Cameras & Chaos Ep2 - RHORI

We needed a break from murder… so we turned to reality TV. 

Cameras & Chaos — a new mini series from The Forensic Files Duo.

Between our main true crime episodes, Drew is taking over the mic to teach Danielle everything she somehow missed in the absolutely unhinged world of reality TV drama, scandals, lawsuits, cheating, and yes… even the occasional handcuffs.

Think of it as a Case Break — still chaotic, still investigative, just with a lot more Housewives and a lot less homicide.

Because sometimes even true crime lovers need a little chaos instead of crime.

This week on Cameras & Chaos, Danielle officially dives into the wild world of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island while Drew spills some behind-the-scenes tea involving cast member Liz that has everyone talking. 

Drew takes on three burning questions from a Housewives newbie about the cast, dynamics, and drama. From scandals to first impressions to finding the perfect Bravo city, this episode is packed with chaos, opinions, and plenty of laughs.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hey, welcome to Cameras and Chaos episode 2. My name is Drew. And I'm Danielle. And if you haven't come around and found this lovely little sideshow podcast that we have created, we are Cameras and Chaos. The show is set up that I am going to be teaching Danielle all of the ins and outs of reality TV that is most prevalent right now, today, this week, this month. And yeah, I just like I love teaching Danielle a little bit about my world that I'm obsessed with. Are you having so much fun? I love it. Yes, that is the answer that I was looking for. Oh my gosh. I am having way too much fun. Right? And then then you just want to keep watching more and more reality shows, but you have yeah, you have to wait because I need uh it's a specific homework, okay?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

I know, I know, I know. I'm trying, I'm trying.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

We are so excited about the launch of the first episode, and it is getting so much popularity and downloads, and we love to see it. Do we not? This is so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

It is. I'm so shocked. I'm like, okay, so people like when you're teaching me something.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So if you don't know how the structure of the show goes, I gave Danielle a little piece of homework to watch a certain reality show, and she gets to come back and ask me three questions, and I will give her a little bit more knowledge about those questions. So last week I gave uh Danielle the homework of watching the most popular Real Housewives show right now that is just on everyone's tongues. It's the Real Housewives of Rhode Island. So, first off, I want to ask you, what do you think so far?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Okay, first impression. It took me about three episodes to know who was who because they all looked alike.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Okay, yeah, but then also we have a little bit of like New Jersey spilling over to Rhode Island where I was so confused, yeah, because I'm just like I didn't know people talked like that in Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

I guess I was thinking more Martha's Vineyard kind of vibe. We're getting a classy Jersey Shore experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, yeah, kind of, kind of.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Confused, but yeah, whoa. It's so good though.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

It's so good. Okay, let's go with question number one. What's your first question? Or wait, you want to you had a comment?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

No, my first comment was just about how much I could not tell anyone apart. Like Kelsey, Rosie. Yeah. I was just like, who is who? Oh my gosh. And then Dolores and Liz. Liz's friends, Dolores, and she's like, we're seeing plastic such. And yeah, I'm like, They look identical.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

They look identical. It is crazy because when we got announced that that Dolores was kind of being the friend role on Real Houses of Rhode Island, we were a lot of the real like reality TV like gurus were like, How is this gonna work? Because she's a main character on Real Houses of New Jersey, but it just works perfectly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I had no idea until you just told me that.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, she's one of the main main girls. That's and and and now we got announced that Real Housewives of New Jersey is coming back, which I'm so excited about. And there's only three Real Housewives that they're bringing back Melissa Gorga, Teresa Judece, and none other than Dolores.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

And we Wow, so that was like a really organic transition into that because I had no clue who Dolores was. Yeah, I have no clue who any of these people are. So if you're like me and you don't know reality TV, welcome. Welcome. So my first question is what makes a city housewives worthy for the show? Because this seems like such a random place. And then I was looking at all the other franchises and I was just wondering like why did they do Rhode Island now? Like it used to be like those big meccas, right? New York. Well, I guess they did Real Housewives of what?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Orange County, Orange County, Beverly Hills, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Both of the people, big places where everybody knew, okay, lots of money. Right. So now there's like the potam uh Potomac.

