Rich Text

We laughed, we cried, we gawked at leaked wedding photos! This week on the pod, I'm joined by the wonderful Kelsey McKinney, co-owner and journalist at Defector Media, for a two-part conversation: first, a general chat about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's epic wedding at Madison Square Garden, then a recap of the Netflix rom-dramedy "Voicemails for Isabelle."
Though neither of us particularly wanted to pay attention to l'affaire Swift-Kelce, this splashy event has a gravitational pull on the discourse. We chatted about how Swift's choice of wedding venue clashed with many people's expectations and assumptions about her taste – including ours – and what it means that the word "tacky" has been thrown about so liberally. We also got into the spectacle of billionaire weddings and conspicuous consumption at this particular moment, as well as what it signifies that the couple made massive charitable donations in conjunction with the wedding.
Then, we turned our attention to a Netflix romance that we both liked much more than we expected: "Voicemails for Isabelle." We unpack how deeply creepy the concept of the movie is, and how many unsettling choices the male lead makes... and why we found ourselves getting on board anyway. We got in our feelings about how the movie captures the joy of sisterhood and the devastation of grief, and we recapped the whole thing – the silly moments, the millennial-core details (a gourmet dessert nacho food truck? hell yeah), the satisfying physical comedy and goofy side characters, and every moment that made us cry.
Hope you enjoy! xo
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By the beginning of July, I have entered my now-annual "Love Island" fugue state. I fall asleep watching new episodes, and I wake up and immediately reach for my phone to scroll social media reactions. I try to recap the major plot points to my husband, who is usually baffled by the onslaught of details and my feverish emotional state. It's all I know how to think about about at the moment. So I was thrilled to get a chance this week to chat with, Anna Peele, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of "Enter the Villa: The (Unauthorized) Reality Behind 'Love Island.'"
As a relative newbie to the "Love Island" universe, I'm always looking for more insight about the show's history, influences, and impact, and Peele's deeply researched and reported book is the motherlode. She analyzes the show's forerunners and how executives put together the show that has evolved into an international mega-franchise, and breaks down that franchise's rocky introduction to the American market. She offers insight into how producers actually shape – or don't shape – storylines and character arcs, and into how contestants perceived their experiences.
In our conversation, we discuss the evolution of the "Love Island" format, what made it tricky to bring to America and how it contrasts with "The Bachelor," the significance of the show's hosts and inimitable narrator Iain Stirling, how contestants experience being in the bubble of the show's set, our takes on the most recent "Love Island" USA seasons, and much more.
Hope you enjoy! xo
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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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