Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Real Friends of WeHo’ on MTV, a Reality Show Trainwreck That Will Live In Infamy

MTV’s The Real Friends of WeHo was dubbed a “national crisis” when it was announced just a few weeks ago and its rep hasn’t exactly improved since then. The docu-soap follows six queer men — stylist Brad Goreski, dancer/choreographer Todrick Hall, actor Curtis Hamilton, entrepreneur Dorion Renaud, influencer Joey Zauzig, and host Jaymes Vaughan — as they go on pre-arranged playdates in the vicinity of West Hollywood where they boast about their accomplishments and talk about RSVPing for parties. Does this show have anything interesting to say about the queer experience in 2023, or does the National Guard need to mobilize ASAP?

THE REAL FRIENDS OF WEHO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: It’s WeHo, baby! Or, as Brad Goreski calls it, “the epicenter of the gay world.” He’s not really wrong, but this is also the most we’ll see of WeHo for the next hour.

The Gist: I mean, it’s literally a Housewives franchise set in West Hollywood — and the show knows that. It’s literally been marketed as MTV’s House-guys, which is the clearest indicator of the show’s intentions: exploit the gay community’s obsession with messy socialites in a quest for ratings, all while throwing a drink in the face of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The vibe going into the premiere is very “sure is a nice critically-acclaimed, Emmy-winning, culture-redefining franchise you got here — would be a shame if something happened to it.”

Okay, that’s the gist of the show’s reputation but not the gist of the show itself. Here’s a rundown of Episode 1: Brad Goreski has been serving his husband chicken chili instead of turkey chili; Todrick Hall performs a few dates on his MTV-produced apology tour; Jaymes Vaughan is more than Jonathan Bennett’s husband, he says between nonstop scenes of him by Bennett’s side; Joey Zauzig is here for the drama that comes from proclaiming one is not here for the drama; Dorion Renaud is better than this; and poor Curtis Hamilton is coming out of the closet for this.

I say “poor Curtis Hamilton” because he’s the only Real Friend™ who comes across as a Real Person. Of all the plot lines in the first episode, and there are either a dozen or none depending on how closely you’re watching, Hamilton’s is the one that feels worth our time. He just came out to his parents and now he’s coming out to the world (or, rather, an audience killing time between a new episode of Drag Race and Untucked). A concerning amount of screen time is devoted to these six Real Friends™ questioning why they’re doing this show (and in some cases why they’re doing this show with Todrick hall). In Hamilton’s case, watching him question his involvement is a bummer because we know that this train skid off the tracks before it even left the station.

Anyway — the episode builds to Zauzig’s engagement party where Renaud ruffles feathers because he’s a plus-one who doesn’t know anyone else and oh my god why is this a thing that happens over and over and over again on these shows?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Real Housewives of Anywhere and Everywhere.

Sex and Skin: Bizarrely, fully a third of the cast has neglected to wear pants in their confessionals. Hall is wearing short shorts which, sure, but Goreski’s opted for a buttoned-up suit lewk with shirt, tie, jacket, and what I can only assume are well-tailored booty shorts. I don’t know.

Sleeper Star: As mentioned above, Curtis Hamilton’s coming out story deserves its own spotlight. Also I will cop to my basic gay desires by admitting that watching the suddenly burly Jaymes Vaughn talk about gas station fried chicken made me feel a certain type of way.

Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s a lot of drama,” uttered 63 seconds into the first episode by Brad Goreski. Oh, were you not expecting drama? Honey, the drama, she is here. I know these gays are not here for the drama but somehow, oh mama, there’s still going to be duh-rama.

Parting Shot: Joey’s mad that Dorion told people he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know them because this party is for people who know Joey and since Dorion doesn’t want to get to know Joey right at this exact moment during Joey’s engagement party, Dorion might leave the party that he didn’t want to go to in the first place.

Our Take: There are two ways to judge The Real Friends of WeHo. Oh — trust, there are an infinite number of ways to judge this show, but only two are relevant to this review. There’s the one about what Real Friends actually is (the injury), and what we are losing because Real Friends exists (the insult added to the injury). Let’s start with the injury — The Real Friends of WeHo itself. I don’t know why this show exists. Truthfully, I find the preponderance of these kinds of shows — shows where people who are not actors act in scenes written by producers where they kick up drama that is not real for a show billed as “reality” — baffling. At least the Housewives franchise has, I don’t know, more fashion and glamour and delusion (and also, from what I understand, crime?). The Real Friends of WeHo is just watching six gays proclaim that they “aren’t here for drama” and “don’t tolerate foolishness” even though they are now contractually obligated to be present for drama and endure an exhausting level of foolishness. It’s a given that none of this is real, but it should at least be entertaining.

Here’s an example of the kind of drama that gets teased for later in the season: “You just asked me this morning to get your sister a bag, Curtis!” We’ve all been there.

What’s maddening, though, is that I actually think one could make a legitimately interesting show with these six professional homosexuals, if the entire conceit of the show was dumped harder than a backup dancer asking for payment (lol sorry). There’s actual conflict here, like Hamilton’s recent coming out, Renaud’s post-pandemic social anxiety, and Hall’s constant controversies. But the vapidness of this formula means all of that is passed over in favor of — you guessed it — party guest drama bullshit. Truly the worst problem facing the queer community in 2023: people bringing plus ones with bad vibes.

That’s the injury, and here’s the insult to the injury: we are literally losing a half hour of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 for this, and the show’s been wedged between Drag Race and Untucked.

What initially seemed like an innocuous network shift from VH1 to MTV now seems like a con, like MTV using its premier series to force us into watching a bland show that we did not ask for. And what’s truly upsetting is that in order to make room for an hour of emotionally empty nonsense, Drag Race has had a chunk of its emotionally raw realness edited out. The first things to go when Drag Race went from 90 to 60 minutes were a lot of the runway portion (re: legit queer artistry and excellence) and a lot of the mirror chats (where queer people who are not yet influencers open up about actual issues beyond not being taken seriously as an influencer). Who’s winning here? Not the viewers, not the queens, and not even any of the Real Friends™. This show could have been a Reel.

Our Call: Skip it. They aren’t your real friends and they never were!