Washington Post reviewer catches a new Oxygen reality show featuring Shannen Doherty, helping people dump unwanted mates. First episode puts a former Ark. Times intern on camera.
Doherty doesn’t do much actual breaking up at all. She winds up serving as a facilitator in a hidden-camera show, which sets up situations designed to determine the character of relationships gone bad.
First up is Tamara Henry, a former Miss Arkansas and ex-TV anchor in Fresno, Calif., who wants to break up with Steve, the biggest jerk to appear on a reality show in weeks.
Steve, whom she’s been dating for 16 months, says things like, “We got into a huge fight last night but it was your fault, right, honey?” and “Technically, I’m a lesbian.” (Get it, because he’s a guy who likes girls? And lesbians like girls, too. Hee-hee.)
In a confusing setup that Tamara is in on, she and Steve arrive at a fake restaurant where an actor portraying a “psychic chef” tries to draw out the worst in Steve. It works.
Doherty watches it all from a TV screen just outside the setting, muttering such things as, “I cant wait to dump you,” and “Oh, you’re a brute.”