I hope you are all settling into the summer. I am putting together a list of summer reads for you, so you have plenty of choices. This week I have two authors on my show alone, one is a former star of The Bachelorette.

Here are my episodes from last week:

Saturday Series: Eli McCann

Bring Me The Beauties: A Model Cult

Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders

Strangers By Belle Burden and Real Housewives of Rhode Island

Calabasas Confidential and Summer House

Bonus Podcast: Texas, True Crime, and West's Exit Strategy

Here is your list to watch this week:

REALITY TELEVISION

Below Deck Mediterranean (Bravo) begins a new season. This season boasts the most sophisticated crew. (June 8)

Summer House (Bravo) airs the last part of the Season 10 reunion, one of the most emotional Bravo reunions in recent memory. West and Amanda face the toughest questions yet about their relationship timeline, and the friendships hanging in the balance may never be the same. (June 9)

Outlast: The Jungle (Netflix) has sixteen players who must survive the elements, outmaneuver rivals, and remain part of a team for a chance to win a $1 million prize. (June 10)

American Ninja Warrior (NBC) has a format upgrade with an all-new round featuring a supersized three-lane racecourse called the Tripleheader. This one is great for kids. (June 8)

Don’t forget about Love Island on Peacock.

DOCUMENTARIES

USA 94: Brazil’s Return to Glory (Netflix) is a nostalgic deep dive revisiting Brazil’s quest for a fourth World Cup star, featuring interviews and never-before-seen footage shot by the players themselves. (June 7)

Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult (HBO and Max) airs the second episode of the series, which continues its examination of male supermodel Hoyt Richards’ years inside the Eternal Values cult and its beauty-obsessed leader, Frederick von Mierers. (June 9) (See above for my interview with Hoyt from Friday.)

Norway: The Dark Horse (Netflix) is another great soccer documentary. After 26 years of tournament drought, Norway’s 2026 World Cup hopes were next to nil — but what followed rekindled belief. (June 9)

Maternal Instinct (Netflix) happened in a small East Texas town. A young woman from a wealthy family falls for a local hog trapper. Their relationship appears perfect, and within months she’s pregnant and proudly showing off her baby bump all over social media. But when a state trooper pulls her over and discovers she has just given birth in her car, her story quickly falls apart, exposing the truth behind a terrifying and unthinkable crime. (June 12)

The Last Twins (PBS) is the extraordinary story of Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, an unsung hero of the Holocaust who risked everything to protect dozens of young boys targeted by Dr. Josef Mengele for brutal medical experimentation at Auschwitz. Narrated by Liev Schreiber. (June 15)

Enjoy and share!

Kate

Summer is the season that gives you permission. You have my permission to sit still, to ignore the group chat, to crack a spine on the beach or by the pool or in the airport terminal before your flight starts boarding. These are the books I’m reading and loving right now, the ones I’ve been talking about on the podcast and on Substack, and in several cases, the ones whose authors I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing, or will be sitting down with very soon. Consider this your literary permission slip.

I hope that you will share it with the people in your life.

🔪 Thrillers & Domestic Suspense

Valley of the Moms by Hannah Selinger (Mulholland Books, June 2026)

Forthcoming interview this week.

Described as Stepford Wives meets Big Little Lies, this debut novel is already the Barnes & Noble June Book Club Pick and a People must-read for summer, and it earns every bit of the buzz. Set in the wealthy enclave of Hamilton, Massachusetts, the story opens with Anna Plummer’s body found in the Ipswich River. Her husband Denny is the prime suspect, and as he sorts through her files and social media trying to clear his name, the novel alternates between his grief-soaked present and Anna’s perspective a year earlier, as she pushed back against the iron social hierarchy of her affluent town.

Very Bad Company by Emma Rosenblum (Flatiron Books, 2024)

If you haven’t read Emma Rosenblum yet, this is your summer. Her second novel is a wickedly observed satire of a Manhattan media company’s off-site retreat gone spectacularly wrong, delivers the same sharp social comedy that made Bad Summer People a word-of-mouth sensation.

My Interview With Emma.

Mean Moms by Emma Rosenblum (Flatiron Books, July 2025)

Rosenblum’s third novel turns her lens on a clique of wealthy Manhattan mothers whose children attend the elite Atherton Academy. The cattiness is weaponized, the class dynamics are surgical, and the formation of a school committee called Atherton Parents Against Persons Experiencing Homelessness says everything you need to know about the world she’s constructed.

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza (Dutton, 2024)

A multigenerational mystery that opens with a recently divorced Philadelphia chef inheriting a plot of land in Sicily, and a suspicion that her great-grandmother didn’t die of illness, but was murdered. Jo weaves together two timelines and two women’s stories with the kind of propulsive momentum that makes you miss your stop. Both a feminist adventure and a family mystery, with serious heart underneath the intrigue.

My interview with Jo.

Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza (Dutton, July 2025)

Jo Piazza turned her sharp journalistic eye on the tradwife influencer world, and the result is a thriller that functions as both a page-turner and a Trojan horse. Former best friends Lizzie and Bex reunite at an influencer conference, and when Bex disappears and her husband turns up murdered, the dark machinery underneath the curated domestic fantasy starts to show.

💔 Memoir & Personal Essay

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden (Penguin Random House)

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller, and one of those books that you finish and immediately need to talk to someone about. Belle Burden grew up in one of America’s most storied families, married what seemed like the right man, built a life in Tribeca and Martha’s Vineyard, and then — without warning — had it all pulled out from underneath her.

Listen to my episode about it.

Small Town Girls by Jayne Anne Phillips (Knopf)

This memoir-in-essays explores growing up in West Virginia, the complicated textures of coming of age, and the way memory bends and reshapes itself over time.

✈️ Travel, Loss & New Beginnings

The Solo Honeymoon by Laura Murphy

A young woman boards a plane to Europe alone, the trip that was supposed to be her honeymoon, taken after the sudden death of her fiancé. Heartbreaking and life-affirming in equal measure, this summer release tracks a grief that doesn’t ask permission, and a journey that becomes something entirely its own.

😂 Essays & Humor

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris (Little, Brown)

The legendary humorist (and a hero of mine) is back with a brand-new collection of essays, and his passport has been stamped in some wonderfully strange places: Guatemala, Kenya, and the Vatican City. If you’ve ever loved a David Sedaris book — the absurdist eye, the family confessions, the way he finds the exact wrong thing to say in any given situation, this is everything you want.

📖 Literary Fiction

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (William Morrow, 2024)

You may have already watched the Apple TV+ adaptation starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman. Margo is a college freshman who gets pregnant by her married professor, decides to keep the baby despite having no money, and turns to OnlyFans with her estranged pro-wrestler father as an unlikely collaborator.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Everyone is talking about this book. It is a novel about Theo, an elderly Portuguese man spending his final year in the small Southern town of Golden, tracking down residents to gift them 92 local portraits he has discovered. What begins as a simple errand becomes something far larger, a catalyst for connection, for healing, for the kind of grace that arrives unexpectedly and changes everything.

📺 Reality TV Deep Dives

Enter the Villa: The (Unauthorized) Reality Behind Love Island by Anna Peele (Atria Books, 2026)

If you are a person who has ever watched Love Island and immediately wanted to understand every single thing happening behind the scenes, this book was written for you.

My interview with Anna.

💕 Beach Reads & Romance

Reasons to Be Loved by You by Hannah Brown (Forever, June 23, 2026)

Hannah Brown’s third rom-com arrives just in time for Fourth of July weekend — which is also, not coincidentally, when the book is set. Former pageant girl and reality show survivor Nikki Bennet heads home to her family’s Georgia lake house for the holiday, still not entirely over the nationally televised humiliation of discovering her fiancé had been cheating on her throughout her entire run on a dating show. Then her brother announces he’s marrying that very woman. And her only ally in stopping the wedding is the bride’s ridiculously charming brother, Nate. Banter-forward, emotionally specific, and the kind of summer book that makes a long weekend feel like a gift.

