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Tag Archives: Made In Chelsea

Made in Chelsea is BACK, people.

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

celebrities, drama, entertainment, fashion, Made In Chelsea, media, reality shows

Made in Chelsea is the British equivalent of Laguna Beach or The Hills.  It features the idle rich, including the heirs to some very prominent British brands (it would be like have the Hershey and Oreo heirs flitting around New York, sleeping with each other and acting inane) (I would probably watch that show…)

Anyway.  The much-anticipated third series of the show returned this week.  If you watched the trailer (above), you already know that the advert featured the entire cast at a wild party in Marie Antionette-style couture.  When we left off at the Christmas special, Caggie and Spencer appeared to have finally gotten together. We learn in the first moments of the season that, not only has that fizzled in the face of Caggie’s extended Australian holiday, she’s actually tattooed another man’s initial on her arm.  Even Hugo thinks its brutal.

Speaking of Hugo, he spends the entire episode talking about how phenomenally changed he is by Natalie, the generic and plastic looking girl he’s been dating (for what? three weeks?) and how he understands domesticity now.  When not speaking rhapsodically about the boring girl he’s dating, he’s feeling sorry for his single friends – whom, he muses, aren’t yet capable of his mature commitment.

Poor Spencer – one of the more likable members of the cast – spends the entire episode getting shat on.  First he discovers that Caggie’s indifferent (although apparently she made no effort to contact him while in Australia, which should have been his first clue).  Then, we learn that Hugo’s more or less abandoned him to hang out with his vacuous new squeeze.  On the bright side, Spencer is tanned, coiffed as ever, and looks great in a bomber jacket.

Proudlock, another of my favorite characters, takes Jaime to church with him.  This is clearly just a pretense for introducing Kimberley, another vacuous blonde (albeit a more likable one than Hugo’s girlfriend).  She is immediately hit on by…everyone.

But the real question is, did it meet expectations? It wasn’t exactly compelling, but I’m not giving up quite yet.  I expect Ollie and Cheska to have some major freak out at each other at some point; Hugo and Ladyfriend are clearly doomed, which could be entertaining; Spencer might meet someone who isn’t psychopathic and manipulative (I’m rooting for you, buddy. Maybe revisit Louise?).  And one can assume that there will be ostentatious displays of wealth all around, lots of Mark Francis saying “Dahling!“, and probably a curveball or two along the way.

On the whole, the show was pretty boring, but with just enough crazy that I’m going to hang in there and see what happens.

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Best of 2011

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Friends with Benefits, Game of Thrones, Lies of Locke Lamora, Made In Chelsea, Marcelle the Shell, Vermeer's Women

This “best of” list is not typical of end of year lists; it doesn’t necessarily have any grounding in things that happened in 2011 (just things I happened to learn about in 2011)

Best TV series:

Game of Thrones

The first season covered the first book of a seven book series.  Four intertwined plot lines reveal different ploys to capture control of the Seven Kingdoms, a mythical but vaguely medieval alternate universe.  There is lots of gratuitous sex and violence – don’t watch it with your parents – and it is awesome.

Best Guilty Pleasure:

Made in Chelsea (TV) and Friends with Benefits (movie)

image courtesy Daily MailI would totally watch this again, even if I wasn’t on a plane.

Best Movie:

Tintin (but it was slim pickings this year)

See this review that I did in October for more info.

Best Book (that I read):

The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

image courtesy waterstones.com

Like Game of Thrones, it creates a rich alternate universe that is both relatable and unpredictable.

Best Museum Exhibit (that I went to):

Vermeer’s Women at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, UK

image courtesy essentialvermeer.comIts better in real life.

Best Internet Meme:

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, pt. 2

“treats and snoozin’, snoozin’ and treats”

Best Food I Made:

khouresh (North African Lamb Stew)

This isn’t the one I made, but it sure sounds tasty…

What categories did I miss?

 

 

Made in Chelsea Season Finale: A Retrospective

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

Caggie, guilty pleasure, Hugo, Made In Chelsea, Millie, Proudlock, shameful

I’ve been trying to stick to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule but I’m late this week because I’ve just returned from a last-minute trip to visit my friend Jaime in Israel.  It was an incredible week and I’m so excited to post more about it in the next few days.  On my first day back in town, I went to yoga, sorted through my email correspondence and then caught up on my stories.

Even when I had, um, a life, I was a pretty avid TV watcher.  But this week was special, because the “Made in Chelsea” season finale was airing as I stepped off the plane, and I just finished watching it.  “Made in Chelsea” is the only home-grown British show that I have gotten into, but since it is British (this country’s equivalent of Laguna Beach or The Hills) it is equal parts voyeuristic and ethnographic, at least for me.

Its all very complicated and interesting.

