Shahs of Sunset Episode Three and a Halftime Report

Now that we have seen Shahs of Sunset episode three we are officially at the midway point of the season. The six episode run is sort of a test run by Bravo to gage audience interested. So far, it has not disappointed in the ratings despite some very strong counter programming on other networks. Are the almighty ratings in the 18-49 age group strong enough? That remains to be seen. Apparently, a lot of old people are watching this show, and old people don’t sell advertisements. Still, overall the show is likely doing well enough to pull another season. I’m not much of recapper. I don’t get the point of blogging the entire storyline of a show especially in present tense. I’ve tried it and it’s ridiculous to write and even more ridiculous to read. Let’s take a half-time look at the cast of Shahs of Sunset and see how they are holding up to the editing.

EDIT: I was waiting for Sunday nights numbers and finally gave up. Of course they came out while I was writing and editing. 1.491 that almost a 50% increase in viewers. YAY! Looking good for Season Two! The most important number is the 18-49 bracket and they got  a 1.03 million adults. If this continues it’s a lock for season two. These are good numbers.

The best thing about episode three is we got the cast out of the club and into the workplace.  The five out of six cast members that have jobs all had scenes at work. This is necessary to avoid the show being just an adult version of MTV’s Spring Break. I can’t watch people get drunk and party by the pool, get drunk and party in Vegas, get drunk and go to dinner, or shop for a swimsuit the entire season.  In order to draw us in, we need to see more than just playtime. We need some real insight into who these people are.

I thought MJ, despite looking a bit disheveled at work (late night perhaps?), did a fantastic job on her real estate showing. It was great that she knew about the details of the house, like the flooring, and had immediate solutions to possible drawbacks like the tiny bathroom. We have seen Reza show two properties now. I was shocked at the first showing of Sammy’s property to hear Reza tell the prospective buy what to offer on the property. That’s actually a big no-no in real estate. In many states, all agents work for the seller regardless of whether or not the property is their listing or not and suggesting a lower price is not in the best interest of the seller. Even if Reza is a buyer’s agent, while it is technically permissible to suggest a price, it can still get you in a lot of legal hot water. When Reza showed the house on episode three, we didn’t see him selling the house so much as selling the price suggesting five million was a steal for the property in that neighborhood. Also, when selling to a woman, they want to envision their furniture and their style in the house and are rarely interested in moving into “someone else’s house” forty thousand dollar rug or not.  So for me, MJ wins my vote for best agent and Reza wins my vote for looking absolutely fabulous at work. I mean really. Did you see him? That’s my Reza.

In keeping with the Iranian stereotype that they are all in real estate, we move on to Mike, the commercial agent. Mike is a hustler. He knew that the property he was showing Hooman was not going to fly as a night club in a mixed residential area. That scene was a made for Bravo moment to allow Mike to get the property on the air. It’s a great property but that was never a serious buyer for that purpose.  But he looked lovely in his fancy black car and that was plenty of reason to watch it for me.

Sammy is a builder with the mentor of every builders dreams. Mohammed Hadid is the man in LA for homes in the eight figure range. Here’s the thing though, we’ve seen this house before on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  On that show we see a lovely house that appears to be completed. Mohammed threw parties with deranged mermaids in the pool. One would have thought that he had lived there for ages. However, a bit of research shows that the house has just recently reached the final stages of completion and then, Mohammed is selling it and moving out. With all the eccentric details, I’m assuming that Mohammed likely already had the buyer in mind when he moved in rather than planning to live there himself? Mohammed may be out there a bit but manages to sell ginormous houses in a down market. Sammy is smart to learn from him. Personally though, I would have pocketed the 30K because I don’t see being a week ahead mid-project as being that big of a deal in a project that has taken several years.  If the project was close to completion (and maybe it was) then it might have been worth his investment. Maybe. Rushing a construction job (as opposed to keeping everyone on task) usually results in more work and time in mistakes and revisions.

A younger Asa in Germany rising like a pheonix

GG and her knife Goldie chat with MJ and Reza

My suggestion for season two would be to tone down some of the focus on ridiculous spending. Bravo as a whole needs to understand that viewers realize that trips are paid for and rooms are given in exchange for being televised. We don’t need to see Reza at the cash register spending eight grand on champagne, or GG saying “charge it to my Daddy” at the cash register. We also need less forced scenes of everyone sitting down to eat/drink together. We need more scenes like Mike with his mother, but without the whole production team standing there telling them what to talk about. More MJ’s mother who wouldn’t listen to production if they tried. More scenes about Reza and his father. In general less “watch us spend money” scenes and more scenes where we get to know who these people really are. I’m excited for MJ’s dating scenes and GG’s dating scenes. I suspect Asa has a relationship that we are not seeing. Show me that.  I think this show has some potential if we could just get Seacrest and Bravo to make it a little more real.  Oh and bring Anita in as a regular cast member. I like her.

So y’all… now that we are half way through, do you want to see an episode two?