If you’re a fan of reality television, some of which may consist of The Real Housewives franchise, those competition shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Project Runway; or those weird general interest shows like Embarrassing Bodies, or Hoarders (my personal favourite) – then you’ll be aware of the newest Netflix series Yummy Mummies.
It’s basically the Real Housewives on bath salts, to say the least. It presents four women in very affluent lifestyles who only have really one thing in common – the dome that’s growing inside their bellies. These pregnant ladies deal with the highs and lows of popping out a child, and I’m no expert on spawning a child but I don’t think you have to be one to know how deliciously CRAZY this series is.
I remember the many commercials about this show back on Channel 7, and thought this show would be strange, but you honestly have no clue how good it is until you view the first episode. Thankfully, Netflix had me covered. Thanks girl. Before we get into the content of the show – let’s get into the women you’ll have to be familiar with. We’ll begin with Rachel Watts, who is basically Sarah Jessica Parker’s doppelgänger, is a Melbourne manager of Supre, and is probably the cheeriest person I’ve seen in a long time. She laughs every second word and her hair is always tied up.
The moment you see her one confessional where her hair is down, you’re suddenly brought back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers all over again. I really admire her smile and positive nature – it’s contagious! A major plot point of this entire series is that she is a co-owner of an Instagram page, of which the other two ladies are also main cast members (@melbourneyummums).
One of them being Jane Scandizzo, a model who is married to a hairdresser with celebrity clientele. She is a woman with such beauty, that it makes a homosexual male like myself wish I could look like her. She is fairly quiet in comparison to the other women, but when she does speak, I find myself giggling at how endearing she is. Also, it should be noted that unlike the other mums – she’s been through motherhood already, so she’s the professional.
The other owner of the page is Lorinska Merrington, a traffic presenter, who is either really tall – or the other women are extremely short. I will admit that I wasn’t sure about her at first, considering I found her phrases rather odd, but towards the end of the season I found myself adoring her. Lorinska was probably the one that found herself at the forefront in the drama with the Adelaide mummy and her mother, so it became a weird storyline about this baby-shower-present-giving competition between them, which made the series a little more entertaining.
These ladies seemed to be no match when their Instagram accounts were strategically discovered by a woman in Adelaide, Maria Di Geronimo. An Italian bombshell who is extremely beautiful – and she definitely knows it, I mean, she makes me look like the dog’s breakfast. She wasn’t yet married, but was having a child with her partner Carlos, who worked as a barber. This entire family makes me look like an episode of American Horror Story.
Maria came from an intensely wealthy family who were all brand lovers, I mean, I could relate to that. I’m one myself (Kmart is a brand, right?). Her house had Versace everywhere, and I struggled to see the style in that considering it was all basically just a Versace shopfront, I guess it’s personal opinion. My version of the Di Geronimo love for Versace would be my love for Dangerfield, which STILL isn’t as extravagant. I also loved the Adelaide representation, considering most reality shows in Australia really only showcase Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, so this really made Adelaide look like a destination someone needs to attend.
I think what really set Maria apart from the other women was the consistency of her family. I understand it completely, I have an Italian background, and every family gathering has to have every single one of them there. Although, Maria’s mother was a true gem in this series. An authentic one-of-a-kind doll that I think the family should treasure. Margherita Di Geronimo, who really is our version of Donatella Versace, is a blonde woman who is extremely youthful at heart. I spent the entire viewing wondering if she’s actually that animated if the cameras weren’t on her. She didn’t necessarily enjoy conflict, but did make a few comments about the other women with Maria, but the comments really came from both parties.
I noticed the edit on this series pinned Maria and Margherita to be the villains of the show, but I guess people forget that underneath it all, these ladies are doing the series for entertainment. It can be a little hard to remember that when you’ve downed a bottle of wine while viewing this, though. It also seemed like Maria had forgotten that Margherita had given birth to her, so she’d never ask for her advice, it was hilarious to me. If you don’t believe that a woman could be so engaging on TV, just go online and search her up, she’s the real star of the show, no one can convince me otherwise.