unknown 3:47

Potomac.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Potomac. Like I was just looking at the list of all these places, and I'm like, so what makes it worthy of this show?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Okay, so like how Bravo kind of looks at cities and and picks them, you know, there's a few, a few key factors. One being kind of like a dense social circle. Like the biggest factor involving in involving a city, it's not necessarily about wealth. Like it's about like long-standing friendships, family connections. That makes sense, business rivalries, kind of stuff like that. And then another factor is visible wealth and like huge lifestyles. Like Bravo loves big homes, vacations, you know what I mean? Fashions and parties. So it cut that's a big, big factor that goes into play. Okay. And then obviously we have, you know, strong personalities, right? So the Rhode Island is very, very, very real on letting us know that we have some strong personalities in this. The last kind of thing I I would say it would be like kind of like the identity of the city. So like you have like real households of Atlanta, which has southern culture and like entrepreneurship. Beverly Hills has like the luxury celebrity like adjacency, and like Potomac is like this prestigious, has politics because it's near Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. And like Salt Lake City obviously has like you know, the Mormon religion and like unique local culture.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

I can't wait until we talk about that because I may have show cheated on my flight to Ternus. It was the only thing available, okay? Okay, it was the only thing available.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Okay, okay. Just don't rush this.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Okay, I know, I know. I'm kind of flooding myself with uh reality TV, and Blake is questioning. He's like, what are we watching? I'm not even gonna lie. Last night Holland could not fall asleep, and I thought if I turned on one of my TV shows, she'd find it boring. Yeah. She was locked in to the latest episode of Real Housewives of Rhode Island, and I had to actually change it.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Oh my god. And put on Toy Story because I was like, Because there's some things that maybe Holland Holland.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Well, she's too young. She's too young to even understand the context of any of that. Right. But it was like how locked in she was to the dynamics of the women, how they spoke to each other. I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not, we're not, we're not subjecting you to this.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

We're not doing that. We're not doing that. No, we're not doing that. We'll subject you to it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Okay, so my next question is how do they cast the housewives? Because now you kind of touched on this because you just mentioned, and this is exactly where I was going with my thoughts. When I especially with Rhode Island, is we hear Liz talk about how she's known Alicia's family. You were not homeless. You come from a good family, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

So that's good, Danielle. That was good.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I'm telling you, I am a good student.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

That was good.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, I mean, then yeah, how do they cast and how do they pick? Because I'm sure there's like multiple pockets of wealth, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

But you know, so basically basically, like there's there's a lot of things that go into play here, right? So like scouting and referrals is a big thing. Producers, like they they look for women who like are basically like already prominent in the social scene, right? And then you also have like existing housewives often recommend friends or acquaintances or even rivals, like they they recommend people that are going to bring basically good drama or good good good quality content to the show.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

And then then they go through interviews and auditions. So potential housewives usually they do phone interviews, video interviews, and like extensive picturing the women of Rhode Island does. Oh, yeah. I would like it to be like a fly on the wall in that in that process, I would have I would have paid.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I would really love to see that. I would really love to see that because they are just they're wild. Like I know Lisa Vanderpump. We talked about Vanderpump Villa in the last episode. Right. And so I'm very familiar with Lisa Vanderpump. She's very much like branded herself out there on her own outside of this franchise.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

And she's about to open up Vanderpump Hotel in Vegas next week, baby.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Oh, that is so cool. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

And they're doing a they're doing a three-part Bravo documentary for it. So I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Okay, well, we'll save all of our Vanderpump talk for the next episode because I have I could go down that whole phone. But I was very, very interested in the people of Rhode Island. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Rhode Island, like it was very random. It was like we didn't really hear about Rhode Island, but the thing that makes Rhode Island so specifically different than like a lot of the other franchises is that they're they all know each other. They all have families that are tied to each other. They've went to school together, they went to school together, their husbands know each other.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

