Bling Empire: New York review: A scripted show on rich Asian-Americans in disguise as a reality series

2.5/5

Story:

Dorothy Wang from Beverly Hills leaves her entire life behind except for her parents' wealth and lands in New York to explore her life and grow as a fashionista. The "reality series" revolves around this rich Asian-American girl from California and the people around her.

Review:

Dorothy loves fashion, makeup, and parties, and she doesn't control herself from speaking out about what she feels about whom. Apart from her, another important pair in the show is Stephen and Deborah Hung, the Asian-American billionaire couple, who have been married for over 10 years.

Dorothy has a bunch of close buddies through a close friend and fashion influencer, Tina Leung, and her buddy Richard Chang, who willingly and unwillingly works as a bridge between many influential and affluent Asian Americans in New York.

Moving on, Dorothy meets and befriends a number of people in the show. Even being new to the Big Apple, she seems to not only "survive" on her own (with, of course, her parents' money) but also have a great new life with her new buddies and daily events. This Californian girl not only parties, but she also attends numerous fashion events and knows many influential people in the fashion industry.

On the other hand, Dorothy's close friend and one of her first friends, Tina, consider it hard to survive in the same city. As she has been cut off from her parents long ago, especially financially, she has been trying hard to make it as a huge fashion influencer. However, the emotions take a toll on her every now and then, but she surrounds herself with friends and tries not to overthink.

Bling Empire: New York features all these young Asian-American people from affluent families and showcases how differently they represent themselves when in front of friends and when they are alone.

A few of the scenarios in the show seem real; however, most of the sequences appear superficial. Even when they try to be politically correct with each other or to be bittersweet with one another in front of the camera, it somehow seems scripted and at times rehearsed as well.

If we compare Bling Empire: New York to Netflix's Indian reality series named Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, it is definitely easy to choose the latter to stream as it is far more entertaining and binge-worthy.

Verdict:

It is definitely not very easy to understand the "bling" world, especially when you do not relate to the people you are watching in the show. While it might appear shallow to even the ones who live this kind of life, Bling Empire: New York is easy to skip.