The binge-cringe genre is tough to crack- because it is meant to be entertaining, and exhausting, to make you roll your eyes with the same passion you press "Next Episode" with. If you binge-cringed your way through Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives streaming on Netflix, that follows four friends – Maheep Kapoor (wife of Sanjay Kapoor), Seema Khan (wife of Sohail Khan), Bhavana Panday (wife of Chunky Pandey) and Neelam Kothari (wife of Samir Soni) – then this list is for you- from bitchy housewives to horny singles, cutesy sisters chugging fruit juice to alcoholic binges.
Streaming Platform: Netflix
An Australian reality show (keep the subtitles handy- the accent is unwieldy) that follows expecting mothers and how they bring each other up- including supporting each other through breastfeeding-phobia – and pull each other down in the bitchy-snappy ways only reality television can bring out.
Like Gossip Girl's promotional strategy, here is a recount of how the critics panned it- calling it "fabricated, contrived, vapid, vacuous, pointless" and "[t]o call Yummy Mummies car-crash television is to understate how garish, stupid, poorly executed, and dutifully offensive it is." So … when are you bingeing it?
Streaming Platform: YouTube
Malayali actress Ahaana Krishna and her sisters Diya, Ishaani and Hansika (together called #Ahadishika's : Aha + Di + Ish + Ika) have over 3.6 million followers on Instagram, and a silver button each on YouTube. Each has developed their own archetype: Ahaana is "studious one", Ishaani the "quiet one", Diya the "funny one" and 'Hansu' as the baby of the family.
Even before they started creating videos exclusively for YouTube, the sisters' feeds on Instagram were wildly popular, with posts featuring dance performances, photo shoots, travels, and funny TikTok videos of them acting out scenes from movies.
While they are not noisy and meme-able, and many of their videos in Malayalam aren't subtitled, we don't need to know the language to enjoy the dances filmed in squash courts. If that doesn't excite you, maybe the 4 sisters downing 36 shots of fruit juice in 1 minute might?
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Sex is often what makes these shows popular. But by taking it off the table, dangling it like an original sin, and putting all the contestants on an island where clothes are optional, and heat is mandatory, the stakes are upped, and the tension is pungent. In between there are some really silly exercises the contestants do to build morale, like stabbing paper and talking to your privates lovingly in a mirror like an Eid ka chand. But such follies, you'll forgive.
Streaming Platform: Netflix
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is the sixth installment of The Real Housewives franchise. It focuses on the personal and professional lives of several women residing in Beverly Hills, California. It's 10th season just finished airing in September this year. All you need to know about these women are they are the kinds that wear Tom Ford glass slippers to Zoom meetings where their feet won't be seen anyway. Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills also streaming on Netflix will be a good companion watch to this.
Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime
This show follows Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, two notorious socialites, as their richness, and comfort of Beverly Hills is tested, when they are made to do manual jobs like farm work, and serving meals in fast food restaurants. The Simple Life had proven so popular that Fox World produced international versions of this for overseas television. It ran from 2003-2007. In between the best friends parted ways, but then they patched up and new seasons were picked up by other networks till even that ended.