These characters really make this series quite gratifying, I loved watching Margherita the most. I loved watching the women make odd observations about pregnancy, and I wouldn’t begin to make any comments on what I think is wrong, because I quite obviously can’t get pregnant, even though I eat enough to make that illusion plausible. The main events you have to look forward to on this show on the first season are the two baby showers, this little event called a ‘baby-moon’ which I’ve never heard of, and two major events I like to call – impersonator gate, and audition gate.
Maria invites Lorinska, Rachel and Jane down to South Australia so she can provide the best the city can offer. She does this by creating a baby shower, that she dubs as Adelaide’s BIGGEST baby shower. I found it quite amusing whenever Margherita and Maria would exclaim that “Adelaide doesn’t know what they have coming” because I kept wondering if they’d invite the entire city. A bit daft, but they spoke up a big game there.
They then arrive to Maria’s lavish home, and see her big range of baby clothes, and I’m not joking when I say it’s a big range – in fact, big is a definite understatement. The baby who hadn’t been born yet had a walk-in wardrobe, and a massive nursery with designer bibs, dummies, and potentially designer baby wipes. I hadn’t been this envious of a baby since North West. What’s really noteworthy is how much the word ‘Versace’ is expended on this series – never mind this episode alone. It’s evident when Maria quantified that she loves the brand, and the other women try to comprehend her adoration for it by saying things on the spectrum of – “so, you even have Versace toilet paper? Like, they’re Versace?”
Now, let’s fast forward to the grand event – Maria’s baby shower. It was themed something you’d never guess – Versace. They didn’t necessarily have a hired stylist for this, they did all of it as a family, and boy was it entertaining! I was so sure Maria was going to murder someone. You had Maria telling everyone how she couldn’t have any stress considering she was pregnant, her sister Bianca was remarkably calm, Margherita got frustrated at Maria’s dress choice, and the woman who worked in the function room (that usually hosted weddings) took all of it like a champ – and like someone who was about to get that coin from the producers.
I have to admit that Maria obviously kept in amazing shape during pregnancy, she looked stunning and so did her family. The other ladies looked stunning, and they really put up a fashion show with their outfits. It was a little bit extra for a shower, considering Maria, Margherita and her younger sister, Bianca, were fashionably late as they arrived via horse and carriage. It looked magical, yet I was stressed when the cameras showed them in their extremely high platform heels as they stepped off the carriage. I couldn’t help but think ‘don’t fall down, don’t fall down, PLEASE don’t fall down.’ Digs were made, but they were relatively tame in comparison to those shows that strive off commotion.
This series didn’t necessarily need drama to be interesting. As an example of this, the baby shower really showcased Margherita’s obsession with impersonators, as she hired a man to be a Donatella Versace impersonator. He had it on point, except for the chest hair. Following this, was Margherita’s other surprise for her daughter (I told you she was the star of the show). It was a dance performance, and it was sweet to see someone have so much fun, and it made everyone entertained. That was the goal, after all. This was all followed by Maria’s babymoon, which I had no idea was a thing.
It’s like a honeymoon after the baby shower. She stayed at the Palazzo Versace in Queensland, she basically says the name of the hotel so many times that if you prepared a drinking game out of it – you’d be dead. This is where her contractions commence, and she’s nervous about giving birth at the Palazzo Versace. I mean, I could think of worse places to be born.
The next baby shower to grace our screens was located at the Stables of Como, where Lorinska had a stylist create the event into the magical atmosphere it was. It was world’s different to Maria’s, who had a very grand theme to it, it was flash and very exclusive. Lorinska’s was extremely landscape inspired, and it was a very humbled setting. As a sucker for cake, I just loved that both ladies had cakes I’d die for. This was where impersonator gate reared its ugly head, as Margherita had her special surprise for the mother to be, despite it being under Maria’s name.
They all meet in front of the venue, where Jane parks her push present, which ends up being a range rover. These ladies had this weird obsession with the push presents, which it’s totally understandable. Childbirth looks like the most excruciating thing so I believe that it’s warranted. Rachel got a Rolex watch, and Lorinka yearned for this rare diamond. Maria ended up getting engaged in the most romantic way, which verges on the line of just getting proposed to, rather than a push present. I’m really not proficient in this area, though.
