Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Selling The OC’ on Netflix, A ‘Selling Sunset’ Spinoff With More Agents, More Drama, And More Pricey Properties 

Real estate brokers Jason and Brett Oppenheim of Netflix’s Selling Sunset spin off their successful Los Angeles operation into an elite Newport Beach outpost in Selling the OC. 11 agents have been hired on for their new office, with a mixture of personalities and professional experience. But as the O Bros say in the first episode, they didn’t come to Orange County to fail. So it’s up to these agents to close mad deals on the area’s ritziest properties even as they navigate the interpersonal battlefield of the O Group’s flashy new offices.

SELLING THE O.C.: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Aerial shots of Newport Beach in Orange County and the shimmering waters of the Pacific Ocean give way to real estate agent Alex Hall pushing her white Range into the private driveway of an absolutely insane beachside mansion. She’s accompanied by her fellow agent, Brandi Marshall, and they’re soon joined by Gio Helou, who rolls up in a Porsche he says is orange because he lives and breathes the OC.

The Gist: The property that introduces us to the Newport Beach real estate market is one for the “B”’s. And as Alex and Gio each assure the listing agents of their respective reach into the billionaire buyers club, we move into the 8 bedroom, 15 bathroom, 18,000 square foot home that includes a private beach and nature preserve, glass-bottomed floors for ocean views, a retractable ceiling over the primary’s 360-degree bed, and indoor parking for 25 cars. Asking price: $106,000,000. But the craziest part for the O Group agents is the three percent commission. That’s $3,180,000 for the one with the most B’s reach.

Jason and Brett Oppenheim’s new office in Corona del Mar features an open floor plan, and as they arrive for a sales meeting, all of their agents are sitting at their desks like kids on the first day of school. In addition to Alex, Brandi, and Gio, the group includes single mother and tenacious cold caller Kayla Cardona, former model Austin Victoria, seasoned sales pro Sean Palmieri, Polly Brindle, also a former model, the villainous duo of Alexandra Jarvis and Alexandra Rose, and OC real estate veteran Tyler Stanaland, who’s married to actress Brittany Snow. We believe in your potential, the bosses tell their new hires. But they have very high expectations, and failure isn’t in their vocabulary.

Alex Hall gains early props from her new coworkers as someone who’s supportive of her new colleagues. She takes Kayla to an oceanside home she has on the market, and the two squeeze into a tiny circular tub to make sure it’s described as a two-person deal. “It’s perfect for my buyer, a bachelor who wanted views,” Kayla says in a confessional cutaway. “I think it would be great to double end it with Hall and keep it in the brokerage.”

Brandi had remarked to Alex that joining a new office and immediately making enemies would be some truly bad optics. But the agents of Selling the OC don’t seem too concerned about keeping an overall peace. Cliques are forming, with Alex hosting a somewhat exclusive pizza party at her home while the Alexandras pledge their loyalty to each other at their luxury co-listing. And later, at the big opening party for the Oppenheim Group’s OC office, the glam takes a backseat to drama.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Anyone interested in drooling over real estate properties unattainable to mere mortals while keeping track of percolating personal dramas has no shortage of viewing opportunities. Selling the OC joins its parent program Selling Sunset on a list that also includes Selling Tampa and the suite of Million Dollar Listing post-ups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. But the list goes deeper. Don’t forget about the Hamptons-based Million Dollar Beach House. You can also get your fix of European real estate with The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties.

Our Take: Smug statements like “on a confidence scale of one to ten, I’m a fucking 15” aren’t going to make you a lot of friends. But Gio seems like the last thing anyone at the O Group’s new OC outpost has to worry about, and later in the season, his overly dramatic nature is bypassed as an issue by Alex, since Gio’s whining about her not hugging his wife enough is so trivial as to be a blank in her otherwise busy and stressful life. No, the real drama here, and what is set up during a deliciously catty sequence in the opening episode, is between Alex, Kayla, Brandi, Sean, and Polly on one side and the Alexandras Jarvis and Rose on the other. These two are a hydra. Their “weird, awkward energy” that Sean notices – the wiggy vibe that Alex says requires “some sage stuffed up their ass” – is illustrated as the Alexandras stand alone on the balcony of their $20 million dollar listing, beaming lasers of mutual gain and collective destruction of their enemies into each other’s eyes. “They’re just jealous, is what it comes down to,” Rose tells Jarvis. “All they’ll try to do is make accusations about you and how you got your clients. They’ll probably do the same to me, but, you know what? We’re both eagles. Eagles fly alone, and birds fly in flocks. And they’re a bunch of birds.”

Sex and Skin: Everyone is dressed to the capital nines all of the time in Selling the OC, but these agents are also known to spend quite a bit of time in bikinis and board shorts.

Parting Shot: Kayla told Alex and others that she went to Jason with complaints about Alexandra Jarvis’s gossipy behavior. But Jarvis felt like Kayla used her for contacts and juice around the office. And when they face off at the big opening party, Kayla is ready to chop. “What would I use you for? Honey, I’m a single mom, I have my own business. I don’t need to use anybody. I have my own shit going on. You called me a fucking bitch. I don’t care how much we disagree, I don’t care how upset we get to each other. I will never call you a name outside of your own. Ever.”

Sleeper Star: Yorkshire, England-born ex-model Polly Brindle has the most refreshing “fuck it all” energy of the agents on Selling the OC. She hangs with who she wants and she speaks her mind, which in the first episode includes vocalizing her hatred of the Alexandras.

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’re still a new office,” Alex says in a confessional moment early on in Selling the OC. “We’re all trying to work together. But Gio’s such a tool. Like, ugh, I want to crawl out of my skin.” These two both wield their confidence as a weapon, so they’re sure to butt heads in a season-long match of influence-measuring.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The new agents of Selling the OC step right up with the ringing drama phone in hand, and they’re never far away from another luscious and impossibly expensive oceanfront property.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges