Bravo TV is about to shine a light on Texas with the April 11 premiere of The Real Housewives of Dallas. What kind of light, however, remains to be seen.
The cast has been revealed, and it includes Cary Deuber, Tiffany Hendra, Stephanie Hollman, LeeAnne Locken, Brandi Redmond, and Marie Reyes.
E! Online has a preview that shows the pecking order, which already has been established. "You know what happens when old-money meets new-money meets no-money," the entertainment site coos.
Deuber is a native of Connecticut and a nurse's first assistant who has gone on medical mission trips in third-world countries. She lives and works in Dallas with her plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Mark Deuber, and maintains her own aesthetic injectable practice.
Tiffany Hendra is the veteran actress, host, and model who's best friends with LeeAnne Locken and married to Australian rocker Aaron. Bravo notes she has a "troubling past" from her time in the limelight.
LeeAnne Locken is the former Miss USA Pageant competitor who's had several parts in TV and movies.
Oklahoma native Stephanie Hollman is "the girl next door" and the mom to two boys. According to Bravo, for Stephanie to make her own money, her husband, Travis, writes up a list of chores for her to do while he's away on business.
Brandi Redmond is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader who married high-school sweetheart Bryan, and she's a full-time mom to two young girls.
Marie Reyes is an RN who owns and operates SkinSpaMED.
As the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community have expanded over the past 50 or so years, one part of that group, transgender people, has found it more difficult to be considered a normal part of society. Every new instance of putting the story of a transgender person on screen, whether fictional or real, increases their exposure to those who might never have encountered them before.
That makes a documentary like Will & Harper (a title which seems to take inspiration from the groundbreaking TV series Will & Grace) valuable. The fact that the “Will” in the title is comedian/actor Will Ferrell helps, as he and longtime friend, Harper Steele, embark on a road trip across the United States soon after Harper reveals her transition from a man to a woman.
Harper, who met Will while they were both at Saturday Night Live in the late '90s/early 2000s, decided at the relatively older age of 59 that she could no longer pretend to be someone she wasn’t. The idea of the road trip – and of filming it – came about so that the friends could reconnect, learn more about each other given the momentous change, and do a lot of the things that Harper enjoyed doing by herself prior to her transition.
Director Josh Greenbaum and his crew attach a camera to the hood of Harper’s old Jeep Wagoneer to record her and Will's conversations as they traverse many states, starting in New York and heading west. Their connection to SNL means that many of the show’s current and former stars show up in one form or another along the way, including Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, Lorne Michaels, Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte, among others.
While their love and respect for Harper is obvious, Harper has trepidation over how strangers in middle America will react to her. The presence of Will (and the cameras) gives her perhaps easier acceptance than someone not traveling with a famous person, but there are still more than a few uncomfortable stops, particularly when they get to the South (Texas does not come off well, but surprisingly Oklahoma does).
Those scenes with everyday Americans are interesting (if occasionally a bit contrived), but the heart of the film is the friendship between Will and Harper. Their conversations range from silly to heartfelt, but there is a genuineness to them that can’t be faked. Harper invites Will to ask her any questions he has about her transition, resulting in insightful – and, often, funny – answers. Their friendship was clearly already strong, but it gets palpably stronger during the 17-day journey.
There are a lot of messages one could get from a film like this, but it’s notable for how apolitical it is. Will and Harper have encounters with Eric Holcomb, the Republican governor of Indiana, as well as a few people wearing MAGA hats, but their positions on transgender people goes unremarked upon. The friends gently correct people who mis-gender Harper, but they never express any animosity towards them. It’s a movie about exploration, with education as a side benefit.
While it might be too strong to say that Will & Harper is a world-changing film, it adds another layer to the story of transgender people as a whole. It also shows the unconditional love between two friends, a lesson that is heartening in divided times.
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Will & Harper is now playing in select theaters; it will debut on Netflix on September 27.
