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We are living in the golden age of Real Housewives spin-offs, where the executives at Bravo (and Peacock if ya nasty) are throwing every possible concept at the wall and seeing what sticks. Their latest offering merges Wife Swap with our beloved Bravolebrities \u2014 but no, Housewives from different cities aren\u2019t swapping lives with each other. Instead, glamorous Real Housewives (and Emily Simpson) will be swapping lives with everyday people, starting with RHOSLC<\/a>\u2019s Angie Katsanevas, who is trading places with a mom of three who lives off the grid in Idaho. A classic Crappie Lake<\/a> scenario, if you will.<\/p>\n Initially it\u2019s jarring to see a scene of Angie at home with her family that\u2019s shot in a totally different way than we\u2019re used to seeing on Housewives. Since it\u2019s following the traditional Wife Swap formula and structure, our intro to her and her home life (which some of us are already acutely familiar with) is much more produced to lay out a narrative. Basically, the story arc they\u2019re setting up is that Angie is uptight and her husband Shawn and daughter Elektra both want her to chill out. They hope this experience will facilitate that, and Angie hopes it\u2019ll make her family miss her. Sure, let\u2019s pretend that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing this and not just because it\u2019ll be funny to watch Angie out in the sticks.<\/p>\n Actually, \u201csticks\u201d might be generous. The family that Angie is swapping with are the Flakes (which is also what I call my dating pool), who live completely off the grid in Challis, Idaho. Lindsay and her husband Tanner explain that they and their three young kids made that lifestyle change in an attempt to deal with Lindsay\u2019s rheumatoid arthritis, and when they say off the grid, they really mean it. We\u2019re talking no running water. And yet they seem to have at least some awareness of the Real Housewives, because after Lindsay finds out what city she\u2019s going to, she wonders if she\u2019s swapping with Lisa Barlow. Can you imagine? Lisa Barlow wouldn\u2019t have even made it all the way up their driveway before she turned around.<\/p>\n Granted, it looks like Angie might do the same upon seeing the compost toilet. \u201cI don\u2019t dare use the restroom for the next three days,\u201d she says in horror. Meanwhile, Lindsay is having a grand old time checking out Angie\u2019s heated bathroom floors, iconic sunglasses collection, and reading her house rules off of a \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 scroll.<\/p>\n When Lindsay\u2019s family arrives to greet Angie, she gets to learn even more about this homestead lifestyle, beginning with the outdoor tub that she\u2019s expected to bathe in. Hopefully she stocked up on dry shampoo from Lunatic Fringe before she left, but things are looking up after they take her to a vantage point on the property with the best view. They get there on ATV, one of which is driven by a child, and Tanner tells Angie more about his wife\u2019s health struggles that led them to leading this kind of life \u2014 and while that gives Angie a better understanding, she still wouldn\u2019t mind having a real shower. She also gets to bond with their daughter Hazel, which Angie says is particularly a treat given that Elektra is pulling away as she enters her teenage years.<\/p>\n Back in Salt Lake, Lindsay is stuck doing all of the deep cleaning that Angie normally does each night (while Shawn and Elektra watch television). But fear not, this wasn\u2019t just an elaborate trick to get a random woman from Idaho to clean their house \u2014 Lindsay gets a taste of the finer things the next day when a nail tech comes to the house ahead of her trip to the gym and salon. But while she\u2019s lifting weights in the gym, Angie\u2019s lugging five-gallon jugs of water on the homestead \u2014 and that\u2019s nothing compared to having to \u201cchange the toilet.\u201d That\u2019s right, she has to empty the compost toilet like it\u2019s a garbage can. Is Bravo giving her hazard pay?<\/p>\n When it comes time for the wives to take over their new homes, Lindsay tells Shawn and Elektra that they\u2019re going to be spending the night off the grid in their backyard \u2014 and Elektra\u2019s face drops like nothing I\u2019ve ever seen before. No showering, no phones, and I can tell she\u2019s hoping the crew will yell cut after getting the footage they need and they\u2019ll be able to go back inside \u2026 but alas. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be self-sustaining,\u201d Elektra says.<\/p>\n As for Angie\u2019s rule change, she\u2019s taking them all out to eat \u2014 dessert and all, and those organic-fed children nearly fall over upon seeing milkshakes arrive at the table. Her next rule is making Tanner take her on a night out (despite the kids\u2019 concerns that that\u2019s cheating) so they can let their hair down. \u201cAnd I say that with all due respect, \u2018cause Tanner doesn\u2019t have hair,\u201d she adds. But the trip to the dive bar proves to be a good reminder of what the grid does have to offer.<\/p>\n Just when I felt that the episode was dragging, a hero comes to save the day. Mary M. Cosby saunters right into her pal Angie\u2019s home and I fell to my knees to rejoice. Now, THIS is what I want to see. \u201cIs she skinning a chicken?\u201d she asks as she stumbles upon Lindsay gutting a fish in the backyard with Shawn and Elektra. Mary\u2019s reaction to the fish being gutted, and her aversion to the \u201cplacenta,\u201d is funnier than anything else that\u2019s happened all episode (and perhaps in all of television history full stop).<\/p>\n While their attempt to sleep in the backyard doesn\u2019t go to plan (Shawn and Elektra bail, and even Lindsay wasn\u2019t feeling it), the next day they set out to build a garden so they can grow their own food. Unless it\u2019s grape leaves, I don\u2019t see this endeavor being a long-term success once Angie comes back.<\/p>\n Speaking of, when it\u2019s time to go, Angie gives the Flake kids a parting gift that only she would \u2014 sunglasses with the Greek flag on them \u2014 and gets emotional talking about the experience. She says that she learned there\u2019s really no right way to do things, and that the whole experience put her relationship with glam and materialism into perspective.<\/p>\n She gets back to Salt Lake, where she\u2019s finally able to meet Lindsay and the pair can talk through what they learned in classic Wife Swap fashion. Angie tells her that when she first rolled up she felt pity for their situation, but soon learned that they actually \u201chave everything.\u201d In turn, Lindsay\u2019s own misconceptions \u2014 that she\u2019d be living a relaxing, easy life \u2014 were also disproven by Angie\u2019s many chores and having to \u201cbe on\u201d all the time in front of the cameras. To me, that\u2019s the most interesting thing that we\u2019re barely even touching on: the idea of this regular mom having to do everything that comes with being a reality television star. Sure, the cameras are there, but how much fun would it be to watch one of these swappers have to throw a glass of wine, film Cameos, or maybe even get arrested? Whoever is swapping with Melissa Gorga should have to spread a life-altering rumor about Teresa! Or, at the very least, they should break the fourth wall and talk about how weird the process of filming a reality show is compared to their usual lives. While the Simple Life element never really gets old, leaning further into the reality of reality TV would give this premise something far more interesting to sink its teeth into.<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n