The Oppenheim Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate brokerage, released a new Netflix show, “Selling the OC,” on Aug. 24. The Brokerage originally became famous in 2019 for appearing in the hit Netflix original, “Selling Sunset,” leading them to expand their office to Orange County and make another show. “Selling Sunset” had five extremely successful seasons, including being No. 1 on Netflix in several countries multiple times, and being a 2021 Emmy nominee for “Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.”
Because “Selling Sunset” was so outstanding, I had high expectations for “Selling the OC,” however I was extremely underwhelmed for multiple reasons.
One of the biggest parts of “Selling Sunset” was the high fashion and bold outfit choices. The cast of “Selling Sunset” continuously amazed fans at how often they would wear over the top designer clothes and high heels, making the show more entertaining. However, in “Selling the OC,” the fashion was mostly standard work outfits and “moms’ night out” clothes.
This was very disappointing to me because “Selling Sunset” was full of crazy Los Angeles and Beverly Hills fashion that kept fans invested to see their next looks. After seeing the “Selling the OC” cast in mediocre clothes, the show lost a lot of points from me.
The dynamic of “Selling the OC” is also very different from “Selling Sunset,” ultimately for the worse. In “Selling Sunset,” the cast is made up of a group of women who have worked together for a long time, with occasional new women coming in to stir drama. In comparison, “Selling the OC” features a bigger group of all new men and women who have never met. This brings the quality of the show down because there is no history between the cast, which was ultimately what made “Selling Sunset” so successful because of the drama it fueled. With the men added to the show, it feels more like a high school friend group rather than a professional real estate team.
The women in the office frequently create drama by taking sides. For example, Alexandra Hall, Brandi Marshall, Kayla Carmona, Polly Brindle and Lauren Shortt vs. Alexandra Rose and Alexandra Jarvis. The majority of the women hated Jarvis and Rose saying they bring negative energy and bad vibes into the office and that they are bullies.
While the show primarily focuses on the real estate agents’ work, they also attend social events. At almost every one of these events a big fight would break out over Rose and Jarvis being there.
The men were not as involved in the drama, but when they did get involved Tyler Stanaland sided with the majority of the women in the office and Gio Helou sided with Jarvis and Rose.
It’s obvious the producers wanted to include both genders in the show, but I think it would have been better if they casted the male real estate agents who were single as opposed to married ones because then more of the romantic side of the show could have been explored and created even juicier drama like it did in “Selling Sunset.”
The drama from this season wasn’t very entertaining and quite frankly sad because it only consisted of belittling women. In one episode the women made up a rumor that Rose sleeps with developers to get large listings, which is very disrespectful, especially because of what she had to do to get where she is now.
Rose’s biological parents were both homeless and drug addicts, leading her and her siblings to be adopted at a young age. On top of that, her adoptive father died, which resulted in her being raised by a single mom, while her biological mom continued to have babies that couldn’t be looked after because she was in-and-out of jail.
With all of this considered, for these women to make comments about Rose shows how little class they have and how they don’t realize the impact of their words. Attacks and rumors like this in this show are too personal and not entertaining.
There was also an incident where Carmona tried to kiss Stanaland multiple times even though he is married. Stanaland told the other women in the office who then proceeded to confront and belittle her. I understand the need to hold people accountable, but in this case, Carmona was ganged up on in a toxic way.
The irony of this is that in an earlier episode, when they were all cuddling on the beach, Hall gave Stanaland a nosey, sucking someone’s nose, which is inappropriate to do if they are married. No one thought Hall did anything wrong, but when Carmona only attempted to kiss him, all the women got mad at her, showcasing the hypocrisy in the office.
This makes the drama worse than “Selling Sunset” because when someone was being blamed on “Selling Sunset,” there was at least a valid reason. In “Selling the OC,” they were being hypocritical and getting mad at one person, but not the other for crossing boundaries. This paints the women in a petty, immature light.
In addition to this, for a show about real estate, the amount of homes being shown seemed exponentially lower than the amount in “Selling Sunset.” In “Selling Sunset,” the views from these million dollar homes they are selling are amazing. Because of this, I was expecting even better views in homes on “Selling the OC” because it would be along the ocean.
However they didn’t show nearly enough homes, which disappointed me. Instead, “Selling the OC” focused more on the drama between the women than houses. It lacked the balance “Selling Sunset” had perfected.
The biggest component missing from “Selling the OC” was a Christine Quinn-like character. In “Selling Sunset,” Christine was the leader, drama queen and main entertainment, and she performed stunts like wearing a black wedding dress to her own wedding. She brought life to “Selling Sunset,” and without her, or someone like her in “Selling the OC,” the show felt lacking in personality.
Another person who is missing from the show is Jason Oppenheim, one of the owners of the Oppenheim Group. In “Selling Sunset,” he was constantly in the office, keeping the women in check and frequently displaying his quirky, smart and “bro-like” personality throughout the show. In the last season of “Selling Sunset,” he also developed a romance with cast member, Chrishelle Stause. They broke up and I thought they would touch on that or he would start a romance with someone new, but he was rarely featured in “Selling the OC” and they didn’t mention the relationship at all.
I think Netflix should stick to “Selling Sunset,” but if they do continue to film “Selling the OC,” they should start by casting more interesting agents and work their way up from there. “Selling The OC” was perfectly fine for a quick Netflix binge, but I wouldn’t recommend it when there are far better shows out there.
