Deb

It looks like Gotti’s Way might belong to Deb. People count her out because of her situation in which she seems to accept defeat, but in last night’s episode she fought back. Irv Gotti obviously has some extremely dysfunctional philosophies when it comes to women and marriage, and watching the way he relates to his estranged wife is disturbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that children are involved.

However, Deb is finally starting to take control of the situation. After being a guest on Gail King’s radio show, she got some encouragement to take the reigns. A couple of days after appearing on the show, Deb and Irv had a discussion about Deb’s appearance and discussed her emancipation. According to Irv, she has a good situation and should continue to take the emotional abuse because tons of women wouldn’t mind. Of course, the conversation didn’t go over too well and before the night was over she told him to get out of her house. His retort was that he paid the bills so he didn’t have to leave but she didn’t back down. He asked her why she thought it was her house and she replied “Because I had your kids, you’re paid in full. Now whose house is this?”

A defeated Irv Gotti verbally relinquished ownership to Deb and left. In the preview for next week’s episode, Deb’s emancipation continues. She mentioned that it’s easy to judge her situation without really knowing what’s it’s like and I agree. But at least this time around, she’s taking a more proactive approach to hopefully breaking the negative cycle so that her children can be more productive in their own adult lives.

One good thing that might come out of this is that because Deb probably represents quite a few women in similar situations, her actions might cause them to follow her example. Hopefully she continues move in a positive direction. It’s good to see that she’s growing. I’m definitely on her team.

Parents tend to project their mistakes onto their children, and last night’s episode offered another vivid example of this when Deb’s oldest daughter, Angie, was asked to the senior prom by her boyfriend, Isiah.

The second the sophomore in high school mentioned being invited to the prom, both Deb and Irv immediately noted there are certain expectations that come with prom invites.

Deb rushed to say that she didn’t want Angie getting knocked up at a young age the way she did. And Irv, well, he actually reacted a little more progressively than I anticipated. He had a frank discussion about sex with Angie, and then invited the boyfriend over for an interrogation – albeit a polite one.

Isiah had the biggest grin on his face while speaking to Irv. One would expect the CEO of a label called Murder Inc. to slap it off his face. But no, Irv kept his cool and only asked the grinning boyfriend that he respect Angie.

For a minute there growing up Gotti didn’t seem all at that different than coming up Cosby. That is, until Gotti used the phrase ‘dirt nap’ to describe what would happen if “Grins” ever got out of pocket with his kid.

As that storyline went on, Irv also continued to pretend that there’s an actual chance at The Inc. getting anywhere close to its past glory.

Lloyd – pretty much the only viable act left on the roster – was there to shoot his video for “Girls Around The World.”

Master P can’t make ‘em say uhh anymore, Puffy knows can’t stop, won’t stop stopped making sense in 1998, and when is the last time anyone said Ruff Ryders? I like Lloyd, and while I would like to believe in miracles, I don’t see a big musical comeback in Irv’s future. Do you?

Until next time folks, make sure you say a silent prayer that Deb finds her missing backbone. I noticed the “separated” couple didn’t seem all that separated. I guess this episode on a weekend Irv decided to stay home. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a vague blog about Gotti’s Way coming back to Vh1 on May 5. It was sketchy because I didn’t have a preview to post but today I bring you a gift.

Irv Gotti is known for his warped philosophies on love, gender roles and marriage as we clearly saw in season one. But even more sad was watching his wife, Deb take the emotional abuse. She felt that she was stuck because she and her children were supported by Gotti and was therefore, subject to immense viewer criticism. It looks like she finally got a clue this season and might actually put her foot down. Check out what we’ve been waiting for:

Starr Rhett

I recently posted a blog about missing my Irv Gotti reality TV fix, because it had been about a year since we last witnessed the dysfunction that is Gotti’s Way. But, I’ve been seeing commercials all week (which I can’t seem to find any clips of online) about its impending return on May 5 (at 10pm). The commercials are teasers in a sense that we don’t get to see what’s going on, but we hear it.

The arguments between Irv and Deb sound more explosive. Plus, it sounds like Deb will be putting her foot down a lot more. She was criticized for being extremely passive in season one. I guess now that she got to see herself, she decided not to put up with Irv’s mistreatment. I can’t wait to see what the show has in store. Will you tune in on May 5?

One reality TV show that fueled my addiction was Gotti’s Way, which aired on Vh1 Fall 2007. The concept of watching famous folk interact with their families on TV is old, but Irv Gotti totally revamped everything we initially thought was dysfunction. We watched as he and his wife were in a weird transitional phase. They were separated and borderline divorce, but not quite. Irv was able to come and go as he pleased because after all, he paid for everything. Even worse, we were subjected to his piggish philosophies about men never being faithful, and the fact that men should be able to have as many mistresses as they’d like (even if they had a wife). And the cherry on top of everything else—women were supposed to just accept it.

If that’s what Irv believes, then so be it, but his rants, misguided philosophies and arguments with his wife made for good TV. Aside from the family drama, we watched as he tried to get his label, The Inc. (formerly Murder Inc) back off the ground.

Celebrity-oriented reality TV is usually pretty boring, but Gotti’s Way really needs to come back. It was renewed for a second season, which was supposed to premier last Spring but we saw nothing. Here we are almost a year later and the show is still on hiatus. What happened? Am I the only one missing this show?