Selling Sunset Spinoff Selling Tampa Is a Bit of a Snoozer

Although you'll find Selling Sunset categorized on Netflix under the “Home & Garden Reality TV” genre, by now viewers know that the bulk of the show's drama revolves around the women of The Oppenheim Group as they feud over various personal issues and perceived slights. In most cases, the beautiful, unbelievably expensive homes featured in the show function as little more than a backdrop for these petty fights, which have only become more ridiculous (and potentially-staged) as the seasons have progressed. Of course, ridiculous and potentially-staged has long been a winning reality TV formula — just ask Selling Sunset creator Adam DiVello, the mastermind behind The Hills’ “scripted” series finale reveal.

It’s interesting, then, that DiVello’s first Selling Sunset spinoff, Selling Tampa, predominantly focuses on the ins and outs of the real estate business rather than absurd interpersonal conflicts. In some ways, this decision establishes Selling Tampa as a mature, glowed-up take on its sister series, but it also means that it fails to deliver the captivating, over-the-top drama that fans have come to expect from the franchise.

Selling Tampa takes Selling Sunset’s basic premise and moves it to Tampa Bay, Florida, where Allure Realty, an all-Black, all-female brokerage, hopes to make a name for itself in the luxury real estate market. Owner Sharelle Rosado, a military veteran, oversees a group of fun and ambitious agents vying for dominance in the world of waterfront real estate. As with any workplace, friendships and tensions soon emerge: many of the women take issue with Juawana Colbert-Williams assuming responsibilities as Sharelle’s right-hand, with Tennille Moore, a top-performing agent, even going so far as to call Juawana “HR” to her face. Meanwhile, two of the younger agents in the office, Anne-Sophie Petit-Frere and Colony Reeves, are constantly feuding with their older coworkers, whom they call “the aunties,” about dress codes and the shifting definition of “cocktail attire.”

The largest source of drama in Selling Tampa’s first season is Rena Frazier, one of Allure Realty’s first agents. Rena is relatively quiet through much of the premiere, but at the end of the episode, she blows up when she learns she’s been excluded from the firm’s marketing photos. In a scene that takes up entirely too much time, we see Rena grill the rest of the ladies over the photos while at a party to gin up prospective buyers for a $9 million home. The situation is only partially resolved, and over the next few episodes, Rena puts her simmering resentment into action by taking steps to start her own brokerage.

Going rogue isn’t a novel concept in the Selling universe — Maya Vander started her own brokerage in Miami, although she still works for The Oppenheim Group when she’s in Los Angeles — but in Selling Sunset, it’s discussed in backdoor meetings and quiet whispers. Here, Rena raises her concerns with Sharelle like a mature adult, and when she does finally address the possibility of leaving Allure, it’s done during a group dinner, with the rest of the agents sitting just inches away. “I don’t want it to become something more than what it is,” Rena tells Sharelle. Has there ever been a statement more at odds with the ethos of Selling Sunset?

This momemt really strikes at the heart of Selling Tampa’s biggest issue. Watching a woman use “I” statements to calmly lay out her concerns about a new commissions split is empowering from a business perspective, but it doesn’t make for great TV.

Still, there are bound to be people who watch Selling Sunset for the house porn, and at least on that level, Selling Tampa delivers. The houses in the series all have incredible waterfront views, and their wide range of design styles are more visually interesting than the sleek, ultra-modern homes that dot the Hollywood Hills. Selling Tampa even has a ridiculously overpriced house, and the conflict surrounding it is reminiscent of Davina’s $75 million home debacle. And because the homes in Tampa have fewer zeroes at the end of their price tags, it feels far less likely that the agents are selling to an underground weapons dealer or a human rights violator, a possibility always lurking around the edges of Selling Sunset.

At the end of the day, it feels like Netflix has done Selling Tampa a disservice by attaching it to Selling Sunset. Viewers expecting headline-making drama are in for disappointment, as the women of Allure Realty are far too sensible to put reality TV fame above their actual careers. But fret not, Selling Sunset fans: another spinoff series, Selling the OC, is already filming, and its new group of clout-chasers seem eager to step into Christine Quinn’s Louboutins.

Selling Tampa premieres Wednesday, December 15 on Netflix.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.