Hannah is on my is on my podcast Tuesday, and is just as sweet as you can imagine.

🔍 True Crime & Investigative Nonfiction

Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood by William J. Mann (Simon & Schuster)

Five years in the making, this is the Elizabeth Short case retold. Mann centers on the victim’s dignity, who she actually was, and not just the crime scene image that has defined her legacy for decades.

What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption by Paige Towers (University of Iowa Press)

Towers braids a modern-day familicide with the story of one man’s messianic mission in the 1950s to place South Korean babies with childless American couples, examining how ideology and bureaucracy and the best of human intentions c

an still produce devastating consequences. The kind of book that would make an extraordinary documentary.

Find all the books here.

This week delivers a genuinely stacked lineup: two prestige cult documentaries arrive in the same window, a polarizing Michael Jackson trial revisit is already sparking heated debate before a single episode has aired, and reality television gets a castle-set therapy retreat for the ages.

My episodes last week:

Saturday Series: The Ghost in The Room

Inside Netflix's Rafa Documentary

Summer House Reunion and Duggar Scandal Update

Partners: Inside the High-Stakes World of Pickleball

The Valley, Summer House, and Real Housewives of Rhode Island

Documentaries

Michael Jackson: The Verdict (Netflix) is a three-part series, directed by Nick Green. This revisits the 2005 criminal trial of Michael Jackson, examining the allegations, courtroom proceedings, and public response surrounding one of the most widely followed celebrity cases of the 21st century. Because cameras were barred from the courtroom, much of the public’s understanding was shaped by outside commentary; the filmmakers address this directly by building the series around interviews with jurors, eyewitnesses, journalists, and individuals connected to both the prosecution and the defense, using archival footage to reconstruct what happened inside. It’s executive produced by Fiona Stourton and framed as a strict historical account. Worth noting: it’s already generating friction. Jackson fans have mounted immediate pushback over questions of bias, fueled by producers linked to earlier contentious reporting and the long shadow of Living with Michael Jackson. (June 3)

Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult (HBO) is a docu-miniseries, which centers on male supermodel Hoyt Richards’ experience inside the Eternal Values cult and its beauty-obsessed leader, Frederick von Mierers. (June 1, 8, and 15)

Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal (Paramount+) is a three-part docuseries that centers on the Gloriavale commune in Haupiri, on New Zealand’s South Island, the closed religious community that partly inspired The Handmaid’s Tale. For 50 years Gloriavale lived in near-total isolation, bound by strict rules, until allegations of abuse and cover-ups shattered its secrecy. The series uses rare access, exclusive interviews, and decades of unseen archival footage to reveal life inside, including from members who vehemently deny they are in a cult and vigorously defend their way of life. (June 2)

Earth, Wind & Fire (HBO) is directed by Questlove, and traces the legendary, nine-time Grammy-winning band through the life and vision of late founding member Maurice White, chronicling their evolution and the philosophical and spiritual meaning woven through their music. (June 7)

Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders (Investigation Discovery/Max) is in the second season. The ID’s true-crime docuseries is about crimes rooted in the dark side of online fame. Each of the seven episodes digs into viral true-crime stories that dominated newsfeeds and social media, exploring how the race for likes, followers, and virality can spiral into obsession — and ultimately, murder. The season covers YouTuber Randy Stair, who killed three people before taking his own life; TikToker Cooper Noriega, who died of an overdose; and the murder of 19-year-old TikTok dance star Swavy (Matima Miller). The June 1 premiere, “Waiting for the Darkness,” opens with the Noriega story — a portrait of a teenager who dove into the LA content-house lifestyle before using Discord to speak publicly about addiction and mental health. Also available same-day on Max. (June 1)

People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer (Investigation Discovery/Max) is in its second season of the ID and People magazine collaboration. The series focuses on the people who got away. Survivors take center stage, sharing accounts of how they escaped and, in many cases, how their survival helped bring dangerous predators to justice. The series also covers the lasting impact on the families of those who were not as fortunate. The first season reached over five million viewers across linear and streaming. An example of what’s ahead: the June 17 episode “Surviving The Woodsman” covers an alleged killer who lured teenage girls into his van and murdered them in the Washington wilderness — with one girl surviving to tell the story. Also available on Max. (June 2)

Reality Television

90 Day: The Last Resort (TLC) sends six franchise couples to a couples-therapy retreat with one mission: save the relationship or end it. The cast this time around is Jenny and Sumit, Shekinah and Sarper, Russ and Paola, Kara and Guillermo, Patrick and Thais, and Rebecca and Zied. The setting is a major selling point, the couples spend three weeks at Thornbury Castle in England, a historic estate once owned by King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, working through suspicions of infidelity, communication breakdowns, and financial strain in group and one-on-one therapy sessions. A final commitment ceremony forces each couple to decide: renew their vows or send their partner packing. (June 1)

Love Island USA (Peacock) is back! (June 2)

Summer House Reunion: Part 2 (Bravo) continues as Carl and Lindsay take steps toward repairing their fractured friendship, Dara delivers some hard truths to West, and Ciara and Kyle drop explosive details about a season-defining scandal. (June 2)

Enjoy and share!

Kate

That part doesn’t surprise me, actually. The story is universal enough that of course it traveled. What I’ve been trying to figure out is why this particular scandal, with these particular people, became something a college student and a thirty-something in finance and a parent of teenagers all wanted to talk about at the same time.

I think the answer is that the dynamics in this story aren’t reality-TV dynamics. They’re just regular life, with better lighting and a reunion couch.

Take Amanda. She’s been complaining about her marriage to her friends for a long time. Long enough that her friends had developed a relationship with the complaints, the way you do when someone you love is stuck. You stop trying to fix it after a while. You just nod and order another drink. Most of us have a friend like this, and quite a few of us have been her. Watching Amanda on the show is a strange experience for those people, because it’s like watching the conversation you’ve been having for years, except now it’s on television and you can see how it ends.

Then there’s Kyle. Whatever you think of Kyle, the way he handles Amanda is the most psychologically loaded thing on the show. At the reunion, Ciara said something true and a little brutal about Amanda, that she chooses men with no personality so she can put up with anything they do, because she doesn’t have much of a spine herself. It was a real read. And Kyle, the husband, the man Amanda left for someone else, leaned over to tell Ciara she’d gone too far. Ciara’s response — “she’s your wife, not mine” — was the entire ten-year marriage in five words.

In that one exchange you can see everything. You can see ten years of conditioning. You can see how Amanda has trained him to manage her fragility like it’s a medical condition. He has been her emotional EMT for so long that he is still on call. She left him. She left him for his friend. And he is still reaching across the couch to protect her from a true sentence. That’s not love. That’s Stockholm Syndrome. Anyone who has stayed in a relationship past the expiration date because leaving felt cruel knows exactly what that posture looks like, even if they’ve never seen the show.

And then there’s the rest of the house. Carl, Bailey, KJ, Carl’s ex — the people who didn’t sign up to be collateral damage in someone else’s affair, and who now have to pick a side at a reunion. This is what affairs do. They aren’t contained events. They radiate. The friend group has to reorganize itself around a new alliance, and everyone in the room is making private calculations about who they can still be friends with, who lied to them, who they have to be cooler toward at the next group dinner. None of that happens cleanly.

Then there’s Ben, who’s the one I keep wondering about. By all accounts, Ben spent time with Amanda and West when they were still hiding. If that’s true, he wasn’t just adjacent to the affair, he was part of the cover. He’s the friend who got handed a secret he didn’t ask for and probably didn’t want, and now has to decide what to do with it. Most people have been on one side of that arrangement at some point. You know something you shouldn’t know. You watch a friend make a decision you’d never make. You don’t know whether to say something, and the longer you don’t, the more complicit you become. By the time the truth comes out, you’re not a bystander anymore. You’re a witness who didn’t testify.

