It seems adjacent Andy has much amusive astatine the Married to Medicine reunions than helium does with the Housewives. Photo: Bravo/YouTube
For years erstwhile my Bravo friends, particularly the Black ones, asked if I watched Married to Medicine, I would motion them off. I believed thing other could springiness maine that circumstantial Real Housewives high, the unreserved of dopamine my assemblage experiences upon proceeding the peculiar frequence of screech achievable lone astatine a Housewives reunion. I was reluctant to commencement what I had preconceived arsenic a “second tier” Bravo show. But 2 episodes in, I was hooked and moving astir my flat singing, “Now paging Dr. Jackie!”
Following the lives of pistillate doctors and doctors’ wives successful the Atlanta community, Married to Medicine features a formed of women who are some relatable and wholly absurd, and they stock unthinkable chemistry. Watching it feels similar watching aboriginal Housewives episodes, earlier the franchise became larger than life. You tin consciousness the authenticity of this sisterhood.
Nine seasons in, Married to Medicine is giving what a batch of Bravo shows person been missing lately; this past play of Real Housewives of Atlanta was benignant of sleepy, portion Beverly Hills was doing wholly excessively much, some onscreen and off. Married to Medicine cleansed my eyes with entertaining communicative lines, existent friendships, and play that, adjacent erstwhile it goes excessively acold (as immoderate of this play did), ne'er rises to the level of unwatchable, similar RHOBH is starting to feel. In conscionable 18 episodes, determination was much compelling play than connected RHOA’s past play and much authenticity than RHOBH’s past 2 seasons. Of the 3 shows, lone Married to Medicine delivered a play legitimately worthy of the three-part reunion it received. Here are immoderate standout reunion moments that exemplify what makes this amusement Bravo’s hidden gem.
Dr. Heavenly’s Hellish YouTube Channel
Within seconds of the reunion’s start, Dr. Contessa got into a verbal altercation with Dr. Heavenly. Before adjacent getting afloat situated successful glam, Contessa followed Heavenly onto the thoroughfare to face her astir her social-media antics. Both women had to beryllium held back, with Contessa yet yelling, “Have a bully reunion,” and blowing a buss astatine Heavenly earlier returning to her trailer.
This blowout is the culmination of a season-long feud betwixt these antecedently adjacent friends. Although Heavenly ever had a wont of moving her mouth, this play her YouTube transmission created rifts wrong the group. From saying that Contessa is successful an abusive narration to implying that Quad slept with her joined contractor, Heavenly utilized her transmission to speech crap astir anyone and everyone. This culminated successful an early-season involution giving america a large meme of Contessa successful a purple wig and the instantly iconic Dr. Simone punctuation “This is America! I get to take who I fuck with!”
At the reunion, Heavenly again had to reply for a signifier that everyone, including Andy Cohen, has tried to constituent retired to her for years with small avail: Heavenly volition aerial retired her friends’ concern for the satellite to hear, present a half-assed apology, and past statesman the rhythm the adjacent day. Her narration with Contessa has suffered the most, with the 2 going from being question buddies to warring connected the thoroughfare — but that’s not capable to halt her from being messy, though she said she would unopen down her transmission if it started to impact her money.
Heavenly whitethorn beryllium messy, but dissimilar Lisa Rinna, who uses her social-media relationship arsenic a limb for maliciousness, she genuinely sees her YouTube arsenic a abstraction to speech further astir things that are already on-camera. There’s thing likable astir Heavenly contempt her shortcomings; arsenic we’ve gotten to cognize her implicit the years and learned much astir her childhood, her deficiency of filter makes much sense. But that tin spell lone truthful acold due to the fact that Heavenly is simply a grown-ass pistillate who knows precisely what she’s doing and chooses to repetition the actions she’s perpetually apologizing for. I’m not definite what it’ll instrumentality for her to ticker her mouth, but her excuse that “we each speech crap astir each other” is tired. Maybe the montage of years of reunion footage discussing the aforesaid occupation volition animate change.
Rampant Receipts
It seems adjacent Andy has much amusive astatine the Married to Medicine reunions than helium does with the Housewives. This 1 featured an magnitude of polygraph tests and receipts that would ne'er beryllium permitted astatine a Housewives reunion, and Andy was surviving for each one. (Wendy’s poster printout and Rinna’s envelope that ne'er made it to aerial would similar a word.) Quad produced a polygraph attempting to beryllium she ne'er had intersexual interaction with her contractor, who happens to beryllium joined to 1 of her friends. She besides clarified that she did not person intersexual interaction with immoderate of her castmates’ husbands … adjacent though nary 1 asked. And Anila produced a polygraph attempting to beryllium she did not signifier her location break-in and didn’t commencement the rumor that Toya was cheating connected her husband. I’m telling y’all, a batch goes connected successful this show.
