I have never rolled my eyes in cringe at a reality show before in my life.
My family moved here in the late 1980s when I was about six years old. In the process of growing up here I witnessed the growth of Dubai in every aspect, from its construction boom and population growth to its leadership as the ultimate tourist destination in the world and home of one of the fastest growing multicultural communities in the world. I was here through elementary, secondary, and high school, then on to university and finally another 15 years of working in several industries. It is far more of a home than the country where I was born and the country whose citizenship I carry.
This is not my Dubai.
Dubai Bling is an example of everything that is wrong with the Dark Side of Dubai: the zealotry of ego, the Karen Culture, the money-out-of-your-nose opulence that's more a cause of derision than it is inspiration. There is nothing creative or ground-breaking about this show apart from the fact that it bolsters the outside world's cynical view of Dubai being everything wrong about "nouveau riche urban development." The city is no London, New York, or Paris...so it's already laughed at elsewhere with YouTube videos that show everything that's wrong with this city. Those of us who know better defend the city against those videos...
...but when a show like this comes out on an international streaming service, it does nothing but bolster the outside world's reason to hate the city and turn the volume of the laughter up to ear-shattering levels.
Everything is clearly acted out in a desperate plea for attention, every scripted word is a demonstration of how common sense is clearly thrown to the wind, every item of fashion is an outrageously obvious product placement sponsorship disguised as daily haute couture. All this does is cement outsiders' belief that this is no billion dollar elite society but a 1 cent flea circus.
On a scale of 1 to 10, this show is a -11.
