The third season of Bravo‘s The McBee Dynasty begins with the family in crisis. Steve McBee Sr. had previously pled guilty to one count of crop insurance fraud and we join his family about 24 hours before the sentencing hearing in the federal court in Kansas City. McBee’s four sons — Steven Jr., Jesse, Cole and Brayden — are all stressed out about it, of course, because their dad could get anywhere from probation to multiple years in prison.
Opening Shot: A countdown clock to the sentencing hearing of Steve McBee, the particarch of the family that owns McBee Farm & Cattle in Gallatin, Missouri.
The Gist: Steven Jr. is in charge of the company in his father’s absence and he has to deal with the massive debt that has accumulated after his father leveraged the farm operation to open car washes and other businesses. One thing he and the CFO/part-owner/Steve Sr.’s former girlfriend Galyna Saltkovska have to worry about is that the loans that are in Steven Sr.’s name have morality clauses and could be pulled by the banks for cause, which could cost the family any land in Sr.’s name.
Cole, his girlfriend Kacie Adkison, and their toddler daughter Blair are settling into their new house, but Kacie finds out that the land under the house could be taken by the banks. Jessie and his wife Allie, who live outside the farm, are still getting used to being new parents of their baby daughter Summer.
After the sentencing, where Steven Sr. received a prison term of two years and fines and restitution totalling over $7 million, the brothers meet to figure out their next move. However, Galyna isn’t around, having gone out for a manicure with her daughter. At the same time, Steven Jr., who insisted that after breaking up with Calah Jackson, was concentrating on how to get the business out from under this crushing financial situation, picks up Allie Eklund, a new “friend” who looks remarkably like Calah, at the airport. He asks his brothers to clean his house, but they take the opportunity to add some embarrassing decorations before Allie’s arrival.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we said before the second season, The McBee Dynasty is essentially Yellowstone combined with The Real Housewives franchise.
Our Take: Like with most Bravo reality shows, the longer The McBee Dynasty runs, the more it gets invested in interpersonal drama that may or may not be amped up in front of the cameras. Sure, it’s going to be intriguing as it is to see how the McBee brothers are going to get out of the extremely precarious financial situation their father put them in while dealing with the fact that he’ll be in a federal prison. However, the producers of the show know that people will be attracted most to the boys and their WAGs, as well as seeing if Galyna’s mostly-unhinged behavior continues.
It’s interesting that much of the drama with the McBees still revolves around Steven Sr., even though he hasn’t been seen on camera since the first season. Not only is the family reeling from the fraud he pled guilty to and the crushing debt he left behind, but he made things so complicated with Galyna that the family has to put up with her behavior because she knows its financials. In addition to that, Steve Sr.’s girlfriend after Galyna, Masha Petrova, is still in the cast, so she’ll factor into the drama, as well.
Between Galyna, Masha, and the boys’ mother, Kristi, you can tell that Steve Sr. has a “type,” but so does Steven Jr., given the fact that his new “friend” Allie looks almost like Calah’s identical twin. And it seems that she’s going to get way more involved in the McBee family business than anyone who has only been around for a short time should. But it also seems like she’ll have as much or more influence than the other Allie and Kacie, which means this is a pure casting move on the producers’ part or they’re doing a disservice to the women who have been a part of the family for years.
Yes, there’s interpersonal drama with the brothers, namely Cole’s frustration with Steven Jr. dismissing his input and ideas, but that all feels like standard-grade sibling rivalry stuff. If it were up to us, though, we would love for the show to lean into the financial house of cards that Steven Jr. and his brothers will have to deal with rather than watching yet another reality show where people call each other “bitch” and worse.
Performance Worth Watching: We love how Steven Jr. immediately flies in his new “friend” Allie, whom he hadn’t even kissed yet, the same day that everyone is meeting to try to figure out what to do now that their dad is going off to prison. This is after he said in an interview that he’s concentrating on the business, not his personal life.
Sex And Skin: Nothing in the first episode, but we may see a bare butt or two in subsequent episodes.
Parting Shot: Allie complains about how chaste Steven Jr.’s kisses are, while Cole complains to Tessa Lollar, the farm’s “fuel woman and den mother,” about how his brother refuses to listen to his ideas.
Sleeper Star: There needs to be an episode done from Tessa’s perspective, where we get all of her observations about the craziness that’s going on.
Most Pilot-y Line: Allie Eklund says that “I try on clothes for a living, so that’s fun.” We think at this point that she’s a reality star for a living.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The McBee Dynasty is still a good example that reality shows that feature men can be as full of drama as ones featuring women. We do hope, though, that the family’s crushing financial woes is given as much weight as the interpersonal conflict.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.