And then there’s Ciara, who is the part of the story I keep getting stuck on. Ciara had dated West. Ciara had told Amanda everything about it. This means the good and the bad and the granular, the way you do with your best friend. Then Amanda used what Ciara had told her to start something with West behind her back. That’s not a normal kind of betrayal. Your best friend dating your ex is one thing. Your best friend dating the version of your ex you basically gave her a guidebook for is something else.

The thing I keep coming back to, though, is that Amanda hasn’t just been changing partners. She’s been changing herself. Over the last couple of years she has slowly, methodically morphed into a version of Hailey Bieber. The slicked-back bun, the bleached brows, the glossy nude lip, the whole clean-girl aesthetic that came out of nowhere. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Which means West isn’t really a boyfriend in the traditional sense. He’s a casting decision. He’s tall, he’s a little goofy, he’s musical, he wears the hat. He is, in Amanda’s internal storyboard, eligible to play Justin.

The irony is that her actual husband became an actual DJ. Kyle pivoted into music for real. Amanda left the real musician for a guy she perceives as having the swag of a pop star, or maybe just a bigger network, or maybe a bigger version of the life she was casting herself in. There’s a word for that pattern, even if nobody likes to say it out loud. It’s romantic climbing. You stay in a relationship long enough to get something out of it, and you start scanning for the next partner who can move you into a bigger space. The current relationship becomes a holding pattern. The morphing is the audition tape.

I’m not saying that’s the only thing going on. But it’s a piece of the story that explains a lot of the choices nobody could otherwise explain, including why this happened now, why with West specifically, why the public version of the new relationship has been styled within an inch of its life. People who recognized this pattern recognized it fast, because they’ve watched friends do exactly this. The slow rebrand. The new aesthetic. The vague sense that the current partner has become a stepping stone rather than a destination.

I’ve started using a word for what Amanda and West are now, because I couldn’t find one that fit. Affair-lyweds. A couple held together mostly by the scandal that made them possible.

Once you have the word, you see it everywhere, not just on TV. The colleague who left her marriage for the guy in another department. The friend who burned everything down for someone he’d been emailing for a year. There’s a real pattern to how these couples behave once the chaos quiets down. First the thrill keeps them going. Then the guilt does — because if they break up, the wreckage they caused starts to feel like it was for nothing. So they double down. They post the vacation. They wear the matching linen. They perform the relationship at a slightly louder volume than people who aren’t trying to prove something.

The thing nobody likes to say out loud is that affairs almost never become functional relationships. The secret was the spark. Once it’s just a Tuesday and a shared address, the thing that made it feel like fate often doesn’t survive being normal. I’m not making a moral judgment here. It’s just a pattern, and a depressingly consistent one.

But I think that’s actually the answer to my original question. Why are people who don’t watch Summer House are watching Summer House? We’re all secretly running the experiment. Anyone who’s ever wondered whether a relationship that started badly could turn into something real has a stake in this. Anyone who watched a friend make this exact decision and held their breath has a stake in this. The people who made this decision themselves, and have been telling everyone (including themselves) that it was worth it — they have the biggest stake of all.

We’ve spent ten seasons watching one version of this story. The marriage that didn’t make it. Now we get to watch the next chapter, which is the one we don’t actually know the ending to. Does the scandal-built version hold? Or does it fall apart the way most of them do?

I don’t know. I don’t think they do either. That’s why I’ll keep watching, and why a lot of people who would swear they’d never watch a Bravo show will keep watching too.

Here is my episode breaking it all down. Listen and share.

I hope that you enjoyed your weekend. Thank you for the overwhelming response to the Saturday Series episode with Melissa. Someone even wrote me last evening to say that the same man approached her friend’s son a few years ago. Here is the episode.

Last week’s episodes:

The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle

The Nightmare Upstairs

The Real Housewives of Rhode Island and The Crash

Anna Peele, Author of Enter the Villa (Love Island)

Bonus episode about Bravo.

Here is your list this week:

Reality Television

Calabasas Confidential (Netflix) is a new reality series following a group of celebrity kids and content creators in their 20s navigating life, love, and drama in the 90210-adjacent zip code. The cast features the children of Scottie Pippen, Master P, Bret Michaels, and others, alongside a tight friend group of influencers and models. Think of it as Selling Sunset meets Laguna Beach and The Hills. The best part is you can binge all the episodes at once. (May 29)

Summer House (Bravo) begins a three-part reunion centered on the love triangle that blew up the show this year: Amanda Batula and Kyle Cooke’s divorce, followed by Amanda’s confirmed relationship with West Wilson — Kyle’s former friend and Ciara Miller’s ex. Andy Cohen, who’s hosted over 100 reunions, has called this one of the most intense he’s ever shot. Uncensored versions stream next day on Peacock. (May 26)

America’s Got Talent (NBC) season 21 marks the 20-year anniversary of the show. Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel, and Mel B all return as judges, with Terry Crews back as host. This season introduces a new Judges’ Callbacks round, giving select acts a second chance to perform before advancing to the Live Shows in August. ( June 2)

Love Island USA (Peacock) season 8 kicks off with Ariana Madix returning as host for her third consecutive season. The show is coming off a record-breaking Season 7 that racked up 18 billion streaming minutes. This was Peacock’s most-watched original season ever. New episodes stream daily except Wednesdays, with an episode every day during premiere week. (June 2)

Here is my interview with Anne Peele about behind the scenes of the show.

Documentaries

The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle (Investigation Discovery/HBO Max) — A two-night documentary from Hot Snakes Media, the company behind The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. The story begins on August 31, 2004, when a naked and injured man was found unconscious behind a Burger King in Richmond Hill, Georgia, claiming amnesia and calling himself “Benjaman Kyle.” A forensic genealogist eventually identified him in 2015, but what started as a mission to recover his identity took a much darker turn — the filmmakers say they uncovered three unsolved cold cases and a possible connection to a powerful Midwestern crime family. Episodes also stream on HBO Max the same day. (May 25 and 26)

My interview with the three producers is here.

RAFA (Netflix) retraces Nadal’s remarkable journey with cinematic scope, combining testimonies from those who know him best—on and off the court—with unseen moments that reveal what lies behind the legend. From his beginnings at just three years old to his return to competition in 2024, the documentary not only shows the evolution of a champion, but also the physical and emotional toll that has shaped his path, as he faces time and again Nadal’s most constant rival: his own body. RAFA spotlights a candid and vulnerable superstar, and each episode goes beyond tennis to explore the life, story, and legacy of an unparalleled icon. (may 29)

World War II With Tom Hanks (History Channel) is a 20-episode docuseries narrated and executive-produced by Tom Hanks, tracing the full arc of the war — from the rise of fascism in Europe to the atomic age and the uneasy aftermath that turned wartime allies into Cold War adversaries. This is Hanks’s first documentary treatment of WWII after years of dramatic projects like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air. (May 25)

Independent Lens: Third Act (PBS) is an intimate portrait of Robert Nakamura, often called “the Godfather of Asian American media.” Nakamura survived incarceration as a child at the Manzanar internment camp during WWII, became a successful commercial photographer despite entrenched racism, and then turned to filmmaking to document the Japanese American experience. As Parkinson’s disease and present-day political unrest reopen buried trauma, the film captures a reckoning between father and son. An official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (May 25)

American Experience: Seabiscuit (PBS) has the re-airing of the acclaimed 2003 documentary directed by Stephen Ives, telling the story of the Depression-era racehorse and the team behind him: wealthy owner Charles Howard, taciturn trainer Tom Smith, and jockeys Red Pollard and George Woolf. (May 26)

Frontline: The War Cabinet (PBS) — A look at the key players behind President Trump’s expansive use of the U.S. military, from clashes with allies, to taking out foreign leaders, to waging war in the Middle East. The episode examines the inner circle of advisors and officials trying to project American power. (May 26)

Enjoy and share!

I’d love to hear yours, hit reply and tell me what it was and why it stuck.

If it was The Crash, please note I will be interviewing one of Mackenzie’s former prison mates this week.

