Non-Threatening Boys* Partial credit for Jason and Brett from Selling Sunset
Words: Veronika Shulman
Make it stand out
Selling Sunset from the jump meant more to me than it was supposed to. I think I came upon it during a break-up, a time when I was primed to let these plastic, hyperreal characters wash over me like protagonists in great literature.
I saw it like an opera or a Greek tragedy (Chrishell a kind of Antigone because she is orphaned, and comes from nothing with everything to prove; she is made of only starshine). But as the years roll along she grows stronger, and her archetype hardens into more of a Medea maybe. I rooted for other girls, too: Bre, because she is fiery with a bit of Athena in her; Amanza, because she’s a tragic heroine (a la Electra in mythology or Mimi in the opera La Boheme) balancing a basketball player baby-daddy who mysteriously went missing, with an elusive near-death experience.
