Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Vanderpump Rules Season 4 Episode 1 [Review]

I have been waiting so long for this. I was initially going to review last season of Vanderpump Rules, but decided last minute to wait until this year, and I'm glad I did. During that year break, I was able to go through all three of the previous seasons and really get to know all of these outrageous people. Now, more than ever before, I am ready to take this show head on, and examine all of the insanity that it ensues. Get ready for Vanderpump Rules season 4!




First off, I'd like to welcome James to the main cast. He was featured heavily last season, especially close to the end as he started dating Katie (after her breakup with Tom), and now he has been validated by being upgraded to cast member from recurring. Good for you, man. I may not have been able to stand you last season, but you must have done something right.

Anyway, before anybody can get anything done this episode, Lisa called for a meeting with the staff. She sat them all down, and proceeded to bitch at a few of them. Go figure. Her first target was Jax, who got off with a bit of poking fun due to his third nose job, but she quickly moved on to be more harsh with James. Apparently something happened at PUMP, where he has been DJing, but because the show is back in session now, she made sure to let him know that he needs to come back to Sur full time. Tom also got his butt handed to him by the queen bee due to his only showing up for six shifts over the course of several months. Yet he still managed to show up on the first day of filming. I think that's where Lisa's real beef was, but she didn't want to outright say it on camera.

After the meeting we got to catch up with this season's returning cast. We got to find out that Scheana and Katie are still good friends after last year's falling out with Stassi. Katie is still not engaged (we'll get to that), and also they both confirm they've heard rumors that Stassi and her perfect man are not working out well. Jax has been forced to work in the kitchen due to his nose job, and James is still terrified of the monster that Kristen is and continues to be. So, in a nutshell, not a lot has changed.


A looooot of the drama this week revolved around James and Kristen. As you might remember, Kristen was fired from Sur last season, but that hasn't stopped her from coming around. She's come close to getting James, her current boyfriend, fired on several occasions by being drunk and belligerent. In a bit of a venting session, James told Jax some info on his ex girlfriend that he is still crazy about (Carmen from last year), and Jax, being the huge idiot he is immediately went and texted her to confirm the allegations. Apparently these days Carmen and Kristen are good friends, so Carmen told Kristen, and as you can imagine, Kristen showed up at Sur pissed as hell.

As in seasons past, Jax plays completely innocent saying he simply lost his cool, but anyone who has seen any other episodes of this show knows that he did it on purpose. Jax always plays it cool and tried to act like he had nothing to do with the situation when it was all his fault. In the end, James told Kristen to get lost before he got fired, leading to a big blowup and a hasty apology the next day.

What's funny about the whole thing is that when Kristen was re-intoducing herself, she made a point to talk about how much better she is this year. She mentioned that she is making T-shirts (which are really poorly picked out white font on plain black shirts, way to be creative), and that she's been seeing a therapist who has made her not have psychotic breaks anymore. But what do you think happened in this episode? She flipped out on James yet again. The previews have already shown that James is more than likely going to leave her, so this is becoming a rather moot point.


There was a bit of down time, surprisingly, for this episode. We got to see Jax interact with his mom for the first time. She had never been to see him in L.A., and she was actually a very charming woman. Getting to see Lisa grill her over lunch (along with Sheana and her mom, too) about young Jax was hilarious.

Also, in preparation for Sheana's birthday party, the Toms (Who will be called Tom and Schwartz) went to the salon on a man-date with each other. The topic quickly turned to Schwartz wanting to get married. Hold up. This is kind of suspicious because Katie already said that his six months was up three months ago as of filming, but she didn't follow through with her threats to break up with him? It sounds like either they came up with an idea or the producers did so that they could capture it on camera because, well, the preview for the season sort of spoiled that, too.

The preview also spoiled that Stassi comes back eventually but whatever.

Things get fast forwarded to Sheana's birthday party, an event the show covers every year, and to everyone's surprise she doesn't have a new single she's promoting. Wow, that's new. Also to everyone's surprise, Kristen shows up with the biggest balls in town. Cue the freakout from literally everybody in the room.


After an extended "OMG Kristen is here!" montage, things finally get rolling again. She made her way around the room, but avoided talking to most everyone. She did make time to harass James about drinking. It's sad, but I'm actually starting to like James. He is stuck in a crappy situation and can't seem to figure out how to get out. He stands by the claim that he wasn't drunk when Kristen got there, but decided to get wasted just to spite her. Kristen takes refuge in the most awkward of places, being Max, who happens to be Lisa's son. I feel like this woman needs to pick her friends a bit more carefully, especially when Kristen has been on Lisa's naughty list from day one.

The only person who wasn't mad about Kristen being there was Scheana. They got pretty close after season one ended, and Scheana keeps getting drug into the madness year after year. This year she seems pretty distanced from Kristen, but she definitely didn't turn her away from the party. Ariana, on the other hand, was pretty pissed to see them back on good terms. Scheana said she wished Kristen would give her a personal reason to hate her, and in Ariana's mindset, she already had by hating her best friend. I have to say I agree with Ariana. If somebody was saying my best friend had to die, I'd take it pretty personal, too.

To wrap things up, we have James getting completely wasted and embarrassing himself in front of everyone, and Ariana confessing to Tom that she may not want to be around Scheana any more due to  her befriending Kristen yet again. These people really know how to stir the pot, don't they? I personally hope the Scheana/Ariana friendship continues on, but to be honest, without Scheana at her side and with James already starting to hit up other girls, there may not be a reason for Kristen to be around soon enough. There may not even be ways to work her into the show soon enough.

God. When will we have Stassi back already?

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