Hope that you enjoyed last week’s episodes:

The Cult of Natureboy

Marty: Life is Short and Bravo with Brian

Rob Shuter - Inside Celebrity PR

The Crash - Director and Producer

Saturday Series: Sarah Caterson

Bonus: Danny on The Valley, a Death Row Release, and Surrogacy and Inheritance

Here’s my list this week:

Reality TV

Summer House Season 10 Finale, “Episode 16” (Bravo) — Kyle reaches his breaking point and tensions erupt with Carl, while Ciara hosts the final party of the summer as she and West start to think about what’s next for their friendship. A preview shows Ciara and West kissing — “We might’ve kissed,” Ciara tells Mia Calabrese — and Amanda and Kyle have a separation conversation. (May 19)

In The City Season 1 Premiere (Bravo) is a two-hour crossover event following the Summer House Season 10 finale, the show follows Summer House cast members and new personalities living and working in NYC, covering parenthood, separation, marriage, and new careers. It addresses Kyle and Amanda’s separation and Amanda’s new relationship with Summer House co-star West Wilson. (May 19)

American Idol Season 24 Finale (ABC) — The three-hour finale crowns this season’s winner. (May 18)

Survivor 50 Finale (CBS) for the milestone 50th season. (May 20)

Real Housewives of Rhode Island (Bravo) this week is about a trivia night, which turns tense as feuds flare and a car ride sparks drama. (May 24)

Documentaries

The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn? (Hulu) - What starts as a whirlwind romance and Vegas wedding spirals into a bitter custody battle marked by allegations of abuse and parental alienation. From the creators of the Emmy-nominated documentary “Take Care of Maya,” the new two-part docuseries “The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn?” draws on never-before-seen archives, police interviews, and court records to follow a Utah family pushed to the brink—including intimate footage from both sides of a fractured family, offering an unprecedented look at what unfolded behind closed doors. Facing a court order that could send them to a controversial reunification program—and the possibility of being forced to live with their father, whom they allege abused them, an allegation the father denies—siblings Ty and Bryn barricade themselves for months, livestreaming the standoff and igniting a viral national reckoning. (May 19)

Marty, Life Is Short (Netflix) is directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It is the “definitive documentary” on Martin Short, weaving archival footage with new interviews featuring the influential funnyman and his famous friends. Interview subjects include Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Steven Spielberg, Rita Wilson, Andrea Martin, Paul Shaffer, and Short’s sons Michael and Oliver. The film follows the entertainer’s many tragedies and triumphs. (Streaming)

Wanda Sykes: Legacy (Netflix) — The comedian’s latest special. (May 19)

American Masters: W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause (PBS) — Examines Du Bois’s remarkable life from his birth, just five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, to his death on the eve of the March on Washington in 1963, and how his legacy as an activist continues to resonate today. Airs at 9 p.m. (May 19)

Independent Lens: Light of the Setting Sun (PBS) is about a Chinese family’s multigenerational trauma unfolds across time, place, and identity. Turning the camera inward, filmmaker Vicky Du traces her family’s mental illness back to the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. Airs at 10 p.m. (May 18)

Also, don’t forget a new episode of:

U.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men’s National Soccer Team (HBO Max) — The five-episode HBO Original sports documentary series premiered May 12 with episodes debuting weekly, chronicling the USMNT in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup. New episodes drop within your window.

Enjoy!

Netflix dropped The Crash this week. I am telling you now, not as a critic but as a friend: this is the one you carve out 90 minutes for.

Here’s the setup. Early Sunday morning, July 31, 2022. Strongsville, Ohio, a quiet suburb outside Cleveland. A passerby calls 911 because a Toyota Camry has slammed into the side of a brick building at over 100 miles per hour. Three young people are trapped inside. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, survives — her fuzzy Prada slippers tangled around the gas pedal. Her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, do not.

For a while, everyone believes what it looks like: a teenage girl fell asleep at the wheel, two boys lost their lives, a community grieves. Mackenzie posts from her hospital bed. TikTok sends sympathy. She is the grieving girlfriend.

She is not the grieving girlfriend.

This is not a documentary that pretends to investigate something we’ve all already Googled. It actually walks you, step by step, through how detectives moved this case from “tragic accident” to “calculated murder.” The black box data showing she never braked. The surveillance footage of the car flooring it down a street she rarely drove on. No swerve, no skid. The medical examiner reclassifying both deaths from accident to homicide. By the time you get there, you’re not watching a true-crime doc. You are watching a case being built in front of you.

Director Gareth Johnson gets the people who were actually in the room for the last six months of this relationship. This means Dom’s brother Angelo, his mother Christine, and what they describe is not a love story gone wrong. It’s something darker and more specific. There is a moment involving a phone call from inside a car on Interstate 71, two weeks before the crash, that I am not going to spoil. You will hear what Mackenzie screamed. You will feel the floor drop out.

Every true-crime doc has a “this is the part that wrecks you” person, and here it’s Davion Flanagan. Adopted at eight. High school athlete. He just needed a ride home. The prosecutor described him in court as “just cargo. He was just a suitcase in the backseat in the defendant’s mind.” Johnson gives him real space in the film, which more true-crime directors should learn from. He is not collateral. He is the reason this matters.

Mackenzie’s attorney waived the jury and gambled on a single judge,Cuyahoga County’s Nancy Margaret Russo. Side note, there is no relation to Dominic. The defense argued she had blacked out from a fainting condition. The judge was unmoved. Her ruling — “This was not reckless driving. This was murder” — and her description of Mackenzie morphing into “literal hell on wheels” are now the phrases welded to this case forever.

Also, the last ten minutes are bonkers.

So, there you go. Your weekend plans. Then jump over to my Facebook group to discuss further.

I sat down with director Gareth Johnson and producer Angharad Scott to talk about the prison interview, what they left on the cutting room floor, and how they decided which pieces of Mackenzie’s online life to put back on a screen.

Listen to my interview here. (Share it with your friends and family too.)

My stepfather was a propane salesman who was fourteen years older than my mother and difficult on a level that required full-time management. He told elaborate stories about being one of the first Navy SEALs and a Korean War hero. After he died, my mother got his military paperwork. He’d been let go after basic training. The same paperwork mentioned a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, which explained both the stories and the eggshells we’d been walking on for thirty-plus years.

My biological father had vanished when I was three. The only thing I knew about him was that he was obsessed with everything Irish. That was the whole report. Decades later, I’d watch a documentary on Netflix called The Miami Showband Murders and feel something cold move through me. I’d Google my father afterward and find a photograph of him standing next to the leader of the paramilitary group at the center of the story. He’s alive. He’s in a facility now. I’ve spent the last ten years trying to understand who he was - and what, if anything, he did —and I’ve talked about that search on my podcast. The kid who narrated her family from the back of a station wagon grew up to investigate the one family member she never got to narrate. I’m not done.

So I did what a lot of kids in difficult houses do: I watched television. But somewhere along the way I started doing something a little weirder with it. I started narrating my family. In my head, my stepfather wasn’t a frightening man with delusions — he was a character. My mother was a character. My disappeared father was a character. My siblings, the house, the propane truck, the leaves I was raking on a Saturday morning while my friends were at the mall — all of it was a sitcom, and I was the voiceover.

The logic, as a kid, went like this: If this were a TV show, people would think these people were interesting. They might even find them endearing. It was the only way I knew how to make any of it bearable.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was doing the exact thing I’d spend the rest of my life doing professionally.

When I was fourteen, I left for the Milton Hershey School, the tuition-free boarding school in central Pennsylvania that the chocolate magnate founded in 1909 for low-income kids. People hear “boarding school” and picture something out of Dead Poets Society. It was not that. It was, for me, a reprieve. For the first time in my life I was surrounded by people whose families were as complicated as mine, and often more so.

One of my roommates had been smuggled out of Korea. Another had lost both parents to cancer within a year of each other. A classmate’s family had fled Liberia during the government killings. Most of us had a single parent somewhere, overwhelmed and far away, doing the best they could.

