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and every iconic reference (Tempest in a Tea Party!).
So which is it?
IsThis American Wifemeant to be scarifying awfulness or inside-joke-filled comfort viewing?
The answer is odd and uncomfortable and wry: both.
That ambivalence isnt a mistake or a by-product its the subject of the show itself.
ForCircle Jerk,they satirized a certain kind of gay white male who fetishizes power (e.g.
Milo Yiannopoulos), while clearly getting their own guilty thrills from playing in his sandbox (cf.
But as they did inJerk,theyre indicting themselves for their own pleasures.
Voice-over gives us a little window into their thoughts.
Breslin: I read Brecht, and this voice came into my head: watchReal Housewives.
Foley, bless him, wears a foulard.
in others, Foley and Breslin run through exchanges that emphasize the unreality of the reality franchise.
Outrage is the coin that matters, and the ability to form a creative insult.
(As writers themselves, Foley and Breslin pay homage to the wives gift for language.)
It doesnt matter if you watch it or not, the series influence has diffused into your bloodstream.
Does it matter that the show elides the difference between fact and fiction?
Does it matter that the show has made wealth (or status) and self-pitying rudeness markersfor each other?
Look at our politics, and wonder.
Eventually,This American Wifes performers turn the cameras on one another.
Why do you like theHousewives?
the performers ask in reality-style confessionals.
At this point, theyre being candid we think.
Who owns this story?
Instead, they would prefer you simply sit with discomfort.
Somewhere, someone on the show is murmuring, Thats praxis.
Not that itsallholding a mirror up to hell.
(This includes buying a copy of Greens own book that has been discarded from a library.)
Foleys eyes twinkle as he tosses the book over one shoulder.
This American Wifeisstreamingthrough May 29.
