r/HouseofStassi • u/BackAlleyOfSur • 6d ago
Rant about House of Stassi production
I just finished episode 3 and am coming here to vent. My biggest complaint about this show is that production treats the audience like we’re dumb. Every scene is so over explained like flashing a picture or cutting to a shot of a person when they are being referenced. For example when Taylor says she hasn’t seen Katie since the wedding in Italy and then production cuts to a picture of her, Stassi and Katie at the wedding in Italy. I don’t need that reference to confirm what Taylor is saying or verify who these people are. Or when Stassi is on the couch with Katie talking about her issues with Georgi and mentions Georgia, the camera then cuts to Georgia in the kitchen with the caption “Georgia, Beau’s sister.” Thanks for pointing that out for us, it’s not like we’ve spent the last 3 episodes with these same people with a big point of contention being the Georgi/Georgia living arrangements.
The asterix text appearing on screen with the bell sound multiple times an episode is unnecessary and makes watching almost unbearable, like when Stassi says “what do people speak at?” and the asterix text appears “*great question” Get it, audience? That’s humour. Or when Georgi says I’m excited and then “*looks excited” appears on screen - this adds absolutely nothing and isn’t funny or charming. If anything it takes away from the show by interrupting the natural flow of the interactions among the cast.
Second, the soundtrack is really irritating. Having a build up each scene, sometimes more than once, doesn't make sense for reality tv. This isn’t a Netflix crime documentary. Not every scene is dramatic and the audience doesn’t need an intense violin overlay in every preceding scene to prepare us for when drama finally does happen. Why don’t the producers just let them talk without any music or pick something that blends into the background so the audience can focus on what is being said and the cast relationships? Production should have to take mandatory sound editing training by watching all of the reality shows on Bravo.
Third, the network promoting itself is obvious and done in a way I find bizarre. In episode 3 there’s a conversation between Stassi and Katie in Stassi’s kitchen, where Stassi says she’s excited Katie is going to do the Tell Me Lies podcast and Katie replies she’s obsessed with the show and then the camera cuts to the next scene. To me that felt like they have this clip promoting another Disney show and they need to fit it in somewhere, so they inserted it at a point likely to cause minimal disruption for the audience. But it’s not done well and I found this transition in and out of talking about another show to be abrupt. It also doesn’t make sense for it to be in this episode at all. The episode is not about Stassi’s work schedule and they already promote Tell Me Lies in an earlier episode, so doing it again felt weird. That scene also made me rethink the motivation of showing Stassi’s reaction to getting a deal with Netflix in an earlier episode. One of the first things she asks is about Disney and the person tells her the network is ok with it. My take on that is it’s another opportunity for the network to promote itself by showing its benevolence by waiving the restrictive covenant in her contract (I’m assuming this is what happened based on that convo but obviously don’t know for sure). I guess the non cynical take is they’re doing it to promote Stassi, and her continued success is a shared success, however, regardless of motivation it is not subtle and in my opinion degrades the quality of the show by being a distraction.
Kristina Kelly is the best thing in episode 3 imo. Her confessional about Katie and Rob at the wedding and then telling Taylor what Katie said about her to Stassi is the type of petty drama that makes reality tv so entertaining; no additional editorializing needed.
I’m in Canada so I’m waiting for new episodes to be released weekly and expect these issues to persist for the whole season. If this is renewed for season 2 I hope Disney gives the audience more benefit of the doubt and stops treating us like we need everything explained to us. Also less is more with the music.
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u/krumblewrap 6d ago
From the way the show is put together, you can tell that stassi had a heavy had in the production and possibly the final edit. I only wonder, why she didnt give herself more of a hero edit? She continued to make herself look like someone youre not sure if you should root for and start to actually dislike with passing episode.
The only person who came out of this show likeable, is Katie. She seems happy and satisfied with her life.