Rachel facetimes Lorinska, and I found this relatively funny, as Maria and Marghertia reacted to everything being said, but it seemed that Lorinska only showed her and Jane on the camera until the end. I giggled a bit at this, but I know she probably showed the other ladies more than what we saw. Rachel revealed her new baby Harvey, and our hearts melted. I mean, Rachel definitely had the best reason for not attending the baby shower. I wish I could use the same reason.
So, before we know it – the surprise strikes. Another impersonator, this time, imitating Lorinska. They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I’m not sure Lorinska would agree with that. This poor impersonator didn’t realize she’d hurt her feelings, as she awarded her with ‘best supporting actress’ because ‘Maria is the real star.’
Then, bellowing jabs at her for not presenting a gift at the previous shower, and then a comment in regards to Rachel – who wasn’t there to defend herself, or react, for that matter.
“That’s so rude!” Lorinska announces as a dramatic shot views her tossing the trophy across the room, and shots of disgruntled guests share her frustration as this impersonator awkwardly resumes. It could have been a situation where Maria wanted to diffuse Lorinska’s excitement, but it certainly wasn’t the case for Margherita, who seemed immediately upset about troubling her, before making a prompt exit back to Adelaide. This is revisited in the final battle of the season – audition gate! Margherita planned to make amends by sending Lorinska flowers after she had given birth to Lady Penelope, she dubbed her baby.
It was a sweet gesture, and one that left a bad taste in Maria’s mouth, as she made the argument that Lorinska was just unhappy because it was a present she didn’t want. Maria probably wanted to display some humour at the baby shower, yet we don’t know for sure. Lorinska is ready to let this drama go, and let bygones be bygones (which is a saying they say more times than its usually used). A clothing brand for babies hosts auditions for a model for their clothing. It was the cutest thing ever, and at this point, Lorinska, Rachel and Maria all had given birth. It was wonderful to see how much they’d invested the love for their children immediately, considering I’m a true crime fanatic, and I see a lot of wrong doing being done on children, so this made me genuinely smile.
Maria had given birth to baby Valentina, and I noticed that she was anxious in the start of motherhood. She didn’t want to harm her in anyway, but it showed that she does care about her baby. I’m not sure about the nanny though, I thought that was a little too extra in hindsight. Especially the wild interviews where Maria refused to take one of their photos because she would not even consider her for the job. To be fair – the applicant didn’t look too presentable for the interview.
The small group of mothers all flew up to Brisbane for this audition, although, the real shock was that Lorinska and Rachel had no clue about Maria and Margherita also participating. All of their babies auditioned, and it was charming. Harvey, Penelope and Valentina made a few hearts melt.
After the audition had ended – the final confrontation begins. Prepare the popcorn, the cocktails, everything! Lorinska plans to squash the beef with Maria, but it all just ends up making things worse, and it was a little more civilised than any Real Housewife dispute I’ve ever seen. It had everything you want in the argument: the word ‘sweetheart’ being used excessively, one telling another to ‘get over it’ consistently, a taunt about weight, and then the voice of reason telling them all to shut up because they were too hostile in front of their kids. This voice of reason is, and you guessed it – Margherita! Ugh, love her. It was an odd ending to the series, because I wished they did a reunion episode at least, as a proper send off for the drama.
While all of this occurred – Jane had given birth to her wonderful baby boy Jensen. I’m sure she was overjoyed that she missed the intense drama between Melbourne and Adelaide. I’m just glad, as a Sydney-sider, that we weren’t involved in this showdown for once. I hadn’t seen season two yet, but I did read that Maria doesn’t make an appearance into it, so I’d like to imagine that they were all adults about how they felt. It’s a television series that is really a gem, considering it seems like the producers wanted to do a show about women who are as wealthy as the Real Housewives of Sydney and Melbourne, but they’re all ready to pop out a baby. It’s awfully entertaining, which is dangerous, considering I basically binged it in a day.
Australians can view the first series on Netflix now, yet, you can view the second series on 7Plus, which I would really suggest if you are looking for something else to watch.