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    Real Housewives Recap

    Real Housewives of Dallas devolves into dull crapfest for season finale

    Elaine Liner
    Jun 14, 2016 | 12:07 am
    Real Housewives of Dallas reunion
    The ladies get together for the Real Housewives of Dallas reunion show on June 20.
    Photo courtesy of Bravo

    We have spent 10 Monday nights getting to know the Real Housewives of Dallas on Bravo. Six women, their spouses (barely seen), cute children, and incontinent pets.

    We have glimpsed artsy aerial shots of the distinctive city skyline during opening credits and enjoyed overhead views of tree-lined suburban streets, which may or not have been in or near Dallas. The producers and editors of RHOD were loose about the authenticity of images on this show. Look quick and you could see the Fort Worth Stockyards, party cruises on Lake Austin, and other non-Dallas locations passed off as local sites.

    First episode to last, it was pretty clear that the team behind this show just wasn’t feelin’ it. Scene after scene had that “let’s use it anyway” attitude toward trivial footage and relationships that didn’t go anywhere. So many contrived luncheon apologies. Too many awkward confrontations about personal slights, the kind of behavior grown women rarely display in real life (especially if they were raised right in Texas).

    This show made its women into overdressed mean girls. Interactions among them were edited down into snippets of rude tipsy talk at parties; shallow gossip over kitchen counters; and some of the ugliest, dumbest verbal blow-ups ever used on reality TV.

    The best reality shows capture the real behavior, good and bad, of the participants. RHOD presented half a dozen women trying way too hard to act the way they thought they should to look good on TV. The crew behind the scenes got lazy and let them be fakey-fakey.

    Shoot, they didn’t even bother to tell their cast that no woman outside of clown college would be caught in daylight wearing that much blusher.

    LeeAnne Locken could have been the RHOD breakout star, the Bethenny Frankel of Dallas with her snappy wit and rustic vocabulary. She was introduced as the “carny kid” who became a model and who now works tirelessly for Dallas charities (perhaps to boost her social status). She lives in a modest home with her good-looking boyfriend Rich and does good work for good causes.

    But LeeAnne’s anger became the issue the show use as a plot device and thus she came off as a wild-eyed loon seen punching a camera, kicking an Arts District trolley, and flying into rages at the mildest provocations. “Bow at me!” she shouted at plastic surgeon’s wife Cary Deuber over a brunch argument at Bread Winners. She didn’t mean curtsy.

    With LeeAnne cast as villain, the comic relief became Brandi Redmond and her pal Stephanie Hollman. They actually are housewives and longtime friends, raising kids in mansions outside the Dallas city limits. (Stephanie’s abuts the Four Seasons golf course in Irving.) These two were the best at bringing the funny to the “confessionals,” the solo chats to camera in which they could freely comment about what was happening in each episode.

    They cackled about their consumption of daytime “Jesus juice” (wine) and mocked their husbands’ flatulence and bedroom habits. In this week’s finale, Stephanie admitted she’d rather pick up dog poo from her backyard than have sex with overly controlling husband Travis.

    Ah, poo. Each hour of RHOD was heavily fertilized with mentions of excrement, both human and animal. LeeAnne’s verbal attack on the nearly-wordless one, Marie Reyes, was retaliation for Marie spreading off-camera gossip about an unfortunate pants-soiling incident in LeeAnne’s past. Brandi got crossways with LeeAnne when she hot-glued fake No. 2 to a hat for a charity luncheon, a No. 1 no-no among LeeAnne’s personal etiquette rules.

    This week featured a close-up of Stephanie’s dog taking a steaming dump. Dog poop, rabbit poop, people poop — they talked about it, fought about it, and stepped in it week after week.

    So it’s not surprising that the season finale was a dull crapfest that didn’t set up any cliffhangers, a strong indication that there won’t be a second season. (Bravo hasn’t announced a renewal.) There weren’t many loose ends to tie up, just some catch-ups on what the ladies wanted to do in the future.

    LeeAnne has decided to use her mouth to make money and was seen this week seeking the expertise of Dallas PR guy Jeff Crilley to see if she could take her “story” to the high-dollar speaking circuit. She also realized her anger management needs a tune-up.

    “I feel like nobody loves me,” she says. She could’ve been talking about cable viewers. Ratings for this show fell off week after week.

    The finale had Brandi and Stephanie swigging Patron among the swells at the Hollmans’ backyard soiree for 400 close friends during the AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament. (Looked like a fun party except there were little kids in the pool, and no one seemed to be watching them.)

    Cary and Mark Deuber were seen making plans for a summer in Switzerland. Cary is one of those mean girls who thinks she’s smarter than everyone in the room. Then she pronounces it “Sont More-RITZ” and gives herself away.

    Tiffany and Aaron Hendra went house shopping. They didn’t buy the $675K house they looked at. Marie was at the Hollmans’ Byron Nelson party but, as usual, didn’t say or do anything interesting.

    Brandi and husband Bryan took their little redheaded kiddos to Pinstack bowling in Plano. Has any other Real Housewives show ever resorted to sending a family bowling?

    Next week brings all the gals onto facing couches with Bravo exec Andy Cohen for what had better be some lively chatter. (Here’s a short preview.) If this show’s gonna bow out for good, somebody needs to bow at somebody.

    ---

    The reunion episode of Real Housewives of Dallas airs June 20 at 8 pm on Bravo. You can also watch episodes online.

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    Movie Review

    Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

    Alex Bentley
    Feb 27, 2026 | 1:30 pm
    Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams
    Photo courtesy of Teorema
    Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

    The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

    It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

    Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

    Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

    But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

    Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

    Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

    Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

    ---

    Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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