{"id":113666,"date":"2025-08-02T18:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T18:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/113666\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T18:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T18:41:10","slug":"gen-z-finally-has-a-great-reality-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/113666\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z finally has a great reality show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back when network television<\/a> wasn\u2019t on life support, and TV seasons were still jam-packed with 22 episodes keeping viewers hooked from September to May, summer was considered a time of great drought for television devotees. Most of the decent series went off the air until fall, bumped by syndicated reruns and reality competition shows where ninja warriors<\/a> would sing for Paula Abdul<\/a> as they dodged flying machetes<\/a>, all for the chance to win a clock from Flavor Flav<\/a> and stay in the mansion for one more week. (Or something like that.) If you wanted to hole up from the heat or get out of a raging thunderstorm to cozy up on the couch, you were making a date with Lauren Conrad<\/a>, Howie Mandel<\/a> and Bret Michaels<\/a> \u2014 sometimes all in one night.<\/p>\n

Those nascent days gave us trashy summer television at its absolute finest. For those who couldn\u2019t get enough, Bravo<\/a> was the paradigm purveyor of mesmerizing reality schlock. The network\u2019s summer programming was so stacked that, for three years running, they brought in their most notable personalities for highly produced \u201cSummer by Bravo\u201d ads. The wonderfully absurd one-minute spots featured the likes of Bethenny Frankel<\/a>, Kathy Griffin<\/a>, NeNe Leakes, and more, pretending to roast marshmallows<\/a> with their fellow Bravolebs, or, during the 2012 Olympics, run relays holding glasses of wine<\/a>. It was a glorious time to be a Bravo watcher, and like all ages of great prosperity, it was inevitably followed by a long depression.<\/p>\n

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(Scott Gries\/Bravo) Hudson McLeroy, Brooks Marks and Charlie Zakkour on \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing that\u2019s happened on any of the network\u2019s shows in the last decade has come close to matching the unconsciously malevolent nonsense of Bravo\u2019s late-aughts one-season-wonders.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the network\u2019s sunny summertime charm has dimmed. Bravo\u2019s programming was once far more balanced, stacked with watchable characters like Tabatha Coffey<\/a> and Rachel Zoe<\/a> to balance out parallel \u201cReal Housewives<\/a>\u201d series. Now, it seems everything is a \u201cHousewives\u201d offshoot, either spun off directly from the network\u2019s crown jewel or formatted to operate exactly like it. And, sadly, even \u201cHousewives\u201d isn\u2019t<\/a> what it used to be. The network desperately needed something fresh \u2013 not just a facelift, but a full blood transfusion. But just when I thought there would be gray skies forevermore, the clouds opened up and dropped \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d into my lap, a show that has the flavor, moxie and youthful vitality of the network\u2019s halcyon era. It\u2019s not good, not great; it\u2019s divine, irrefutable proof that God hasn\u2019t turned his back on us yet. A combination of the network\u2019s finest elements past and present, \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d is an ingenious mixture of loose cannons and pretty people, all vapid in the way that most 20-somethings are afraid to own up to. There\u2019s no better way to say it: For the first time in years, Bravo has an original hit on its hands. But the skies aren\u2019t clear yet. What remains to be seen is if the network can shepherd \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d to prime-Bravo greatness, or if it will tank the series like so many shows it has inexplicably axed in the past.<\/p>\n

In July, Brooklyn\u2019s Bell House welcomed a sold-out crowd to see a live reading of an episode of Bravo\u2019s 2012 one-hit-wonder show, \u201cGallery Girls<\/a>,\u201d about a group of privileged, post-grad art world wannabes. Presented by pop culture archivalists THNK1994<\/a>, the reading attracted the series\u2019 cult following, which has only grown since the show was unceremoniously canceled following its single, glorious season, along with three of its titular gallery girls \u2014 Icaruses who flew too close to the sun. As actors and comedians read from scripts laid out plainly with the episode\u2019s preposterous situations, it was abundantly clear that Bravo had strayed from the light. Nothing that\u2019s happened on any of the network\u2019s shows in the last decade has come close to matching the unconsciously malevolent nonsense of this one-off series.<\/p>\n