High school memories.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah. So we already have we already have like the close knitness of this group that we're hooking up with each other.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

So like we are already like, yeah, it's like we're diving into episode one where we're we're already involved in their lives. And that's honestly what makes the Real Housewives show so like important and so popular is because like we want to see the the connections, we want to see the the close knitness of this group instead of it just being random picks from different social like scenarios, and then there's just like a random group, you know what I mean? But that's what makes Rhode Island so specifically different.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Okay, so my third question is about Liz. Now, before you get into this, okay, I've noticed, and when I say notice, I've only watched Salt Lake City as the other franchise. Okay, I've noticed there's like a matriarch that they cast, like a matriarch figure. Is that part of their formula? Because it seems like Liz was the Heather, which I love I love Heather in the beginning. Okay, right. So I'm talking about Heather from Salt Lake City, who I adore.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Interesting that you say that. Okay, keep going. I want to hear I want to hear the rest.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Okay, but towards as of last night, I watched the last season uh the last episode, and oh my gosh, she should not be in that role. If that's what she was supposed to be cast as, like she's very kind of as Alicia said, abusive. She's she plays mind games, she is gotta be the center of attention.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Like first of all, let's touch a base on the matriarch character or matriarch role. There is that there is that slightly, you know, the one that is slightly the oldest or or or whatnot that that kind of has like the one that everyone's I yeah, kind of. But I personally, if I was going on Salt Lake City, I wouldn't put Heather as that character. I would actually put Meredith Marks as that character. Yeah. It's weirdly.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I haven't watched the other seasons. I haven't watched the other seasons. I just the only it was the most recent season that was on the plane.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Okay, okay, okay. And but Heather is like, yeah, Heather is like a very big, very big character in this in the cast, but I actually would put Meredith in that role. That's so interesting. I never thought of that actually.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Meredith is kind of more like a Liz. So then yeah, because from what I saw in the most previous season of Salt Lake City, I didn't, I should watch the other seasons, but you'll probably assign that to me at another time. But yeah, yeah, I'm just seeing this pattern of like very toxic matriarchal figures.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

That everyone seems to like tiptoe around, and the other people are like, that's not a friend. And I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that Heather is is kind of like she's like the fun one, but also she like definitely has like a lot of a lot of drama that's associated with her.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, but she always just seems like a very good voice of reason where like Liz doesn't. So that's why I just everyone kind of seemed like they, if Heather got mad at them, they were really upset. And this season, if Liz gets mad at them, they're really upset. Yeah. So I just kind of saw that parallel, and that's why I was wondering, is there always like a matriarch, right? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone kinda has to I don't know, respect. Yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah. But I don't know, what is your take on Liz? I'm kind of flip-flopping here now. I like I love Liz in the beginning. Me too. And now she's kind of she's kind of not she's kind of I don't want to say falling off the deep end, but she is definitely like she's she's showing some colors of her that I'm not I'm not liking. Uh but then she also like I know that and like in when you watch her interviews, like her her intention is always good. Like what she m when and when she's explaining like why she was going at Alicia for saying that she was homeless when her dad took the house away. Technically, if you look at it, like yeah, she definitely was she definitely was her home was taken away from her. So like she she realized her home was that house and her dad. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Like her home was a very good thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

