"This show is at its absolute best when it oscillates wildly between displays of incredible aesthetic beauty and the coldhearted, world-ending evil that makes it possible. Even the name, Selling Sunset, suggests the commodification of a beautiful end. It can be poetry when it gets there, and these episodes get as close to this as I've seen this season. It helps a lot that we finally get a scene where everyone currently employed at the brokerage is in the same room."
"The Welcome Sandra/Poor Mary dinner hits all the right notes, like the refrain of a beloved song. First, Jason toasts to the fact that their jobs are "probably more rewarding now than ever because we are helping displaced families." This is a really cute way to describe already wealthy people not charging sales commissions to wildfire victims. Then we finally get the Mary-and-Chelsea fight that's been brewing all season. But we'll get to this. First, Blake."
"Blake has proposed to Emma, and for a whole episode the show lets us think she's considering saying "yes." They did get me. Emma even goes to Jason of Beverly Hills to try on rings with Chelsea. (Blake did not propose with a ring because this would've required the sort of planning and forethought of which he is incapable.) It's clear Emma isn't thinking straight since she's talking about marriage as a "fairy-tale ending.""
The show contrasts striking visual luxury with cold, transactional cruelty, creating a potent aesthetic tension. A full-brokerage scene heightens the emotional stakes and drives collective dynamics. A dinner sequence frames the cast's actions as performative compassion, with a toast framing commission-free aid to wildfire victims as altruism from the wealthy. Long-simmering interpersonal conflicts erupt, notably between Mary and Chelsea. A proposal arc involving Blake and Emma exposes impulsive romantic fantasies, ring-shopping, and Chelsea's subtle interference. Wealth, image, and power intersect repeatedly, producing moments that feel both poetic and morally fraught.
Read at Vulture
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]