Review: ‘Dubai Bling’ is high on dazzle, but no substance

Title: Dubai Bling (series)

Cast: Zeina Khoury, Safa Siddiqui, Lojain Omran, Kris Fade, DJ Bliss

OTT platform: Netflix

For any reality show set in Dubai, expect to see a lot of gold, dazzling jewellery, palatial homes and beautiful exterior shots of Dubai’s landscapes. The series ‘Dubai Bling’ has all these tropes and is replete with clichés like its other cousin, ‘Real Housewives of Dubai’. Only this Netflix show has orchestrated fights and personalities with no redeeming qualities.

The first episode introduces the main cast – Zeina Khoury, the CEO of Highmark Real Estate and the show’s unofficial narrator. She is friends with Safa Siddiqui, who used to work with her in real estate before she married billionaire Fahad Siddiqui. There is TV presenter Lojain Omran, Loujain Adada aka LJ, DJ Bliss and his wife YouTuber Danya Mohammed, radio host Kris Fade and his wife Brianna Fade, social media influencer Farhana Bodi and Forever Rose CEO Ebraheem Al Samadi.

The show’s main theme is money and the people who feature in ‘Dubai Bling’ are swimming in it. They are highly materialistic and unabashed about it. Safa, for instance, is haranguing her long-suffering husband Fahad to buy a bigger house as she has no place for her growing wardrobe. Her closet is the size of a studio apartment. To “teach him a lesson”, she casually drops 10 million dirhams on a Bulgari necklace. Lojain Omran is being sponged on by her younger brother Mazen, who refuses to give up his partying ways and find a job, choosing to focus on buying sport bikes that are beyond his means.

The first world problems of the cast are difficult to digest when there are people out there struggling to survive. There is also a lack of genuineness in the friendships. LJ’s marriage to her billionaire husband who is 35 years her senior created quite the scandal in Dubai. And her friends don’t leave any opportunity to discuss it. After Ebraheem’s disastrous blind date with her, his mother goes as far as calling her a ‘gold digger who is out to snag another rich husband’. Ebraheem is your typical two-faced friend who likes stirring up drama.

Farhana has a major feud with LJ that has something to do with a fabricated conversation on social media. Zeina and she almost come to blows when the former say she doesn’t feel like coming to Farhana’s parties as all of them are sponsored. It’s contradictory as they are all appearing in a show that is effectively a sponsorship.

At one point, it felt as if Versace sent all of their collection to ‘Dubai Bling’s cast. If you watch this eight-episode series, wear sunglasses, the amount of bling is blinding.