Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Buying Beverly Hills’ Season 2 on Netflix, Which, Let’s Face It, We’re Watching For The Kyle-Mauricio-Hilton Drama — Not The Houses

The second season of Netflix’s Buying Beverly Hills has been highly anticipated because of all the tea it’s been promising to spill. The new episodes of the show, out now, fill in the blanks about the family rift between Mauricio Umansky and Kyle Richards and the Hilton family, as well as the couple’s own separation, all while showing off the gorgeous houses that Umansky’s real estate company, The Agency, are selling.

BUYING BEVERLY HILLS (SEASON 2): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An exterior shot of the home that real estate mogul Mauricio Umansky shares with Kyle Richards. Umansky is seated at a table with daughters Farrah, Alexia, and Sophia, and tells them, “I had an amazing 26 years with your mom,” and explains that Kyle has asked for a separation and space to date other people. The girls cry. We are diving right into the drama! But then… a graphic reads, “Six Months Earlier,” and we get to see all the drama that led to this sad, surprising separation.

The Gist: If The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills gives Kyle Richards a platform and a place to tell the story of her life, Buying Beverly Hills is her husband Mauricio Umansky’s platform to tell his own story, but he’s doing that by interspersing high-end real estate listings held by his firm, The Agency, throughout his personal and family drama. Though the show is a real estate series, it’s got a more narrative structure than most other shows of that genre, because look, we know these people already, and let’s be real, we’re more invested in them than we are in mansions with views of downtown LA.

The show also adds a new layer of nepo-baby drama this season, too. While Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky already work for The Agency and often had to prove their worth to their colleagues who were skeptical of their position in the company, now their sister Sophia is getting in on the family business, too, interning at The Agency while she’s studying for her real estate license.

As we meet the other agents who do not have the Umansky name, some of them, like Joey Ben-Zvi and Ben Belack, are vocal about the rivalry and resentment they feel toward the Umansky sisters. Belack at one point explains that “real estate is a meritocracy” and everything he has, he has worked for and not been handed out of nepotism.

And woven throughout are the listings that the Umanskys and their colleagues are showing, ranging from a vast olive ranch to a $65 million Bel Air estate made of glass. While the drama between the agents feels a little staged and predictable, at the very least Umansky himself seems like a more of a human than, say, the Oppenheims, and his close relationship with his daughters brings a warmth to the show that other real estate series seem to lack.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Buying Beverly Hills is kind of a genius show, in that it capitalizes on our lust for shows about real estate porn, like Selling Sunset and Million Dollar Beach House, which combine gorgeous homes with gorgeous and dramatic sales agents, while adding the cache of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills into the mix.

Our Take: When Buying Beverly Hills is focusing on the lives of its other, non-Umansky agents and giving tours of luxury homes, it’s almost indistinguishable from other real estate shows. The show’s elevator pitch was clearly, “Make it a real estate show that’s also an extension of the Bravo Universe that serves as bonus content for Housewives devotees.” The Kyle and Mauricio of it all adds a layer of necessary drama, but it’s Alexia and Sophia whose dry humor and competitive edge with their fellow brokers who make the show as fun as it it. (Farrah is an integral part of The Agency but she comes off as more reserved and less feisty than her sisters.)

At this point in TV history, I think we’ve all seen enough cantilevered decks and infinity pools and booze-fueled open houses to know the formula, and while the show doesn’t really do anything different with those ingredients, the Umanskys make it worth watching. They’re good at what they do (real estate and quick-witted quips), which makes good TV, but it’s the real-life relationships that make the show the most compelling. As the season unfolds, there’s plenty of tea spilled about Mauricio’s fallout with Rick Hilton, agent Zach Goldsmith’s own relationship with Rick Hilton comes into play, and Kyle has open conversations about her struggles as a cast member on RHOBH, and it’s fascinating to hear about all of this friction so candidly.

Sex and Skin: None. After watching Selling Sunset, it’s actually a little shocking seeing real estate agents wearing blazers.

Parting Shot: After an event that Alexis and her co-listing agent Joey put on to sell a rustic ranch, Alexia and Sophia confront Joey, who has been promoting himself and not really being an equal partner with Alexia. “Sometimes you don’t take me very seriously,” Alexia tells Joey. “You treat me as if I’m some sort of accessory of the Umansky team. I am a very different person now.” Joey knows that being ganged up on and outnumbered by any Umanskys is not great, and his smirky grin disappears.

Performance Worth Watching: Alexia Umansky feels like the family member poised to break out from this show thanks to her humor and bold, boisterous attitude.

Memorable Dialogue: “I’ve been married to Kyle for 27 years. She’s my best friend. She’s the love of my life. She will always be the love of my life. That will never change,” Umansky explains at the beginning of the first episode.

Our Call: For me, the biggest question I had when watching this series was, “Would you want to watch Buying Beverly Hills if you were not also a fan of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?” While it certainly helps to be a fan of RHOBH and understand some of the context and Umansky/Richards family history, Buying Beverly Hills is able to stand on its own as glossy, lavish entertainment. STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.