Season 7 of Selling Sunset, Netflix’s most successful reality show, dropped early this month. Like with other seasons, fans are quickly devouring the latest batch of episodes (as of this writing, Selling Sunset is the third most-watched TV show on Netflix). But high streaming volume doesn’t necessarily equate to quality content, and the Emmy-nominated series isn’t serving epic drama like it used to.
A Promising Start Quickly Fell Off
When Selling Sunset started, fans were rapt with its format. It was Million Dollar Listing meets The Real Housewives. It was a workplace drama with well-dressed, freshly injected women trying to sell some of the most expensive properties in Southern California. It was new and exciting, but most of all, it was good.
Over its six seasons since, Selling Sunset has significantly dropped in quality. The beginning of the end started prior to the exit of the original resident villain and best-dressed agent at the Oppenheim Group, Christine Quinn – the same women fighting with the same women can only persist before it becomes unwatchable – but her leaving certainly didn’t help. Quinn rejoining the cast would be nothing more than a Band-Aid fix, though, because she was simply a symptom of the show’s larger structural problem.
What Selling Sunset lacks is an identity. There are doses of infighting between the agents; smatterings of personal issues shown by those willing to film outside of the office, local Los Angeles eateries, or Cabo San Lucas; and a bit of workplace issues taken up with coworkers and bosses. A few of these storylines are intriguing, but none get the screen time needed to define the show.
While some of the agents’ personal stories shown this season were compelling (Mary Fitzgerald opened up about her fertility journey and miscarriage, Chrishell Stause dealt with health issues and married her partner G Flip), there wasn’t enough of it shown to carry the series. The workplace conflict between the agents used to be exciting, but after seven seasons, alliances haven’t shifted enough for the drama to stay interesting. It’s the same old fights, and they’re all stale. The quick trick of adding a new agent to the office doesn’t help, either (and realistically, how many agents can one brokerage support?).
Chrishell Stause in ‘Selling Sunset’
Selling Sunset Needs Major Reevaluation
Selling Sunset’s best aspect when it started was its real estate – the houses that were shown and the drama that came with trying to sell. (True Selling Sunset fans will vividly remember Davina trying and failing to sell the $75 million house.) But there are dozens of TV series that showcase million-dollar properties, and anymore, the houses on Selling Sunset are merely backdrops for dialogue about drama we’re all too familiar with. 20 seconds of a $20 million view doesn’t make up for uninteresting storylines.
The show has yet to be renewed for an eighth season, and it might be best that the show wrap instead of filming more. Half of the cast is uninterested in participating in the drama necessary to make good reality TV, and the other half is only interested in rehashing the same issues with the same people. Selling Sunset either needs to completely regroup or let the sun set for good.
Selling Sunset is streaming now on Netflix.
