In the wake of cast member Russell Armstrong’s suicide last month Bravo has been re-editing the second season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, including the removal of a scene in last night’s premiere that featured Russell’s widow Taylor Armstrong shopping for lingerie in an attempt to “spice up” her marriage.
According to a number of sources, Taylor’s major plot line this season was going to be her marriage counseling sessions with Russell, a number of which were filmed by the network. It was uncertain whether Bravo would leave the scenes in or not, but today “source close to the situation” tells Radar Online that they will be leaving a lot of the footage in:
Bravo has made the decision to air their marriage counseling sessions. Taylor is supportive of the network airing the therapy sessions. Bravo will be looking at those sessions and doing any necessary edits if needed, given Russell’s suicide. Both Russell and Taylor were filmed individually during their sessions. Taylor’s will definitely be airing, although it’s likely that Russell’s individual sessions won’t be.
My initial reaction is to say that this is reality television so why not air the footage as planned? But, I have to confess it was a little uneasy watching the premiere last night and listening to Taylor get emotional about her and Russell desperately trying to make things work.
For me the debate on whether or not to include the footage comes down to whether or not this show is serious enough to be a vehicle for something like documenting a man’s troubled life leading up to his suicide. As I’ve mentioned previously, I believe the Beverly Hills franchise is the most capable of all the Housewives shows because the it seems less obsessed with forced petty drama, and ladies like Lisa Vanderpump and Adrienne Maloof are charismatic because they are mature and successful. But, on the other hand, it appears that with the addition of Brandi Glanville later this season things are going to get mighty petty mighty quick, and I’m not sure allegations of meth smoking and yelling “You’re a s|ut pig” are going to mesh well with scenes of Russell and Taylor in therapy prior to his suicide.
What do you think? Is airing the marriage counseling sessions of Taylor Armstrong and Russell Armstrong too much?