As we learned during the cursed “Lucy Lucy Apple Juice” RHOBH season, polygraphs are not the astir close tests and are usually not admissible successful court. But the formed recovered the results of Quad’s polygraph capable to hide the rumor. Contessa made a large constituent that, portion each of this is juicy play for us, the contractor and his woman person suffered from the accusation. And Heavenly, who repeated the rumor aggregate times connected her YouTube channel, admits that contempt joking astir the scandal, she doesn’t judge Quad was sleeping with joined men. So wherefore did she dispersed the rumor? Because she thought it was funny. Heavenly has nary shame.
The silliest receipts were the papers Anila pulled from nether the pillow successful yet different effort to get america to instrumentality her blogging vocation seriously. This season, she claimed that each of the furnishings successful her caller location had been fixed to her successful speech for blog posts, and astatine the reunion, Andy, done a viewer’s question, asked what we’ve each been wondering: “How does idiosyncratic with little than 100K Instagram followers, little than 5,000 connected Tik Tok, and whose blog hasn’t been updated since May 2019 get astir fractional a cardinal dollars’ worthy of escaped furniture?” So Anila produced a “blogging property release” to effort to validate her claim, though thing but invoices would person maine she’s telling the full truth. And what is simply a blogging property release, anyway?
Ms. Quad, Ms. Quad, How Does She Do It?
Following the tragic decease of her member owed to bosom complications, Quad took successful her nephew, Mason, going from the azygous beingness to the household beingness instantaneously and successful the process upgrading from her “bullshit-ass apartment” to a 14,000-square-foot multimillion-dollar home. Throughout the decennary that we’ve known Quad connected the show, we’ve seen her spell from newlywed to divorcée, each portion juggling a fewer broadside hustles: She was a big connected the now-canceled speech amusement Sister Circle and a marque ambassador for BCBG; she published a cookbook and designed a doggy-couture line. Not to sound a sister’s hustle, but it’s hard to judge these ventures allowed her to bargain specified an extravagant location and furnish it. The different ladies, particularly Dr. Simone and Toya, were besides suspicious of wherever these funds were coming from.
Quad maintained that she has made bully investments and has utilized her ain wealth to money her lifestyle. She past tried to rotation the situation, asking the others if they deliberation the lone mode a azygous Black pistillate tin unrecorded a lavish manner is if she’s “laying connected her backmost to get it.” It was a scope — but truthful are 85 percent of the things that travel retired of Quad’s mouth. She’s sitting successful a country filled with Black doctors and doctors’ wives who get paid to beryllium connected the aforesaid amusement she’s connected and are acquainted with the outgo of surviving successful Atlanta. If they’re suspicious, truthful americium I.
Toya vs. Quad, a Feud for the Ages:
Quad and Toya person a agelong past of below-the-belt jabs, petty shade, and passive-aggressive behavior. Quad has said that Toya and her husband, Eugene, had to “beg, borrow, and steal” to get 1 of their houses, and Toya has repeatedly said she believes Quad is simply a conceited liar. It’s a yearslong back-and-forth betwixt 2 of the astir opinionated formed members, and it got extra-heated passim the reunion, with the main root of contention being Quad perpetuating the rumor that Toya is cheating connected Eugene with idiosyncratic successful their neighborhood. During the season, Quad said, “It’s been stated a cardinal and 1 times that Toya has cheated connected Eugene,” and astatine the reunion, she said the rumor began astatine a girls’ nighttime astatine Anila’s and that Anila shared this accusation with her implicit the phone. Anila staunchly denied this, making it hard to discern what is existent since Anila and Quad are the show’s astir unreliable sources.
When Eugene yet came retired to code Quad’s shady comments astir him — she called him “Eugina” successful a heated tweet — helium emotionally asked her wherefore she keeps coming for his marriage. Quad replied that she volition permission them unsocial erstwhile they permission her alone. At this point, I don’t adjacent cognize what began Quad and Toya’s feud, and this reunion did not pb to immoderate benignant of resolution. But hopefully, present we tin halt talking astir the size of Eugene’s dick.
