Rich Text

It's a hot romance adaptation summer. After years suffering through a rom-com movie desert, streamers have discovered that rom-com television series might just be where its at. At a time when heterosexual dating has never seemed bleaker and toxic men are wreaking societal destruction at the highest levels of government and tech, it makes sense that a lot of us are yearning for the uncomplicated fantasy of safe men to love.
In mid-May "Off Campus" became a runaway hit for Prime Video. Based on the first book in Elle Kennedy's sexy hockey series, millions of viewers fell in swoony, embarrassing levels of love with the romance between Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) and Hannah Wells (Ella Bright). The show shot to the top of the streaming charts, launched a viral soundtrack, and spawned a spate of thinkpieces about why women in their 30s and 40s couldn't stop watching. (The two of us were among them.)
So when we saw that "Every Year After," a show based on Carley Fortune's bestselling novel "Every Summer After," was also coming to Prime Video, we were anticipating another banger. Unfortunately, where "Off Campus" broke through with fans and critics, "Every Summer After" decidedly did not. Is it still #1 on Prime Video? Certainly. But it feels like people are doing more hate-watching than crush-watching.
These two shows share surface-level similarities. Both are part of Prime Video's obvious push to recapture the magic they found with "The Summer I Turned Pretty," both are based on popular novels, and both feature young hotties finding and bungling and finding love again. So we wanted to dig into what made them land so differently.
Part of the issue is tone (fun vs. somber), part is that ineffable chemistry between two leads that either leads the audience to invest in a love story or detach from it, and part of it might just come down to structure. Where "Off Campus" effectively integrates trauma into a sparkly, sexy series, "Every Year After" seems to view grief and trauma as totalizing. (Even "Every Year After's" big sex scenes somehow manage to feel dark and dour.) As Angie Han wrote in her review of "Every Year After" for The Hollywood Reporter: "So besotted with its own heartbreak, it forgets to sell the romantic fantasy that would make it worthwhile in the first place."
Before we wrapped up the episode, we took a slight detour into Bravo-land to give our high-level thoughts on "Summer House: The Aftermath." (TLDR: It was mostly a nothingburger, West deserved to be fired, Ciara forever, and Lindsay did some good tough love work.)
Hope you enjoy! Xo
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Three full weeks of "Summer House" reunions, and not an ounce of genuine remorse from Amanda Batula and Westling Wilson in sight. And yet, we persevere and we watch and we take notes in painstaking detail because as Michelle Obama recently said on her IMO podcast... "Reality TV is sociology."
There was a whole lot of telling behavior to analyze during part three of this reunion. Amanda was detached and monotone, West was detached and monotone, Ciara was both vulnerable and strong in her reads of them both, and Kyle was much more of an emotional "mess" than Carl ever was. Although it's hard to create closure on a situation when the two people at its center are incapable of and unwilling to take true accountability, at least Ciara got the chance to say her piece and move on to bigger and better things. (We hope she's having the time of her life in Fiji right now.)
Unfortunately, one thing we did not get was clarity. No one can seem to nail down a clear timeline of West and Amanda's relationship, and the pair manage to fully evade Kyle's direct questions about what the hell was going on between them at the Super Bowl! But one thing we did get confirmation of? West is a diabolical fuckboy. He admitted that he had been "unclear to a zillion women that [he's] dated," that Meija believed they were in an exclusive relationship, and that he was not monogamous with Amanda until their joint statement dropped. (A.k.a. When his roster dried up because he was enveloped in scandal.) After this reunion and the bonus "Aftermath" episode we're getting next week, I think we've seen enough from West. He doesn't need to appear on our TV screens ever again.
Before fully moving on from "Summer House," we discussed the timeline Jesse Solomon dropped on his Instagram, and dipped into Amanda's behavior towards Kyle on the most recent episode of "In The City."
We rounded out this episode of Rich Text by diving into what we've been missing on "The Valley," namely the way that Danny's actions are being reevaluated by the audience now that we're being shown more of his behavior. It's an overdue reckoning for Danny, who admitted to drunkenly sexually harassing fellow castmate Jasmine and groping her partner Melissa. This season, Jasmine is finally being given the space to call out the inequities she faced and continues to face as a Black, queer reality star. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether most of her castmates and the audience are ready to really, truly listen to her.
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Another week, another feast of televisual content about the high crimes and misdemeanors of Amanda Batula and Westling Wilson! Tuesday night brought not only the premiere of "Love Island USA" (see our coverage over on Love to See It), but part two of the "Summer House" season 10 reunion and episode three of "In the City." Both Bravo shows now revolve primarily around investigating how long this couple have been sneaking around, and the more episodes come out, the worse it looks!
The second installment of the three-part "Summer House" reunion didn't ease off the gas. Amanda is pressed to consider whether West would take their relationship as lightly as he's taken his past romances, which actually seems to strike a nerve – and leads her to flee the stage in tears. Ciara and Kyle reveal, in side chats, that they've been in touch with West's recent ex Meija, and have learned just how serious and longstanding their relationship was. Dara offers a devastating read on West, who, meanwhile, sits in vacant silence for most of the episode. Kyle is asked about his tantrums this season and his self-admitted history of being inappropriate with other women, which he attributes quite liberally to Amanda's coldness and their dead bedroom. ("Hurt people hurt people," he explains.) We discuss Amanda's fragility and lack of remorse, the void onstage where West should be, Kyle choice to lean into a victim narrative, and the coming reckoning over West's secret off-camera girlfriend.