\u201cGallery Girls\u201d may not have been a smash hit when it aired in the summer of 2012, but had the show been nurtured a bit longer, it could\u2019ve been a Bravo staple. The same goes for \u201cNYC Prep<\/a>,\u201d the slightly more famed 2009 series that tried to capitalize on the popularity of \u201cGossip Girl<\/a>\u201d by following New York trust fund teens with terrible haircuts around town, watching them dodge gay allegations while fighting about charities for kids with cleft palates. \u201cGallery Girls\u201d and \u201cNYC Prep\u201d were ripe with the kind of absurdity you can only get with a group of people who don\u2019t want to be famous, but rather, love to be on camera.<\/p>\n

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(Heidi Gutman\/Bravo) Ariana Biermann and Gia Giudice on \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucky for us, \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d is composed of people who live and die by the eye of the lens. The show\u2019s title suggests that these kids, who are all between the ages of 22 and 30, aren\u2019t just the future of New York, but the future of Bravo. And in the show\u2019s stellar yet all-too-brief eight-episode first season, the cast cements that title before the pilot even concludes. The series wisely taps some familiar faces from Bravo shows of yore, tossing \u201cHousewives\u201d progenies Ariana Biermann, Riley Burruss, Gia Giudice and Brooks Marks into the batter before adding a few special ingredients. While Biermann \u2014 a budding streetwear designer (okay, sure!) and the daughter of \u201cReal Housewives of Atlanta\u201d alum Kim Zolciak \u2014 quickly stakes her claim as one of the show\u2019s most valuable players, it\u2019s the newbies who really give America\u2019s Tate McRae a run for her money. (Which, as fate would have it, was stolen by her mother and used to pay off divorce bills and gambling debts. I told you this show is magical.)<\/p>\n

Among the relative unknowns are Damon Dash\u2019s<\/a> daughter, Ava Dash; heir to the Zaxby\u2019s Chicken fortune and Biermann\u2019s boyfriend, Hudson McElroy; Emira D\u2019Spain, a self-made model and one of the network\u2019s few trans personalities; Charlie Zakkour, a \u201ccrypto investor\u201d (read: trust fund burnout) with a hot head and no filter; and Shai Fruchter, who, to my best guess, functions like that one weed dealer who hangs around with your friend group just because it\u2019s convenient to keep him in the fold.<\/p>\n

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Finally, there is Georgia McCann, a self-styled Gen Z beatnik and events planner whose special talents include throwing parties for Anna Delvey<\/a> and not washing her hands after she pees. McCann is, by no exaggeration, the best reality television find since Tiffany \u201cNew York\u201d Pollard strolled into the McMansion they rented for \u201cFlavor of Love\u201d Season 1. She\u2019s outspoken, intelligent yet lovably naive, and, best of all, genuinely funny without trying to be, something Bravolebs have rarely been able to manage in a post-Bethenny Frankel world. In an early episode, McCann breaks her phone, and, being the only member of the cast who isn\u2019t rolling in cash, totes her janky laptop to the club so she can send texts. If that weren\u2019t enough to convince you, a good chunk of McCann\u2019s Season 1 arc revolves around her wanting to build a brutalist bowling alley nightclub \u2014 called \u201cClub Club\u201d \u2014 and roping her shady crypto-loving boyfriend into the scheme. She\u2019s a mad genius in a way that so many fancy themselves to be, but can never make good on. When McCann\u2019s onscreen, it\u2019s like watching Gena Rowlands<\/a> perform, if Gena Rowlands had an aversion to hand soap.<\/p>\n