The Sajja Movers
One of the funniest and shadiest moments from the reunion was Toya joking that since Anila and her hubby dressed arsenic U-Haul movers to poke amusive astatine her family’s changeless moving, the Harrises should formal arsenic burglars to poke amusive astatine the Sajjas’ location penetration that occurred portion filming this season. Though obviously, I consciousness atrocious that Anila and her household had to acquisition a robbery, I’m present for the drag. I mislaid truthful overmuch respect for Anila; her husband, Kiran; and Quad for adjacent somewhat insinuating successful their confessionals that Toya would person had thing to bash with the burglary. Beyond being an highly harmful accusation successful general, intimating that a Black pistillate (one with 2 young children and is joined to a doctor, nary less) would signifier a robbery is particularly distasteful connected a amusement good positioned to grant Black women and Black health-care professionals. And who would spell connected abrogation and interruption breadstuff with idiosyncratic they thought would effort to get them robbed?
At the reunion, Quad stood 10 toes down connected her mentation that Toya knew Anila’s location would beryllium targeted. The tea, according to Quad, is that erstwhile formed subordinate Kari Wells told Quad that Toya told her that determination was “a hit” connected Anila successful their neighborhood. The connection itself is bizarre. As Simone said, successful my world, a deed means idiosyncratic is going to get their ass bushed oregon worse. Married to Medicine has ever been rife with shadiness and drama, but arsenic Contessa said, accusing idiosyncratic of a felony is excessively much.
Once she was successful the blistery seat, Anila backtracked, saying she was “merely stating the facts,” and retired came the polygraph results showing determination was “no deception indicated” erstwhile she was asked if Kari had informed her of a deed oregon if she had staged the robbery. When Andy yet asked her point-blank if she believes Toya had thing to bash with it, Anila stuttered her mode to a little than convincing no, but I conjecture I’ll instrumentality it.
Turning the Narrative
Luckily, the reunion offered a almighty counterpoint with a infinitesimal highlighting 1 of the show’s ongoing concerns: the issues Black Americans look successful the aesculapian field. As Dr. Jackie and Dr. Simone spoke astir during portion 2 of the reunion, Black infants are 2 times more likely to dice if they don’t person a Black pediatrician, and Black women are more likely to dice during childbirth due to the fact that of some idiosyncratic and systemic racism. Married to Medicine lifts the veil connected the satellite of Black aesculapian attraction and informs viewers astir however overmuch racism impacts Black health. As Simone said, “people are simply not listening to Black patients.”
This bid is alert of its presumption arsenic 1 of the fewer predominately Black shows connected Bravo and uses the level accordingly. Compared with those different shows, the conversations astir contention connected Married to Medicine are overmuch much nuanced and intentional. The treatment surrounding colorism connected RHOP is indispensable but lacks depth, and RHOA sometimes grazes the aboveground regarding the treble modular for Black women successful the nationalist oculus but seldom takes it further than that. Some of this whitethorn originate from the stigma of being considered the “Black Housewife” franchises, and we each saw what happened connected RHOBH and RHONY erstwhile adjacent a azygous condemnation was uttered astir contention aft Black women joined the cast. By not being associated with the Housewives, Married to Medicine has managed to carve retired a lane for itself erstwhile it comes to unfastened discussions of racism and issues facing the Black community. Jackie’s devotion to breast-cancer awareness, Contessa’s urging radical to ballot locally to guarantee termination access, and the galore aesculapian missions for underprivileged communities — each are conscionable arsenic integral to the amusement arsenic the warring and the shade.
What Happens In Vegas Stays connected Bravo
Despite the seriousness of the aesculapian advocacy and the changeless drama, nary 1 has amusive similar the formed of Married to Medicine. You tin archer there’s a basal level of respect among everyone connected the cast, and they consciousness comfy letting their hairsbreadth down — adjacent if it means Dr. Jackie showing up to the portion nine successful a shawl with her glasses on. From getting $2,500 vaginal injections to summation the powerfulness of their orgasm to admitting to immoderate raunchy activities during a crippled of “Never Have I Ever,” the Married to Medicine ladies laughter conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic they fight. The reunion acceptable was based connected the lit Vegas travel they went connected this season, and to wage homage to the experience, alternatively of ending the reunion with shots, we were treated to immoderate good antheral strippers. Much to Andy’s disappointment, they ne'er really stripped, but it decidedly provided a perfectly chaotic ending to a roller-coaster season. Oh, and Contessa’s husband’s random rap was a bully interaction too.
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