And if she didn't have and if she didn't and she if she didn't have her grandparents, then she technically would be would she would have been homeless. Like right. But I think the problem that we were having in the latest episode is when you know Jo Ellen likes to be like the the the girl that's gonna pick both sides and wants to play it wants to be Switzerland, but at the but she has very strong opinions about one side and very strong opinions about the other. And Liz is not gonna deal with that. So that's of course why she she kind of snaps at her. But I I I I do love Liz. I think that she's like without if you were to take her out of the show, it would be very I think that a lot of the a lot of the storylines would be like you would only have like uh I mean I'm sorry to say this, but like I'm not a big fan of Ashley.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I Ashley's too healthy, yeah. Like she's too healthy. So that actually brings me to my favorite quotes because one of one of them, I have two. The first one is Ashley. Well, it's about Ashley, and it's when they're at that castle, which oh my gosh. Oh my god, that castle was sponsor us for a trip to a Newport castle. I mean, please. But it might have been Liz or it was Alicia. I think it was Liz. And they were like, so Ashley's crying because she's got nothing to cry about.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And I was like, wait, but why is she crying so much?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

She's just a really deep feeling person.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Girl, no, there is too much, there is too much crying going on that she like she there's just too much. There's just too much. I'm an emotional person. You know me more than anyone. Like, I cry a lot, but like there, like that girl is crying every single episode. And then if you go back to like The Bachelor and you watch like little clips of her, she's always crying. She's always really I see.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I never watched that franchise either. So what's funny is I have a friend, my friend Samantha, she lives in the Netherlands actually, and she cries over everything, and it's just one of the sweetest parts of her personality. Everybody knows that about her, you know. But it's more like she'll have like happy tears, and it's not like this ugly cry where Ashley has like this ugly cry.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

And it's like I can't, I can't do it, but it's just like like she's like, how many times have do you hysterically cry? Yeah, like she's she's she's she's crying a lot, she's crying a lot. She's crying a lot. A lot. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

She's crying a lot. So I think there's a battle between like the girls' girl of today and reality TV from when this franchise started. Okay. That is where I think there's this this battle because millennial women now very much are we are supposed to be girls girls, right? Like we are there for our girls, we are not like supposed to be caddy with each other, we're supposed to lift each other up. But the franchise basically started from caddy women going at each other, kind of like like literally monetizing it, right? So I think Ashley is the girls' girl, and then you have Liz. So you have these generational differences, which actually makes it really compelling to watch. Yeah. I think it's more compelling than original seasons that, or if I go back to season one of any reality show, like I am with some shows right now, like I'm noticing that, and I just think it's so much more interesting now to watch reality TV than even when it started. So it's just really interesting to see that dynamic. Now, my other favorite quote.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Wait, I want to see if you're gonna guess it.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Wait, I have to think. I'm probably not gonna guess it. I'm not gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Okay, it's fine. Okay. Okay, if I tell you it's it's a quote from Alicia about her crackers. I need a cracker.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I need a cracker.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Where's my crackers? Bring the crackers over here.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Where's my crackers? Where's my crackers? I mean, talk about you know, you know that Ritz Crackers is gonna probably give her a sponsorship. Like, she better. I mean, like, she has to be I don't know better. If I don't see like a Super Bowl ad for a cracker brand, and Alicia is not on and then can we also can we also like reference that she she she like hit a woman in her car? Like and and and it was so casual in her interview. She's like, Yeah, the reason why I'm scared about driving is because like bridges, highways, I hit a woman, and then it just like wait, can't she's my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

She is my favorite. Alicia is.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

She really is one of my favorites, but like she is just a gem of the city. We do since we are talking about Liz, I do need to touch base on the latest scandal that is involving her, which I'm definitely afraid of that like if this gets going and this is actually true, there is potential for her to not be on next season. So during the episodes, you definitely have you saw her and her talk about her relationship with her best friend Dino, correct?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

So there was a lot of like going back and forth of like the scandal of like if the if if Dino was more than a friend, but her husband always went away on fishing trips, and so like she her husband just kind of made sure that she was taken care of by Dino. Now, Dino has definitely been involved with a few of the other girls, maybe one particular that we can talk about later with her as well. So there he's very prevalent in this circle. And we also know that Liz has uh a business with cannabis, like she's doing great with that. This is coming directly from the sun. So Dino is a close friend of Liz who has been the sun. No, the the the the news, the sun. Okay S-U-N, not S-O-N.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Isn't that like it's like a tabloid, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, yeah. So Dino Okay Dino is who's a close friend of Liz who has been discussed and featured on the Real Houseways of Rhode Island, is now facing multiple felony charges related to an alleged cocaine trafficking operation. Authorities allege he was involved in smuggling and distributing kilogram quantities of cocaine and have now charged him with drug conspiracy among other offenses.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

