Stream It Or Skip It: ‘House of Villains’ Season 2 on E!, still chock full of backstabbing (but lovable) reality stars who are all in it for themselves

E!’s House of Villains embraces the duplicity, backstabbing, and general chaos that reality TV’s most notorious personalities bring to their shows and rewards them for it. On this reality competition hosted by Joel McHale, ten reality stars from the past two decades convene in a Los Angeles mansion to participate in a series of challenges each week. One by one, they’re eliminated by their fellow contestants until only one Supervillain remains, but it’s the lying and deception, the formation of fake alliances, the fact that these people selfishly turn on each other that makes the show so delightfully evil.

HOUSE OF VILLAINS – SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Photos of the cast of House of Villains season one appear onscreen as host Joel McHale explains, “Last season, ten of reality television’s greatest villains came together under one roof to make television history. So obviously we had to do it again.” We then get a montage of soundbites from this season’s cast, which includes the likes of Teresa Giudice, Richard Hatch, and Kandy Muse.

The Gist: Ten notorious reality stars – whose reputations range from actual villains to just being good at giving clever soundbites – are assembled at a mansion called the Villains’ Lair by host Joel McHale. This season’s group consists of Richard Hatch (Survivor), Teresa Giudice (Real Housewives of New Jersey), Wes Bergmann (The Challenge), Jessie Godderz (Big Brother), Victoria Larson (The Bachelor), Larissa Lima (90 Day Fiancé), Kandy Muse (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Camilla Poindexter (Bad Girls Club), and Safaree Samuels (Love & Hip Hop). McHale, whose former job as host of The Soup has earned him this meta role as a reality TV puppeteer of sorts, is totally in on that vibe and clearly relishes the fact that these stars – and he himself – have reached this self-referential experience. (McHale is one of this show’s executive producers.)

Oh, and House of Villains Season 1 star, and HBIC of all reality TV everywhere, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, is also back for another season on the show, somehow turning the 15 minutes of fame she got in 2006 into an entire career. (And for good reason: when she has to speak to Giudice early on in the episode, she tells her, “Teresa, I have already respected your hairline on television –” before asking Giudice to be her roommate and kick out Teresa’s original roomie, Camilla Poindexter of the Bad Girls Club. Only New York can throw shade, turn it into a compliment, and then have everyone cater to her every whim. She and Giudice do indeed end up sharing that room.)

Because House of Villains beings together a cast of people who are all already well-known (to most of the world), watching them meet in their new digs for the first time is endlessly entertaining, because while many of them are already on familiar terms, some have never met or are completely unfamiliar with one another. (On House of Villiains, almost nothing proves more cutting or insulting as when one cast member tells another that they were not familiar with their work.) When Survivor Season 1 winner Richard Hatch met Giudice for the first time, he declared he was intimately familiar with her, but she told him she has never seen Survivor. (“I’ve seen commercials, never watched it.”) Despite that, moments later the two managed to bond over their shared passion for being imprisoned for tax evasion.

Since the ultimate goal of this show is to win weekly challenges that give you the power to strategically eliminate your housemates, this is a show where, even if alliances are formed, it’s never clear if they’re real or if contestants are just using one another. When Poindexter graciously ceded her bedroom to Pollard, she used that to her advantage, telling Tiffany that if the time ever came when she needed Tiffany’s vote to stay in the house, she expected that favor. It was savvy game play, and yet this being House of Villains, there is no guarantee Pollard will keep her word. If Jonny Fairplay taught us anything last season, it’s that a villain’s word means absolutely nothing.

Back to the rules of the game: every week, all the contestants compete in challenges of both physical and mental strength. The winner is deemed that week’s Supervillain and gets to pick three people to put up for elimination. Those three people compete in one more challenge where one of them earns immunity and the other two are put up for an elimination vote. The voting aspect is what’s tricky about this show, hence why forming alliances can be important but still, no one can really be trusted. Because, you know, they’re villains.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? At the beginning of the season premiere, Joel McHale makes a joke telling the contestants, “You all are here for one reason: The Traitors isn’t currently filming.” It’s funny because it’s true – there have been several shows like House of Villains cropping up over the last few years including The GOAT and The Traitors and while they definitely have different vibes, their casts are fairly interchangeable.

Our Take: House of Villains is a show that takes all the reality TV tropes we know and love and makes a whole meal of them. No one is here to make friends. Everyone’s getting thrown under the bus. These are the core values shared by all involved. What makes it so watchable is the fact that the contestants are imminently quotable and entertaining, even while they’re being selfish jerks or clueless a-holes.

In a way, this season is not to an homage to another batch of reality TV contestants, it’s an homage to season one itself, as the walls of the Villains’ Lair are plastered with pictures of last season’s contestants, and former Villains Jax Taylor and Bobby Lytes make appearances on the show. It’s comforting in a way to watch as the show evolves and morphs into a big, lovable family of evil-doers. But the most important thing about the show is how unseriously it takes itself most of the time – despite the fact that people like Teresa, Richard, and New York have been known for their manipulative or even physically aggressive behavior, this show only exists to play with their reputations, not to truly coax the worst out of them. But then again, there can be only one winner, so on some level, backstabbing is to be expected, it’s just that here, you can’t be mad at it. It’s all fun and games, especially when someone gets thrown under the bus.

Sex and Skin: Not much, although 90 Day Fiancée star Larissa Lima’s boob job(s) cause her to constantly spill out of her dress, leaving much of the screen pixelated.

Parting Shot: After Supervillain Safaree chooses [SPOILER ALERT] Kandy Muse as one of the three contestants up for elimination, Kandy, who previously thought they had an alliance with Safaree, chews out the Love & Hip Hop star and promises revenge.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s always gonna be New York. She’s back for a reason, and that reason is her off-the-cuff one-liners, loveable-but-unhinged personality, and perfect, unscripted reaction shots.

Memorable Dialogue: “I don’t think I’m a villain, I’m just a loud Italian,” Teresa Giudice explains early on in the show. Debatable!

Our Call: The reason that these all-star casts of reality stars continue to get hired and appear on shows like House of Villains is because they’re very good at what they do. While I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Season 1 cast, Season 2 is bringing just as much drama, humor, and self-referential winking to the camera, and that’s all reason enough for all of us to STREAM IT.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.