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(Scott Gries\/Bravo) Georgia McCann on \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone seems to think they can control their TV narrative, editing themselves along the way to the point where viewers are disconnected from the realism in reality. But the truth is, nobody knows the formula, not even the producers. The best, most memorable shows Bravo has developed are the weird ones, where the concepts are simple, but the cast is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d is cleverly constructed to offer viewers peaks and valleys. Where McCann is a firecracker, Ava Dash is a total snooze, the kind of monotone, self-obsessed personality that gives Gen Z a bad name. But without Ava and the show\u2019s other bores \u2014 sorry, Brooks Marks \u2014 \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d wouldn\u2019t be half as good. With this cast, Bravo has perfected its old-school, \u201cGallery Girls\u201d-era formula, where not every cast member has to be quote-unquote interesting all the time. For too long, producers and editors have falsely believed that non-stop arguing is what makes a reality show work. In actuality, the audience needs space to breathe. Casting a few dullards is an essential part of the process. Without them, storylines blur together and seasons become unmemorable. If you held a gun to my head and told me you\u2019d spare me if I could tell you a few minute details about what happened on any recent season of \u201cHousewives,\u201d you might as well pull the trigger, because I\u2019d already be dead.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say this cast doesn\u2019t fight, only that they fight in ways reminiscent of anyone\u2019s early 20s. They drink copious amounts of liquor on friend trips to the Jersey shore, brown out and start calling their good friend\u2019s brutalist bowling alley club a terrible idea. Their dynamic isn\u2019t just more fun to watch, it\u2019s realistic. Whereas \u201cHousewives,\u201d \u201cVanderpump Rules<\/a>\u201d and even \u201cBelow Deck\u201d cast members are constantly in spats about who slept with whom, or whose brand is using dropshipping companies for cheap products they\u2019re passing off as handmade, \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d doesn\u2019t need any of that ordinary fare. These kids get mad at each other for taking too long to return a Bose speaker and then immediately dial it up to 100 at an outdoor cafe, before longboarding away into the Manhattan dusk. Or, in Biermann\u2019s case, they won\u2019t fight much, but will do something just as fun: meander around looking at fabric for a streetwear line that doesn\u2019t exist, and say, \u201cOooooh, we should totally have something like that in our line!\u201d<\/p>\n

Like any friend group, \u201cNext Gen NYC\u201d is filled with overachievers and underachievers; people who have family money and people who work long hours, scraping by to make their way in the big city. That authenticity is a major part of why this series feels so unique. All of these people seem like they\u2019re part of a real social circle. Most people who get hired to be on a modern reality show think they\u2019re going to be a star, and if they fall into a friendship along the way, so be it. Here, even the Bravo nepo babies don\u2019t try to pull rank. Each member of the cast serves their purpose, even if it\u2019s to be the back that another person walks all over on the path to greatness. Not to get all coastal elite about it, but that\u2019s genuinely what it feels like to be in your 20s in New York City. This entire cast is still figuring out who they are, and they\u2019re not afraid to admit that. (As tedious as Ava Dash might be, I admire that she came out and said she felt like skipping Marks\u2019 birthday trip, later in the season, so she could go to a networking event \u2014 that\u2019s real!)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached an age of massive Bravo fatigue, where everyone seems to think that they can join a reality show and control their narrative, editing themselves along the way to the point where viewers are disconnected from the realism in reality. But the truth is, nobody knows the formula, not even the producers. The best, most memorable shows Bravo has developed are the weird ones, where the concepts are simple, but the cast is not. How easily the network has forgotten that the original \u201cHousewives\u201d series, \u201cThe Real Housewives of Orange County,\u201d became a hit because it peered into a microcosm of life most viewers hadn\u2019t thought to imagine. There was a time when following a bunch of rich, Republican women in Sky tops<\/a> was a novel idea. But over time, we got used to that too. As much as we love \u201cHousewives,\u201d it\u2019s time for something just as simple and equally as fresh. It\u2019s the next generation\u2019s turn, and God-willing, Bravo gives us another summer with these lovable pests, hopefully at the grand opening of New York\u2019s hottest new bowling alley-slash-discotheque, Club Club.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

about other Bravo highs, past and present<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back when network television wasn\u2019t on life support, and TV seasons were still jam-packed with 22 episodes keeping…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-113666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114960641880421728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}