I came home one break and watched a marathon of The Real World on MTV and had what I now recognize as a foundational thought: Wait. This is just Milton Hershey. Instead of seven strangers picked to live in a loft, it was fifteen girls picked to live in a student home in Hershey, PA. Same dynamics. Same alliances. Same one person crying in the bathroom at 2 a.m. Same one person who thought they were the main character. I was hooked.

I went to college in DC and decided I’d become a politician, because if I couldn’t save my mother from her marriage, maybe I could save constituents from bad policy. (I was a serious child. I read Newsweek instead of YA novels. I peaked early.) I became a White House intern, and I was there delivering news clippings to the Oval Office at dawn during what turned into one of the biggest political scandals in American history. Imagine being in college, walking media slips about an intern and the President into the West Wing, while being, technically, an intern.

I’ll tell you what I learned that year: there’s no better case study in human behavior than people who don’t realize they’re being watched. Side note, I once told President Clinton that he and I shared a strange skill — a near-photographic memory for names, faces, and personal details. It still helps me every single week in my job.

I didn’t become a politician. I started a media strategy firm instead, working with litigation attorneys, placing them in stories about the biggest legal dramas of the moment — the Martha Stewart trial, white collar cases, the kind of human-behavior chess matches that I’d been studying since I was raking leaves on Sunset Hollow.

Then I met my husband on Match.com. In one of our first emails, he mentioned I might recognize his old company. He’d been the CEO of Scour — the pre-Napster file-sharing company that got sued into oblivion by the RIAA and MPAA. I recognized it immediately, because I had pitched a story about that lawsuit. I’d called an AP reporter about it on behalf of an intellectual property client. The reporter had told me he’d circle back after he finished talking to the Scour CEO. Reader, I married the Scour CEO. We now have five children.

If that’s not a sitcom, I don’t know what is.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I started taking classes at the Groundlings in LA, and I started a blog where I’d recap The Real Housewives of Orange County like it was fan fiction — pulling apart the marriages, the friendships, the power dynamics, the body language, treating each cast member like a case study. It exploded. It led me to Wondery, where I pitched a podcast about reality television and unscripted storytelling, and an executive looked at me and asked, “Do enough people actually watch reality TV?”

Reader. Yes.

That podcast became Reality Life with Kate Casey . It started as one episode a week. It’s now six. I cover everything under the unscripted umbrella — reality competition, documentaries, docuseries, true crime, sports docs, cult content, the weird and the wonderful. Monday is What to Watch, where I tell you what’s worth your time Tuesday through Friday. The rest of the week, I’m interviewing talent, directors, and producers — the people who actually make this stuff. And on Saturdays, I sit down with one person and we go deep on their story. It started with people from my own life — Milton Hershey friends, family, the people who shaped me — and it’s grown to include comedians, authors, people who found out via DNA test that their dad wasn’t their dad, people who survived things they shouldn’t have survived.

Here is what I believe, and it’s the reason I’m here on Substack:

The smartest people I know watch unscripted television. Not in spite of being smart, but because they’re smart. Reality television and documentaries are the largest ongoing study of human behavior we have. They’re about grief and love and ambition and humiliation and reinvention and the specific way humans behave when a camera is pointed at them. We are all, whether we admit it or not, cultural anthropologists. Some of us just happen to do our fieldwork on Sunday nights.

If you love true crime, you already love unscripted, let me show you the documentary series you’re missing.

If you love sports, the best storytelling on television right now is happening in sports docs and you might not even know it.

If you love culture and the way people work, there is no better laboratory than reality TV.

I told you my biological father was obsessed with Ireland. I told you a Netflix documentary cracked open a question I’d been carrying my whole life. I want to be clear about something: I am still in the middle of that story. I don’t have a clean ending. But I will tell you — here, slowly, carefully — what I find.

I’m here on Substack to find my people. The fellow obsessives. The writers covering culture, film, TV, sports, and true crime who treat this stuff with the seriousness it deserves. The readers who suspect, like I did at age seven, on a cul-de-sac off Sunset Hollow Road, that the people on the screen and the people in the next room are running the same software.

If that’s you, subscribe. Tell me what you’re watching. Tell me your story. I want to know.

I’ve been collecting characters my whole life.

— Kate

Here is a link to all of my about-my-life podcast episodes.

If this resonated, subscribe. And if you write about culture, film, TV, sports, or true crime, leave your Substack in the comments. I’m building a community here.

Share this list with the moms you know who need an escape.

Last week’s podcast episodes:

Episode 1607 - This Saturday Series episode blew my hair back. It was totally unsuspecting. Must-listen.

Episode 1606 - The director of The Pick Is In on ESPN. Great behind the scenes stories.

Episode 1605 - Unscripted television and books with Kevin Fallon.

Episode 1604 - Casting stories with Paul Roysdon

Episode 1603 - Should I Marry a Murderer and Hulk Hogan

BONUS EPISODE: Kristin Smart Case Update and Nia and Danny's Church Deep Dive

Reality Television:

Perfect Match (Netflix) launches season 4 of the Netflix Reality Universe crossover, hosted again by Nick Lachey. This year stretches beyond Netflix titles for the first time, mixing singles from Love Is Blind, Age of Attraction, Too Hot to Handle, Temptation Island, Squid Game: The Challenge, Million Dollar Secret — plus, in a first for the show, a Bravo alum (Vanderpump Rules’ Ally Lewber - who I recommended) and faces from Married at First Sight: Australia and Love Island. Released in three batches: episodes 1–5 on May 13, 6–7 on May 20, and the finale on May 27. (Wednesday, May 13)

Documentaries:

The Crash (Netflix) is a must-watch. A car carrying three young adults slams into a brick building at 100 miles per hour in Strongsville, Ohio, leaving two lives lost and one sole survivor. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was driving her boyfriend, Dom, and his friend, Davion, home from a party when the unthinkable happened. But as detectives comb through the wreckage, what first appears to be a tragic accident begins to look like a calculated crime scene. The Crash takes a deep dive into the volatile relationship at the center, examining the shifting narratives of that fateful night to explore where a fatal mistake ends and cold-blooded murder begins. (May 15)

The Cult of NatureBoy (Hulu) is a four-part Hulu/ABC News Studios docuseries directed by Ben Zand (Zandland) with showrunner Lucie Ridout. It traces the rise and fall of Eligio Bishop, aka “NatureBoy,” who in 2016 used YouTube and social media to recruit young Black followers, primarily creatives in their 20s, into Carbon Nation, marketed as a “Black utopia” returning to nature and free from American racism. The group lived off-grid in Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other Latin American locations from 2016 to 2022. (Streaming)

Couples Therapy (Paramount+ / Showtime) launches season 5. Dr. Orna Guralnik counsels four new couples in crisis, with cameras embedded in real therapy sessions across nine months. From Showtime Documentary Films. (Paramount+, May 15; Showtime, May 17)

The Killer Among Us (Oxygen) is a new true-crime series hosted and produced by Alan Cumming (The Traitors), pivoting from gameplay-whodunnits to real ones. Each episode digs into a murder inside a tight-knit community — small towns, churches, universities, an academic research lab, high-end art organizations — where the killer turns out to be a friend, colleague, neighbor, or classmate. Includes the murder of a Sarasota gallery owner found posed like a sculpture. Zak Weisfeld, Libby Richman, and Brian DeCubelli executive produce. (May 17)

Tucci in Italy (National Geographic / Disney+ / Hulu) launches season 2 of the Emmy-nominated travelogue. Stanley Tucci returns to five new regions — Naples and Campania, Sicily, Le Marche, Sardinia, and Veneto — to trace the link between Italy’s historical landscape and its culinary traditions. (National Geographic, May 11 and Disney+ and Hulu, May 12)

U.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men’s National Soccer Team (HBO/HBO Max) is a five-part HBO Sports docuseries filmed over four years, following the USMNT’s lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup on home soil. (May 12)

Welcome to Wrexham (FXX / Hulu) launches season 5 of the Emmy-winning docuseries from Rob Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Ryan Reynolds, now following Wrexham AFC’s first season back in the EFL Championship — the second tier — for the first time since 1982, after three consecutive promotions. (May 14 at 9 with a two-episode premiere; Hulu next day)

Is there anything better than knowing you have plenty of things to watch this week? Spoiler: no.