The advert for the show pretty much gave away the whole story arc: Millie, heiress to a British chocolate empire (another major character is the heir to McVittie’s digestives), discovers that her ex-boyfriend cheated on her with one of her friends. Dressed in full-on Great Gatsby garb, she marches to the front of the 1920s themed birthday party (fact: themes make everything more dramatic) and says, “A toast: to my friend Rosie Fortescue, for sleeping with Hugo Taylor while we were together, and then lying about it.  Here’s to friendship.”

Drama predictably ensued; today, apparently, several of the characters have been ripped apart so vehemently on Twitter that the Daily Mail wrote an article about it.

Elsewhere in the episode, Spencer took Louise out for a drink and apologized for treating her shabbily when they dated earlier in the season.  Cheska, who is horse-faced, self-righteous and hyper defensive, had a show-down with Gabriella over the fact that Cheska is moving in with Ollie (regular readers: remember that photo of the hilariously ugly androgynous guy I posted a few weeks ago? That’s Ollie).  Mark Francis, a flamboyant aspiring jewelry designer, said “Dahling!” a hilarious number of times, followed by such comments as “you look diviiiiine” and “we need trees with gilded leaves and naked women riding tigers at this party” (no joke. he really said that. and he was serious.)

Most of the time, the people on the show are unintentionally hilarious (see above) and, of course, behave so vapidly and selfishly that it strains credulity, even by the standards of “reality” television.  Every once in a while they surprise the viewer, though.  In this episode, Spencer asks Louise for a drink to apologize for treating her shabbily when they dated over the summer.  In an earlier episode, Proudlock (the one who consistently embarrasses himself the least) was able to gently suggest that a Hooter’s-style candy shop was a poor business plan to the McVittie’s heir (a rare combo of unintentional hilarity and genuine sweetness and rational behavior).  And last episode all the cast spent the afternoon at a Pensioner’s Home (retirement home) to raise money to rehab the facility.

The season finale ended with fireworks both literal and metaphorical – the theme party literally included fireworks – and I’ll actually admit to being excited about the next season, whenever it happens.  In the meantime I may start watching “Sorority Girls,” a show where squeaky clean American sorority girls are imported to Leeds to teach slutty, hard-partying Brit university students the meaning of sisterhood.

Stay tuned.

Things I learned from British television

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Made In Chelsea, reality shows, television

My parents, who are apparently miracle workers when it comes to getting their children settled in new houses, came this weekend.  I’ll post some more about their visit soon, but first, things I’ve learned from not leaving the house:

– Ian and I are on the vanguard of British TV (telly) technology, because we have fancy cable (with DVR!).  The installation guy said “You’re American? Well, then you must know all about this!”

– The only people who love American crime shows more than Americans are Brits.  At any given time, there are five or six American crime shows viewable on our non-premium cable (if you throw in the channels we don’t get, the number probably doubles). I don’t know if the shows are reruns, or they somehow ended up with a huge backlog, or what.  In addition, there is an entire channel devoted exclusively to British crime shows.

I can’t confirm, but I suspect “Motorway Patrol” is a cop show, too.  Its also the only non-American show on the channel guide….hurray for American cultural hegemony?

– “Friends” is still going strong here: on the order or four or five episodes a day. In fact, there seem to be virtually no scripted shows that are home-grown.  There have been a bazillion seasons of Big Brother, and some variation on Jersey Shore and a make-under show in its 4th season, but very few English primetime shows that could be classified as sitcoms or dramas.

– But speaking of reality shows, “Made in Chelsea,” the British answer to “Laguna Beach/The Hills/The City/Whatever Crap They’re Calling It Now,” is hilarious.  Here is a quote from the Mirror review:

“In Chelsea the truth is more fabulous than fiction…”

So purred Caggie Dunlop at the start of the first episode of reality aristo-soap Made In Chelsea.”

The only episode I’ve seen culminated in Millie discovering that Hugo had cheated on her, throwing a drink in his face and storming out of the Monte Carlo-themed party.  Seriously, y’all, this is bad TV taken to the next level.  If you don’t believe me, see below:

SERIOUSLY.  He ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THAT.

Creepy, ugly image courtesy UnrealityTV.com

And here’s one of the show’s villians (his name is Spencer, which is apparently a prereq for these sorts of shows):

I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY.

So I haven’t decided if I’ll watch it again, but its absolutely hilarious, and I’m unemployed, so I probably will.  Its called an “aristo-soap,” for crying out loud.

– I’m sure I’m missing some relevant information about UK television.  Please fill me in on anything you feel I should know (bonus: comments make me feel popular).

Stay tuned for more high-brown observations about English culture, including some photos of my neighborhood and my almost-unpacked (ish) house.  Lots of excitement on the horizon, friends.

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