He's been charged?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah. So he apparently is like he's he is like being known as like the best kept secret of like he he's been keeping this under wraps. Like no one no one knew of this until recently, which I think is because of Liz featuring him on Rhode Island. So Rhode Island State Police affidavits reportedly allege that Dino had ties to the New England branch of Lacosa Nostra and oversaw a cocaine smuggling network operating through Rhode Island. These are allegations by law enforcement. The criminal cases remain ongoing. But because Liz repeatedly described Dino as one of her closest friends, and because she has spent so much time with her when her husband went away on these very long fishing trips, people are speculating that that she has connections with this, but there is nothing.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I mean, she pray she practically packages him as like a part of their family. Like it's her, her husband, and Dino.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

But to have but have this be happening already on season one. I personally don't do don't think that is a very good look for Liz.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

No, and she's already in the drug business, like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

So yeah, that's kind of not not a good look for Liz, but I secretly hope that she has nothing to do with it, and she is not charged with anything, and she can stay on the show because I think that she is a demand amongst the viewers, and she's causing a lot of a lot of great content for the show. So crazy. Okay, so are you ready for your next homework lesson? I am okay, because we're going into and we're talking about the latest drama and everything that is going on right now as we're talking. I am going to make you watch Summer House season 10. You've got four episodes. Episode one, I hope you're writing this down. Episode one, episode 15, episode 16. If you want to watch episode 17, which is reunion part one, it is juicy. If you want to go back and watch season one, don't, you'll get the gist of it. There's a lot of drama going around, as we all reality TV lovers know, between Amanda Sierra and her Amanda's husband, ex-husband, Kyle.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Wait, I did hear about this. I had no idea what was going on though.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yes. I wanted you to watch season 10, episode 1, episode 15, episode 16. And if you get through those and you understand what's going on, watch reunion part one, which is episode 17.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. I'm gonna leave you with one question, just an opinion. Okay. I just want to hear your opinion. Do you think mom talk will survive?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Ooh, oh my gosh, we're jumping to Secret Lives. Do I think mom talk is gonna survive? I think that it will probably not survive in the way that we want it to survive. I think that there's a lot of there's some spin-offs happening. Whitney is definitely hinting right now on social media that there's a spin-off between her and her husband happening. I mean, she's definitely gonna be on this next season, but I I don't I don't think it's gonna be the same because now we're gonna have the secret lives of Mormon wives in Orange County. Is it Orange County? I think it's Orange County.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Orange County, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Which I'm very interested to see how that's gonna play out. But yeah, I don't know. I don't I don't know. We're gonna have Macy's Macy's sister on there, which is that was weird.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

When I saw the picture of Macy's sister, I was like, wait, is that Macy?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah, I know. So like I think I think there's gonna be a lot of crossover, but I think the original mom talk is, I mean, as much as we wanted to, I don't I don't think it's I think it's ran its course, too. I think it's ran its course. Yeah, and Taylor and Dakota drama is still happening, so it's everyone's like living other places, they're all like fighting with each other online.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

That's the only reality TV I follow online, so that's the only reason why I know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Fingers crossed for for mom talk. Well, that is the end of Cameras and Chaos episode two. And just so you guys all know, we will soon have our own social media page that you can go and follow, like, and subscribe. And we'll have all that information on our forensic files podcast. We'll have all that information about um the cameras and chaos social media on there. And that is the wrap on episode two. I can't wait to talk about Summer House.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yeah, this one I have no idea what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Good, good. That's what we like. All right, love you guys.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Love you, bye.