Hope you devoured all of my episodes last week, and shared them too.

Episode 1601 - Summer House and The Valley

Episode 1600 - Emma Rosenblum, Author of Mean Moms, Summer People, and Very Bad People

Episode 1599 - Real Housewives of Rhode Island and Bravo Scandal

Episode 1598 - Part Two: The Murder of Martha Moxley

Episode 1597 - Part One: The Murder of Martha Moxley

Bonus Episode: The Met Gala, Martha Moxley, and The Enhanced Games

🎬 Documentaries

The Pick Is In (ESPN) is a behind-the-scenes documentary on the 2025 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, following the Raiders, Browns, Cowboys, and other teams through trade negotiations and draft-day decisions. Features top picks Fernando Mendoza (#1), Jeremiyah Love (#3), and Caleb Downs (#11). Produced by NFL Films and Skydance Sports. (May 3)

Soccer’s American Dream (Vice TV) is a six-part docuseries timed perfectly to the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup, chronicling America’s four-decade fight to embrace the world’s biggest sport. The drama begins with the high-stakes gamble of the 1994 World Cup and intensifies through the early 2000s as Landon Donovan, Mia Hamm, and David Beckham elevate the game’s visibility. (May 5)

Betrayal: Secrets & Lies (Hulu) will air the “Marked for Murder” episode. This one follows Ramon, who finds the perfect wife and business partner in Lulu, but when their love turns cold, an unthinkable betrayal leaves him fighting for his life. (May 10)

Worst Ex Ever (Netflix) returns for a second season. The Blumhouse-produced true-crime docuseries returns with four new episodes, leaning on testimonials, bodycam footage, and animated reenactments. The headline cases are “Handsome Devil Killer” Wade Wilson, the Florida convicted murderer who became a viral fascination during his 2024 trial. The other is former 90 Day Fiancé cast member Geoffrey Paschel, whose appearance on the show was overshadowed by domestic violence charges. (May 6)

K-Everything (CNN International) is a new docuseries on the global K-culture wave. It explores K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, and the broader cultural export machine that’s reshaped global entertainment. (May 9)

Independent Lens: Natchez (PBS) — Antebellum homes draw visitors to Natchez, Mississippi, but not everyone agrees on the stories being told. As tour guides, homeowners, and activists navigate competing histories, the town confronts the tension between preservation and truth, and a Southern community wrestling with race, memory, and identity. (May 11)

📺 Reality Television

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Bravo) airs the third part of the reunion. It closes things out with the women’s relationships reaching a breaking point. Expect Sutton’s loyalty to be questioned, Kyle to confront Boz, and a face-off between Erika, Kyle, and Dorit. (May 7)

Real Housewives of Rhode Island (Bravo) picks up after a major blow-up. This season should live in a time capsule, it’s so perfect. (May 7)

Jersey Shore Family Vacation (MTV) will air their final season. (May 7)

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (Paramount+) returns with eighteen legendary queens vying for a chance to win All Stars 11. (May 8)

90 Day Fiancé (TLC) has a new batch of couples including a high-powered bridal executive unexpectedly falling for a younger Dominican hotel concierge. (May 10)

Designed to Last (Hulu) is a four-episode home-building competition with a climate-resilience hook, Three teams of architects, engineers, and inventors compete in 10-hour build challenges to modify tiny homes that can outsmart wildfires, hurricane-force winds, and freezing storms, and with a $100,000 grant on the line. (May 5)

Summer House (Bravo) will continue to outrage you this week as the Amanda and West timeline unfolds. (May 5)

Her body was found the next day, Halloween, partially hidden under a pine tree on her family’s property. She had been beaten and stabbed with a golf club so violently it shattered. The club was traced to the family next door: the Skakels, cousins of the Kennedys and one of the most powerful families in the country.

Fifty years later, no one has been held accountable for her murder.

I have been obsessed with this case since I was a girl. I read Dominick Dunne’s A Season in Purgatory, a fictionalized retelling widely believed to be inspired by Martha’s murder, and followed every detail of the case, including Dunne’s coverage in Vanity Fair. What struck me immediately was that Martha was just like me: very social, a field hockey player, someone who had moved to a new community and was still finding her footing at a new school. How could this have happened to her? And the question that has never fully gone away: did privilege and power shape the pursuit of justice?

You may think you know this case. The suspects. The conviction. The reversal. The state walking away in 2020.

But I promise you this: there are details in this story that most people have never heard, and they may completely change your opinion of who killed Martha Moxley.

I spent a lot of time on this one. It is not a tidy case. It is not a case where the obvious answer is the right one. And it is not a case where justice has been served.

Both episodes are available now. This is one you don’t want to miss.

— Kate

— Kate

Listen to Reality Life with Kate Casey wherever you get your podcasts.

I have another great week of reality shows and documentaries for you to devour, if you’re not busy watching the NHL playoffs and college lacrosse championships this weekend.

Last week’s podcast episodes:

Bonus Episode: The Summer House Leaked Audio

Episode 1591 - Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Finale with Carlos King

Episode 1592 - Betrayal: Secrets & Lies with Donielle Showvay

Episode 1593 - Real Housewives of Rhode Island with Chris DeRosa

Episode 1594 - Summer House and Real Housewives with Bravo and Cocktails

Episode 1595 - Saturday Series: The Televangelists

This week’s list:

🎬 Documentaries

My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders (Paramount+) is a true-crime series, which centers on Lucy Studey-McKiddy’s allegations that her father, Donald Dean Studey, was responsible for dozens of murders spanning decades in rural Iowa. Claiming many victims were vulnerable women who “wouldn’t be missed,” she points investigators to a remote property where bodies were allegedly buried in wells. The series follows law enforcement and forensic teams as they attempt to verify her claim, reopening old cases, exhuming a former spouse whose death had been ruled a suicide, and confronting the unsettling possibility of an overlooked serial killer operating in plain sight. (April 27)

Should I Marry A Murderer? (Netflix) tells the story of Caroline Muirhead, who found herself in an unimaginable situation after her fiancé confessed to a fatal hit-and-run. Torn between love and morality, she remained in the relationship while secretly gathering evidence against him. The series details the psychological toll of living alongside a killer, the calculated risks she took to help authorities, and how her actions ultimately led investigators to the victim’s burial site, bringing long-delayed justice to a hidden crime. (April 29)

Hulk Hogan: Real American (Netflix) is an interesting watch. Who was Terry Bollea? From his discovery of wrestling to his storied rise to fame, the larger-than-life persona of Hulk Hogan is born. (Streaming)

Full Swing (Netflix) is a four-episode season, focusing heavily on the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, as well as Rory McIlroy’s pursuit of a career Grand Slam at the Masters. (Streaming)

Shared Planet (PBS) is perfect for kids. Shared Planet travels across continents to explore how humans and wildlife can coexist in a rapidly changing world. From remote communities to urban environments, each episode highlights innovative solutions and unlikely partnerships that protect ecosystems while supporting human life. (April 29)

📺 Reality Television

Summer House (Bravo) is now a case study in trust erosion, interpersonal loyalty, and the subtle mechanics of betrayal. With each week my eyes bulge bigger. (April 28)

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Reunion, Part 2 (Bravo) – Hopefully we get more answers on what has happened to Dorit’s finances, why Boz and Rachel are still friends with her, and what Amanda’s business package really includes. (April 30)

Ladies of London (Bravo) airs the finale episode. As summer comes to a close, Myka Meier hosts a high-profile etiquette event that tests the group’s social dynamics. Meanwhile, lingering tensions bubble up as attempts at reconciliation falter, culminating in a dramatic gathering at Joshua Kane’s Summer Showcase where old wounds are reopened. (April 30)

Enjoy!