"In the City" kicks off with its own perspective on the Amanda-West-Ciara-Kyle saga. Amanda welcomes the other two tripod legs of her "perfect little trio," West and Ciara, outside the building where she's signing a one-year lease on her new apartment. (So much for that one-month trial separation.) West calls her "Manders!"; Ciara gives her sound advice about staying involved in Loverboy so that she's aware of her and Kyle's joint financial situation.
As Amanda sits for a confessional, beaming and gushing about her best friends, the camera glitches out and jumps forward to May 2026; producers ask a more sullen version of Amanda whether she had a crush on West at the time of this scene, and she dutifully denies it. Chilling stuff! Meanwhile, Lindsay goes on a bad date with a hunk ripped straight from "And Just Like That...", beefcake-themed nostalgic food delivery business and all. Whitney's boxes arrive from L.A. and Kenny, spiraling at the prospect that his new live-in girlfriend will actually have decor and possessions that take up meaningful space in his apartment, teases her until she cries – laying the groundwork perfectly for Lexi and Yvonne to tell their new pal that Kenny has been telling the guys that he questions their "spark" and sees their future as "murky." The Kenny-Lindsay clash continues over a group brunch. We discuss all of this, plus our overall take on "In the City" so far.

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Between Ciara Miller absolutely eating Amanda Batula up at the "Summer House" reunion, "Off Campus" becoming a full-blown obsession (check on your millennial friends, people!), and right-wing pink pill influencers melting down about Alex Cooper's pregnancy... we had a lot on our minds this week.
So what is the Rich Text podcast for other than brain dumping to each other and all of you?
We started this episode by getting into part 1 of the "Summer House" reunion. The entire Bravo-verse has been eagerly awaiting this moment of catharsis for Ciara Miller. And it was, indeed, satisfying to see Ciara eat Amanda Batula and West Wilson up, with strong assists from Mia, Carl, Kyle and Lindsay. We discussed Amanda and West's detached affect, whether they were actually there to apologize and take accountability (spoiler: no), the messiness of the timeline, and what it means for Ciara to be allowed to have her anger on full display. We also detoured briefly into some non-Scamanda standout moments, including Bailey going hard after Ben, and KJ opening up about his mental health struggles.
After a lengthy discussion about "Summer House," we took some time to dive into our latest all-consuming television obsession: "Off Campus." The Prime Video hockey romance series is firing on all cylinders. The fervor that it has inspired among so many viewers reminds us of the heyday of the WB (complimentary). We got into Claire's massive crush on Belmont Camelli, why the show is hitting so hard, the show's construction of healthy masculinity, and what the cast's press tour can tell us about this particular cultural moment.
Finally, we talked about the deranged meltdown some women on the right are having in the wake of Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper's pregnancy announcement. Turns out that you can have casual sex, date around, get married and have a baby in your 30s! Who knew?
Hope you enjoy! xo
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After 10 seasons of anchoring "Summer House," it's time for the show's preeminent Peter Pan party boy, Kyle Cooke, to say goodbye. Kyle, along with his erstwhile wife Amanda Batula and longtime friend Lindsay Hubbard, are being shipped out from the Hamptons share house to the new Bravo series "In the City."
On Tuesday night, Bravo aired a finale-premiere combo that saw Kyle, Amanda, and Lindsay closing one chapter and opening the next. But this transition didn't hit the way production clearly anticipated while filming last summer; there's no clean break, no bittersweet transition to a new era. Instead, there are dangling threads galore. We already know we're gearing up for a season of watching Kyle and Amanda's marriage fall apart, and their current storyline has far more to do with their "Summer House" ex-colleagues West Wilson and Ciara Miller than with their new "In the City" cohort.
Despite the spanner thrown in the works, the "Summer House" finale packed a punch. Carl and Lindsay finally sit down and talk for the first time since their on-camera breakup two seasons ago (so that Carl can profusely apologize, of course). West explains to Ben that he knows Ciara couldn't handle casually dating and he doesn't want to lead her on, just hours before kissing her and trying to get her in bed. Ciara tries to give Amanda the kick in the ass she needs to do something about her crumbling marriage, and they share an emotional goodbye. And then Amanda sits Kyle down on the stoop of the empty house and tells him she was going to stay at a hotel – alone.
"In the City" opens with the news of their breakup this winter, and a scene the couple filmed after the news broke that Amanda was dating their friend West, before the episode rewinds to last September when filming commenced. We see some brutal post-couples-therapy conversations between a frazzled and angry Amanda and a clueless Kyle; we meet Lindsay's baby daughter, who already has the same death glare perfected; we meet Bachelor Nation's own Whitney Fransway and her extremely unlikeable boyfriend Kenny, who keeps calling her a "doll." Plus, Amanda questions the murky origins of Danielle Olivera's relationship with her married boyfriend, and Lindsay's bestie Yvonne cheerily admits that her husband once didn't notice when she went to San Diego unannounced for multiple days. Weird vibes!
We dig into all of it in this episode. Hope you enjoy! xo
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