When Claudia Jordan was on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, I was indifferent towards her. Sure she had her spat with Nene, but she always just seemed to be unnecessary to me, but I didn’t have any negative feelings towards her per se. After 4 episodes of this show, everything has changed. The thing I find most ironic while watching The Next 15 is that this show is supposed to be rehabbing the images of its stars, but it’s only made Claudia look worse in my eyes.
Let’s dive right into the episode so I can explain my feelings.
Again?
As with every other week, we start this episode with Claudia fighting with somebody while a timer ticks down in the corner.
Then we flash to 6 days earlier at her parking lot BBQ at the exact moment New York lost all of her sense. New York is running around hooting and hollering and generally acting a damn fool. At one point Claudia says, “we’re not doing this kind of television Tiffany.” This coming from the woman who is at the beginning of every single episode of this show yelling and fighting with some other grown adult. Okay.
Can I Finish My Cake?
I think Laura has become my favorite character after this week. In this first scene when New York was acting crazy and Claudia was being a hypocrite, Laura was just trying to finish her hot dog and eat some damn cake.
Benzino tries to calm New York down, and it’s eventually decided that Benzino will produce New York’s ‘Ear to the Street’ segment, and Claudia and Karamo will produce the inside panel segment.
Some of y’all are probably wondering why I’m giving Claudia such a hard time when New York is acting equally, if not more at times, messy. New York’s brand is being messy. Meanwhile, Claudia is trying to act like she’s above it while she is just as messy. She’s just more undercover about it. We’ll get to that later.
Next Laura meets up with her friend/trainer Ciara after having meetings with her lawyers re: her breakup. Laura talks about how thankful she is to have been forced into going to anger management classes, and she thinks everyone can benefit from them.
More Autotune & Tea Please
Next we’re with Benzino and his friend Bobby Valentino. They’re in the studio waiting for Jennifer to show up, but Jennifer is off somewhere yelling at a production assistant to get her some hot tea and honey. Someone needs to inform her that drinking tea won’t turn her in Adele.
After BV uncomfortably hits on Jennifer, she gets up to the mic and struggles, and I do mean struggles, through a short recording session. “No bricks” is the name of the song/the main lyric? Basically Jennifer is going to be autotuned to death. Unless she has more tea?
#BTS
Next we’re with Laura and her Anger Management therapist, and she has New York stopping by under the false pretense of a pedicure.
Out of the gate, New York starts questioning the therapist about his skin tone and makes some pretty racially insensitive comments that I’m not going to repeat here. (She called him a Sand Dude)
Uh-Oh
Fix It, Jesus
After the therapist gets New York together, the show tries to get deep and delve into New York’s relationship issues and how she treats and what she expects from a man. Hint: borderline servitude.
Then we’re with Karamo, He’s at a fitting for a fashion show for a fashion label run by some of his friends. During his fitting Claudia rolls through and Karamo tells her about the conversation he had with Jennifer at her parking lot party.
Scheming…
Claudia claims she was trying to open up to Jennifer, but says she doesn’t want to be petty and let personal stuff interfere with business.
*long pause for deep reflection*
Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the pettiest of them all?
Then we head over to Atlanta where Benzino’s fiancee is giving birth to their son, but only after having full hair and makeup done.
Ma, You Got On Lashes?
Once they get the baby back to their place, Benzino mentions that they need a bigger house. Althea on the other hand has no plans on moving one throw pillow until they’re married.
Then we get an interstitial of Benzino changing his baby’s diaper during which his baby pees on him.
Next we move over to a warehouse/event space[?] where Claudia and Karamo are holding the 14th brainstorming meeting for this talk show that I know will never be in TV Guide. We’re also introduced to one of Claudia’s new interview looks.
Paint Splatter Chic?
New York of course is a no show, and there’s a (too long) segment of Claudia, Karamo and Laura trying to catch her lying about having a cold over the phone.
Claudia is also sporting a wig that I’m assuming was styled by a toddler on one of those big Barbie heads from back in the day.
Once Jennifer arrives they sit down with a bottle of Andre and some Tropicana to discuss the ideas Karamo came up with for the show: The Comment.
One of the first things out of his mouth is about how Jennifer said she didn’t want to be on a panel with Claudia, which she did say. Jennifer twists it a little bit saying it wasn’t about Claudia. She just didn’t want to be on another panel since she’s already committed to a panel show.
Then, after just a few scenes ago saying she didn’t want to be petty, Claudia gets petty. Claudia and Jennifer start going back and forth about the dinner they had. Claudia claims it was a business meeting, but Jennifer says it didn’t feel like a business meeting since all they talked about was each other’s personal lives. Then Jen brings up Claudia mentioning her rape.
HELP
Claudia says she’s sorry if her tragedy made Jennifer feel uncomfortable. Now I can only speak for myself, but I think if someone I don’t really vibe with and I don’t really know told me something like that during one of our first meetings, I think I’d feel a little uncomfortable about it.
Jennifer says for about the 27th time that she doesn’t have an issue with Claudia. Now if that’s true or not, Claudia should accept it at this point in time and move on. But instead she decides to be condescending and speak down to Jennifer like a child, applauding her in her face for finally growing up.
Everything slightly settles long enough for them to show 45 seconds of them talking about the format of the talkshow.
Then we move out to the parking lot, and Karamo confronts Jennifer about their prior conversation. Jennifer admits she thought it was weird that Claudia brought up her relationship with her ex. She also admitted (again) that she felt uncomfortable with Claudia revealing that she had been raped, because they aren’t even really friends, and they don’t really know each other.
Cue Claudia being messy: she asks the producers to listen in on their conversation, because she still doesn’t believe what Jennifer is saying.
As Claudia’s walking to her car, she starts spewing off lines about “keeping it 100” and “saying it someone’s face” and throwing around the peace sign. Then she got in her car and started to drive off. She should have kept it moving, but instead she decided to turn up again.
Claudia jumps out of her car and confronts Jennifer about everything she had just said to Karamo and it turned into a screaming match real quick.
It’s not that type of show Claudia.
I think there is a difference between defending yourself and speaking your mind and throwing hands around, yelling, shouting, and acting like a rabid animal. Claudia consistently does the latter.
What do y’all think? Is Claudia as messy as I think?
Want more TrashTalk? Follow us on Twitter for updates of recaps as they publish, like us on Facebook for a daily update, watch our TV parody vids on YouTube, or for funny TV pics, heart us on Instagram, and get the occasional gif on Tumblr!