SECOND SEASON CURSE DRAGS DIVISIVE NETFLIX SHOW PONIES BACK TO REALITY
▶ Dubai Bling loses its shine as dull characters and weak storylines kibosh genre’s strengths, writes
When Dubai Bling first aired on Netflix last year, the reality show found itself at the centre of a storm. Ostentatious displays of wealth, unnecessary drama, the same shots of Dubai’s skyline and desert ... it all played into the stereotypes many Arabs in the Gulf have fought hard against for decades.
While the West frequently confines the region to a specific caricature, it felt counterintuitive to present those same stereotypes on a silver platter – on the West’s biggest streaming platform – lined with diamonds and sprinkled with gold leaf.
However, it’s also important to remember that Dubai Bling is a TV show made for entertainment. As a result, it’s as far removed from reality as possible. It is not a documentary, nor is it a study of Arab identity or a show that claims to represent Arabs or the region.
The point isn’t to represent, the point is to entertain within a particular genre – which thrives on show poines seemingly rowing over very little. Viewers agreed as the TV drama reached Netflix’s top 10 list in 47 countries.
Within this context, is the new series of Dubai Bling entertaining? It’s complicated.
The second season starts with analysing the aftermath of the main dramatic incident in season one that split the group of socialites living in Dubai, leaving fans of the show to pick a side.
The argument centred on sharing private conversations that arose between two camps – Ebraheem Al Samadi and his best friend Danya Mohammed against Zeina Khoury and her best friend Safa Siddiqui. Their disagreement reached its peak when Al Samadi and Mohammed furiously marched into Khoury’s office.
True to the genre, their infamous standoff culminated in swearing and a coffee cup carelessly being flung about.
It also spawned Khoury’s now-famous outburst: “I am the company.”
Following a template set by many international reality stars, Khoury quickly minted the viral moment, turning the phrase into a clothing brand.
The first half of the eight-episode series follows the conflict as it is revived and rehashed – though decidedly less passionately than in the show’s initial outing. This time around, however, all the characters appear to have taken a back seat, not wanting to steer the argument – or start any further rows.
Aside from the dramatic confrontations and funny one-liners, season one captivated audiences due to the characters’ openness in discussing issues such as infidelity, surrogacy, working mothers, divorce and strained relationships between family members.
These are not topics many Arabs discuss nonchalantly on television.
Unfortunately, season two pours water on many of those storylines. Instead, characters seem more interested in the launch of new business ventures. Many who were at the centre of the drama or whose storylines were given the most attention seem to have less airtime this time around.
Here, they talk about their huge life changes in passing or attempt to rebrand themselves with smoother edges, which lowers the stakes considerably.
Reality shows are platforms for people to “brand” themselves through the stories of their lives, but they also need to work as pure entertainment to keep viewers bingeing.
Dubai Bling struck this balance in season one, melding assumptions about wealth and the capitalist dream of “making it” with real-life stories.
Season two, however, skews more towards hollow narratives, the payoff of which is endless launch events. It feels like I’m tuning in to watch a marketing exercise as many of the cast members refuse to be characters at all.
Ultimately, it’s the newest cast member, beauty entrepreneur Mona Kattan, who is the most wholesome addition to the show. Both her father and husband make appearances in some scenes and Kattan discusses her new business venture Kayali Perfumes frankly, while also opening up about her issues with co-dependency and her trepidations about having a baby.
While the conversations could have ventured down deeper paths or further blended into the facets of Kattan’s life more seamlessly, they are nevertheless far better when compared to the often dire contributions of other cast members, who create feuds and storylines that lack substance, humour or even irony.
The obvious standouts of the cast are still Siddiqui and her husband Fahad Siddiqui. After recently having their second child, Siddiqui is still feisty, a little excessive, but engaging throughout.
“I am materialistic, but I’m also sentimental,” she tells the audience. She then turns to her husband and adds: “I need that push present. Time is ticking.”
With a mix of authentic and seemingly fabricated scenarios, Siddiqui delivers hilarious lines again and again, all while dressed in over-the-top outfits matching her over-thetop demands to her calm and unassuming husband.
There are, of course, a lot of unrealistic displays of wealth in pretty much every scene, though it feels like it’s flaunted mostly for the baying cameras. In the first episode of this season, Siddiqui herself accuses several cast members of renting their designer bags and cars.
In doing so, she seemingly exposes the fact that while having “bling” in Dubai doesn’t signify actual wealth, it is the appearance of wealth, even in the crassest way, that matters most in the “reality” they operate within.
The show is about being “extra” – extra fashionable, extra accessories, extra loud, extra successful, extra rich. The “more is more” approach, without the grit of real storytelling makes the show feel like the Instagram profile of an over-filtered influencer – carefully curated without a shred of personality.
While the second season is not as entertaining or endearing as the first, Dubai Bling still
It feels like I’m tuning in to watch a marketing exercise as many of the cast members refuse to be characters at all
deserves a space in the landscape of pop culture. The show understands what it is and sets out to achieve it.
Reality stars don’t often have much sway about what parts of their lives the production team choose to edit into or out of a show. The reason why audiences feel a connection to reality stars is because, despite their real or scripted lifestyles, we can bond with them through the power of narratives. But if the story becomes too controlled, their personalities can wear thin.
If Dubai Bling is to continue, that aspect will need massive tweaking for the series to captivate audiences in the seasons to come.