Think of this as your weekly shortcut. I’ve already done the watching, the vetting, and the eliminating to bring you only the best in unscripted TV. Less scrolling, better choices. If it makes your week easier, send it to someone else who could use it.

This week I had fantastic episodes:

Episode 1585 - Director of Sky King

Episode 1586 - Christine Marie from Trust Me: The False Prophet

Episode 1587 - The Predator of Seville

Episode 1588 - Real Housewives of Rhode Island and Summer House

Episode 1589 - Saturday Series: Sally Martell

Bonus: Alix Earle v Alex Cooper

Here is your list this week:

📺 Reality Television

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Reunion, Part 1 (Bravo) begins. The season’s tensions come to a head as Dorit confronts Kyle, Erika, and Sutton over their absence from her party for the book she had not written. The clips they have put out are very enticing. Hoping for emotional confrontations, alliances tested, and plenty of fallout. (April 23)

The Valley (Bravo) is worth watching this week as the realities of early parenthood take center stage as Danny and Nia struggle with their newborn, while Kristen faces postpartum challenges that strain her relationship with Luke. (April 22)

This Is a Garden Show (Netflix) has Zach Galifianakis mixing comedy with genuinely useful tips about gardening. It’s less about perfection and more about the joy, and occasional failure, of trying something new. (April 22)

Real Housewives of Rhode Island (Bravo) keeps getting better and better. (April 26)

🎬 Documentaries

Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill (Netflix) examines a shocking shooting within the elite world of competitive dressage, centering on the unraveling relationship between a renowned trainer and his student. Through conflicting accounts and firsthand perspectives, it explores mental health, power dynamics, and the ambiguity of truth. (April 21)

Betrayal: Secrets & Lies (Hulu) this week follows a charismatic conman who constructs an elaborate false identity while deceiving those closest to him. The story digs into the emotional and financial devastation caused by long-term manipulation, particularly when trust is weaponized against intimate partners and family.(April 26)

Hollywood Demons (HBO Max) this week pulls back the curtain on The Jerry Springer Show, revealing the darker realities behind its most sensational moments. Featuring interviews with former staff and guests, it examines allegations of exploitation and the lasting impact on those who appeared on the show. (April 20)

Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool (Netflix) is an intimate portrait, which follows Wilson as she navigates fame while staying grounded in her identity and values. Beyond the music, it explores personal decisions, mental health, and the pressures of rapid success. (April 22)

48 Hrs: Escape From Chernobyl (HBO Max) zeroes in on the first 48 hours after the Chernobyl disaster, reconstructing the chaos and urgency of those critical moments. Using firsthand accounts and archival footage, it highlights the decisions and sacrifices that prevented an even greater catastrophe. Structured like a ticking-clock thriller, it offers a focused, human perspective on a historic tragedy. (April 24)

Enjoy and share!

What struck me most in our conversation is that this story didn’t begin as an investigation at all. Christine and her husband, videographer Tolga Katas, moved to Short Creek simply to support a community still recovering from the aftermath of Warren Jeffs. What unfolded instead was something far more dangerous: the rise of a new self-proclaimed prophet, Samuel Bateman, and a years-long undercover effort to expose him.

Some highlights:

• Christine’s work is deeply personal. Before becoming an expert, she herself was drawn into a relationship with a false prophet, an experience that shaped her understanding of coercion, belief, and the devastating power of manipulation. That perspective is what makes her such a compelling voice in this space. She doesn’t approach survivors with judgment, only empathy.

• One of the most powerful themes we discussed is groupthink. Christine describes it as “superglue”, a force that binds people together in ways that make leaving not just difficult, but psychologically disorienting. It’s easy from the outside to ask, “Why didn’t they just leave?” But inside that system, belief is constantly reinforced by family, community, and fear.

• Then there is the risk she took. Gaining Bateman’s trust meant entering his inner circle, while quietly documenting evidence of abuse, sometimes even recording his own confessions. What began as documentation turned into a high-stakes, years-long effort that ultimately contributed to his arrest and conviction.

• This doesn’t mean it was a clean ending. As Christine explained, belief systems like this don’t simply disappear when a leader is imprisoned. Many followers remain loyal. The real work, the long and complicated process of helping people untangle themselves from those beliefs, continues to this day.

  CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW.

  

Episode 1583 - Saturday Series: A Surprising DNA Reveal

Episode 1582 - The Valley, Summer House, and Real Housewives

Episode 1581 - Creator of Laguna Beach on MTV

Episode 1580 - Clayton Echard and the Fertility Scam

Episode 1579 - Bravo Shows with Danny Pellegrino

Bonus Episode: Laguna Beach Reunion, Coachella, and Family Secrets

Here is your list this week:

📺 Reality Television

Million Dollar Secret (Netflix) is the kind of show Netflix does so well, it’s high-concept, twisty, and built entirely around deception. The premise centers on contestants navigating a game where secrets are currency, and trust is basically nonexistent. (April 15)

MasterChef (Fox) this season leans into international cuisine. It is one of those shows where you genuinely learn something while being entertained. (April 15)

Love Island: Beyond the Villa (Peacock) is great if you are not ready to let go of Love Island. The series follows former cast members once they return home, and honestly, this is where things often get more interesting. (April 15)

American Gladiators (Prime Video) is a reboot, which taps into nostalgia. Hosted by The Miz (from Real World), it brings in a new generation of contenders facing off against a lineup of seriously intense Gladiators. (April 17)

🎬 Documentaries

Noah Kahan: Out of Body (Netflix) is more than just a music documentary, because it is about an artist’s identity, burnout, and trying to reconnect with yourself after sudden fame. (April 13)

Boy Band Confidential (ID) goes deep into the late ‘90s/early 2000s boy band machine, examining how young performers were shaped, controlled, and often exploited by the industry. (April 13 & 14)

Independent Lens and Voices: Backside: The Unseen Hands of Horse Racing (PBS) takes a look at the people you don’t see in the world of horse racing, the immigrant workers who care for elite racehorses behind the scenes. (April 13)

Untold: Jail Blazers (Netflix) focuses on the early 2000s Portland Trail Blazers, a team as known for controversy as it was for talent. This one focuses on media narratives, player behavior, and team dynamics as they all collide. (April 14)

Sky King (Hulu) is about a man who stole a plane, and took off on a 70-minute flight. It is about loneliness, and the cracks in systems that are supposed to support people with mental health needs, and those that are working class. (April 14)

I interviewed the director, out this week.

You Don’t Know Where I’m From, Dawg (Paramount+) is a profile of soccer star Clint Dempsey about his achievements, about where he came from, and how that shaped him. (April 14)

The Dark Wizard (HBO) is an up-close and unflinching portrait of Dean Potter, one of the most influential, and controversial figures in extreme sports. (April 14)

Ronaldinho: The One and Only (Netflix) is a look at one of the most electrifying soccer players of all time, tracing his journey from prodigy to global icon. (April 16)

Jerry West: The Logo (Prime Video) is a portrait of a notoriously private figure. Jerry West, an NBA legend, opens up about depression, family struggles, and the cost of greatness. (Airs April 16)

That’s your list for the week, plenty to keep you busy. Let me know what you end up watching, and don’t forget to check out this week’s episodes if you haven’t already.

The results revealed a life-altering truth: the man she had always believed was her father… wasn’t biologically related to her.

In this week’s Saturday series episode, Michele shares the emotional aftermath of that discovery, the shock that stops you in your tracks, the unraveling of identity, and the quiet but persistent questioning of everything you thought you knew about your own story.

What does it mean to realize that a core piece of your identity isn’t what you believed? How do you reconcile love, memory, and biology when they no longer align?

This story has a very happy ending.

Michele’s episode: listen here.

Hope you are having a great start to your week. I know many of you are on Spring Break. Please check out my archived lists if you are looking for additional reality shows and documentaries to watch on your vacation.

