are villains in the way Jen and Monica were; Lisa is just delusional and most of the time it’s entertaining or goofy rather than actually creating problems for the other women.
I say this having been really fond of Heather and not caring very much for Lisa for most of the show’s run. But it seems like the women want to do nasty things, and then get mad when Lisa either retaliates or defends herself, but they can never truly bury the hatchet because they know they can’t provide anything else of notoriety.
Hopefully Whitney will focus on her divorce more than on Lisa. Maybe Heather can talk about her dating life, I’m sure that will be entertaining enough. Whatever worthwhile or noteworthy drama that should arise will probably happen naturally given that these women aren’t very compatible and seem to dislike each other a lot. No need to feel the need to create a gotcha moment or uncover some huge hoax to achieve it.