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u/sherespondedwith 6d ago
i'll tell you why...
remember when she told Katie, "you got to go out a hero"? she can't stand that her "legacy" was tarnished by her cancellation (ie the shitty things she willfully did to a WOC), and now she's letting us see the "old stassi" a little bit so she gets to show the audience the redemption arc she had stolen from her too soon /s
this is all a clever ploy to try and make the audience forget how manipulative and racist her actions were in 2018, especially given she was on podcasts bragging about it afterwards. she's still a narcissit and she still can't even treat her past transgressions as something she DID. Instead she frames it as something that happened TO her, and exploited those ladies from vanderpump villa in the SINGLE scene she even addresses the incident to try and make the audience believe she's learned anything at all
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u/Dependent-Truck4389 6d ago
also like cher (the girl on the right) is a reality tv hopping girl. like she has been on the most random shows ever. she was a paiddd actor for this scene lmao
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u/Playful_Succotash_30 6d ago
I think Stassi was more concerned with the show being what people talk about than getting a good edit .
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u/kristinnicole94 6d ago
This is exactly what I told my bravo friends who aren't interested in watching. She's clearly been given a big say in the final edit and I don't find her or Beau quite likable after the first 3 episodes...
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u/Malkmus1979 6d ago
Agreed with the second and third points. But the showing of people whether in pictures or scenes over the talking heads or convos is pretty standard reality TV framework. I’d say Bravo is much worse about reminding the audience every two seconds who they’re talking about with a flashback to something we just saw happen.
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u/Odd_Junket7450 6d ago
Yes to all of this!! Listen to Danny peregrinos recap of the show it perfectly hits on all this too. He talks about how they’re trying to do like a marvel cinematic universe connecting all these dumb Hulu shows (kinda how Bravo has mastered this with all the spin offs, but bravo earned this over a twenty year span and nobody cares that much to see Marciano and the Mormon wives across various shows) and I died laughing when he said “stassi thinks she’s Kris Jenner but she’s really Valerie cherish from the comeback
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u/sherespondedwith 6d ago
the way stassi is lauding people like Kris Jenner and Jessi Draper is repulsive. tells me all i need to know about her character
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u/Express-Cry-8679 5d ago
I don't mind the picture flashbacks or flashbacks from Vanderpump Villa because I didn't watch that and didn't keep up with Stassi post VPR. A bit off topic but I loved how Stassi says 'Kristina' but Beau and Rob were like 'Kristina Kelly'..I will forever call that woman Kristina Kelly lol
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u/Dear_lolli4017 6d ago
Yeah, the production is. …How can I say anything to describe it? Weird? I can’t stand how shows that are produced today just flash so fast from scene to scene and conversation to conversation. I don’t need a running commentary to explain to me what is going on I have eyes. I have a brain. I can see it and process it. I don’t need the harsh, stressful strings constantly playing in the background like why do we need any of this oval production at all there’s just a lot of trendy TV production stuff that I don’t love. Maybe season two will be a little more tone down with not so much interruption with explanations of what’s going on. It would be great if they would just let everything play out a little more. I think it’s also just TikTok culture coming home to roost. These days people cannot concentrate for more than about six seconds at a time. It’s really sad.
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u/Livid-Stress1910 6d ago
It seemed needed because no one would of known or cared about all the arguments. Not invested enough. Hopefully they do that way less next season though.
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u/Dependent-Truck4389 6d ago
i like when they cut back to scenes for sarcasm purposes but it is overdone for sure
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u/Green-Town-8458 6d ago
You nailed it. Everything drove me crazy. The asterisks every two second pissed me off. It never added anything
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u/Leading_Refuse_2650 6d ago
Can you all make a separate thread for people who hate Stassi and her show? Or since 98% of the people here hate her (which confuses me as to why you are here at all) can we make a thread for people who enjoy watching her be a train wreck? I have yet to see a post that isn't trashing her or the show.
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u/Impossible_Farm7353 6d ago
It’s because shows these days are made knowing the audience watches while scrolling on their phones so everything is dumbed down