I had some really fun episodes last week:

Episode 1573 - The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson

Episode 1574 - Summer House Scandal

Episode 1575 - Jen Shah Speaks Out and Bravo

Episode 1576 - Drita D'Avanzo from Mob Wives

Episode 1577 - Saturday Series: Adam Wilkenfeld

Bonus Episode: Summer House Scandal, Duggars, Tiger Woods, and Missing Person Found

Your list this week:

📺 Reality Television

Temptation Island (Netflix) is back with four couples putting their relationships to the ultimate test by splitting up and dating other people… and yes, it’s as chaotic as it sounds. (April 10)

The Reunion: Laguna Beach (Roku) brings back the original cast to revisit the iconic series and all the drama that made it unforgettable. (April 10)

My guest Thursday is the show’s creator and executive producer Liz Gately.

Love & Hip Hop: Miami (BET) has broken hearts, buried secrets, and burning bridges turning up the heat as the Miami this season. (April 8)

Real Housewives of Rhode Island, Beverly Hills, and Atlanta (Bravo) all have new episodes this week.

Danny Pellegrino is my guest on Tuesday, and Brian Moylan will be back on Friday.

Brian, by the way, has a new new substack.

Also, we will all be studying ongoing footage of Summer House (Bravo) this season to study the connection between West and Amanda.

🎬 Documentaries

Untold: Chess Mates (Netflix) is a head spinner. Magnus Carlsen, widely considered the greatest chess player of all time, faces rising star Hans Niemann in a controversy-filled match that sparks allegations of cheating and shakes the chess world. (April 7)

Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix) has a cult expert and filmmaker go undercover inside a polygamist sect to expose a self-proclaimed prophet and bring him to justice. (April 8)

The Predator of Seville (Netflix) follows the story of Manuel Blanco Vela, a charismatic tour guide who gained the trust of American students studying abroad—until multiple women accused him of sexual assault. As one survivor speaks out, others begin to connect their experiences, revealing a disturbing pattern. (Streaming now)

Philly Homicide (Oxygen) is a deep dive into some of the most gripping and devastating murder cases that have shaken Philadelphia. (April 11)

Make sure you listen to my episode Tuesday with Clayton Echard from The Bachelor and the podcast series Love Trapped.

Enjoy!

Kate

The show started as a fun escape, young professionals grinding all week in New York City, then blowing off steam in the Hamptons. It was light, chaotic, and built around an ensemble: friendships, hookups, petty drama.

Now, the central storyline is the slow unraveling of a miserable couple in a long-deteriorating relationship. And that shift changes everything.

Because a struggling marriage, especially one weighed down by resentment, financial stress, and emotional disconnect, it is not escapist. It’s heavy, and it pulls the entire house into something it was never meant to hold.

Kyle and Amanda’s issues don’t stay between them, they take over the room. Every dinner, every party, every interaction bends back toward their conflict. The rest of the cast gets pulled in, not as friends having fun, but as witnesses and reluctant mediators.

But they’re not marriage counselors.

And now, with Amanda and West confirming their relationship, the dynamic crosses into something even messier. In the real world, this would fracture a friend group permanently. Trust would be gone. People would pick sides. The group would split.

Instead, they’re all still there—filming, coexisting, pretending the foundation hasn’t cracked.

It doesn’t feel fun anymore. It feels small, tense, and increasingly toxic.

And the fix isn’t complicated: the show needs to go back to what it originally was—singles.

Keeping a married couple, especially one that showed cracks from the beginning, shifted the entire premise. It turned a group dynamic into a relationship autopsy.

Summer House only works when no one is tied down enough to bring the whole house with them when things fall apart.

More to come on the podcast this week.

It’s me, your unscripted television guide and best friend.

Hope you enjoyed all of last week’s episodes:

Episode 1571 - Betrayal: Secrets and Lies

Episode 1570 - Legal Fallout of The Bachelorette Cancellation

Episode 1569 - Behind The Scenes of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette With a Former Producer

Episode 1568 - Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and 90 Day Fiancé With Chris Farah

Episode 1567 - Bravo Breakdown With Ronnie Karam

BONUS Episode: The Cliffside Murder Attempt and the Society Scammers

If you are looking for something new to queue up this week, there’s a surprisingly strong mix of buzzy reality TV and thoughtful documentaries hitting streaming and cable. Whether you want escapism, true crime, or something a little more cerebral, here’s what’s worth watching. There is so much to choose from.

🎬 Documentaries

The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson (Netflix) is outstanding. Cyclist Moriah Wilson seemed to have it all: an innate work ethic and explosive talent for professional gravel racing, a sport that she was deeply passionate about; a fiercely loving family who supported her every move; profound friendships with those who shared her love of cycling; and an exciting new relationship with a fellow competitor. But just as she seemed to be reaching her peak, Moriah’s life was cut short by a grisly murder. (April 3)

My interview with the producer is out on Wednesday.

Rory McIlroy: The Masters Wait (Prime Video) unpacks the relentless pressure, devastating failures, and unwavering determination that made his triumph so profound—the story of a prodigy who became a champion, was knocked down year after year, and rebuilt himself into one of sport’s most resilient figures. (March 30)

Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom (Netflix) traces the life of Lamar Odom, from his rise to NBA fame and marriage to Khloé Kardashian to his near-fatal overdose in a Nevada brothel. (March 31)

Secrets of the Bees (National Geographic / Disney+ / Hulu) is great for kids. Over three years, special cameras opened a rare window into a single hive, revealing its hidden world. With more than 20,000 bee species pollinating one-third of the world’s food, this series uncovers their astonishing architecture and intelligence, unlocking their secrets. (March 31)

Frontline: Strike on Iran: The Nuclear Question (PBS) is an updated and expanded version of its December 2025 investigation that looks into Iran’s nuclear program in the aftermath of the June 2025 strikes… examining the impact of U.S. strikes and an Israeli bombing campaign against nuclear scientists” (March 31)

Evil Lives Here: My Child the Killer (ID) has stories about parents who have been forced to confront the unthinkable truth: the child they loved and trusted has grown into a monster. (March 31)

FBI True (Paramount+) goes behind-the-scenes with real agents telling true stories of their most dangerous and infamous cases. (March 31)

📺 Reality Television

Real Housewives of Rhode Island (Bravo / Peacock) premieres, uncovering the murky waters of friendships, feuds and shifting loyalties within Rhode Island’s tightly woven social scene. (April 2)

Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo) is back too with a new premiere. This season has a mix of fan favorites and new energy meant to bring back classic Atlanta chaos. Cynthia Bailey returns as a friend of the show too. (April 5)

Love on the Spectrum (Netflix) has new romantic hopefuls and familiar faces return in their search for love. (April 1)

The Valley (Bravo) returns with a new season. Vanderpump Rules alums Lala Kent and Tom Schwartz join for season three. (April 1)

Expedition Files (Discovery Channel) plunges back into the archives… to uncover jaw-dropping additional evidence behind the world’s most notorious mysteries. (April 1)

Conspiracies & Coverups (Discovery Channel) has former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante exposing the truth behind conspiracy theories. (April 1)

Made for March (Paramount+ / CBS) follows two of college basketball’s most renowned programs—Kansas Jayhawks and Michigan Wolverines—this season in their bid for a national championship. (April 4)

Tell me which ones you are most excited to watch.

Enjoy!

This week I went deep into The Bachelor universe from two completely different angles, and together, they paint a fascinating picture of a franchise at a crossroads.

First, I spoke with former Bachelor producer Michael Carroll, who talked about how the show is actually made. From the psychology of casting to the carefully orchestrated chaos of rose ceremonies, I found each part most interesting. His stories about fantasy suites and how production protects the secrecy of the finale are eye-opening, but the standout is his behind-the-scenes account of Trista and Ryan’s wedding special.

Then, I shifted gears and spoke with powerhouse attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos to unpack the shocking cancellation of The Bachelorette. They break down what could be happening behind the scenes legally, from contractual obligations to potential liability, and why this move is so unprecedented in reality television. More importantly, they explore what it signals about the future of the genre itself.

Taken together, these conversations reveal both the machinery that built The Bachelor empire, and the cracks that may be starting to show.