Barstool Beach House: Up & Down Thursday

We’re officially into weekend number two. With this week starting off a bit different, leaving stoolies split, some riding high on close calls and fast starts that fizzled, others wondering if there were too many side guests in the mix. Let’s break it down.

Dinner kicked off with sparks flying as Nicky & Ella dove into office romance battles, somehow ricocheting onto Oona & Kevin the intern (aka Chef Donny’s brother). It gave us some of the best highlights of the night imo, including an awesome outburst from Chef himself. Here’s a clip from his first public reaction to Smokes bringing it up:

Chef is clearly not a Smokes guy, which isn’t a shocker, Nicky has blogged about putting Donny in his bottom five of the Chicago office hangs. There’s real animosity there, and am now wondering if something could go down in competitions at the upcoming Camp Barstool. We know Donny could take him though for sure if he wanted.

And guess what! That wasn’t the only dinner fireworks, oh no no no. Meek Phil came charging from behind the camera into the spotlight early, tossing down 6… wait, sorry, 8! green tea shots. Totally Dante's fault apparently, not sure how still but anyways. This led to a fun string of events. The next couple of hours were peak Meek: mass throw-up, a blow-up at Dante(again somehow was his fault), texting Dave Portnoy, and claiming his 8 shots could cure autism. All before 11 PM. Hall of fame numbies from Meek yet again. Naturally, this earned the one-and-only Reed Jones edit:

Now, you might be asking… where’s Conrad & Jackie? Is JANNY over? Fear not, Conrad’s Comrades...we have life! After a slow, almost felt blatantly separated start, love found its way back. Post-Meek show, this was the W of the night. Not only did they pop up showing affection in their own clips, they were caught in the background of others. The best part? Their playful cat-and-mouse with socials trying to sneak alone time. This is the storyline America needs. Just today, The Yak was searching for a positive story that captivates a nation... well JANNY is it. STILL! It’s only Thursday, so let’s not crown them couple yet, but heading into weekend two, love is still in the air.

ALRIGHT...Now, onto the mixed reviews… I can’t just glaze over this, I have a job to do of a full recap. The night died fast, plain & simple. All those “highlights” happened early, and the only real late storyline was Nicky Smokes & Annika, doing the thing again..will they, wont they. Even then, just when things looked like they were brewing, she left, which was the right call...because Smokes immediately shifted to mingling… let’s say… freely.

The rest of the crew seemed done, maybe saving energy for the planned Friday boat day. Could be a full-send clip day tomorrow brewing to say the least.

And here’s the take that might lose me some stoolie cred: Moobie & Smelly were too much, just not the vibes at all. It felt forced into the clips. With the main crew already deep, adding two more almost took away from the likes of Ella, Bri, & Katic. Now of course I get that they’re big on socials, and I’m not trying to go on a bash tour here, but consensus was they didn’t quite mix. Maybe they wanted to go all-out while the crew was pacing for the weekend. Either way, the vibes were off, it was apparent.

This shows how much the dynamic matters. If it’s off, the night suffers. After one weekend, the main crew had their rhythm though better or worse. Moving forward, maybe we should think twice about overloading with guests or still let the focus be the crew over the guests.

Before we jump ship, remember, it’s only Thursday. The crew’s still figuring out how to pace a full weekend at the shore. Also this weekend is longer, with Sunday filmed too, instead of last week’s quick recap-and-fly-home. Tonight still started with a boom, so we know they’ve got it in them. With week one’s lessons and an extended run, we might see the content peak in a whole new way.