Divorce TV: Bravo's Untying the Knot

Heartbreak and retribution have been reliable themes in reality television since long before the genre was called that. An early entry in this category was Divorce Court, which premiered in 1999 and still airs on both Fox and the USA Network. On the show, real couples argue, mostly bitterly and mostly about cheating, in front of a judge, whose decisions are legally binding.

This summer, the NBC-owned network Bravo is attempting to update this break-up-and-bicker formula. In Untying the Knot, lawyer and mediator Vikki Ziegler works with divorcing couples to divide their most treasured assets. Clad in bright monochrome sheaths and brandishing a blowout like a warrior’s headdress, Ziegler spends 30 minutes each week cheerily battling over jewelry, china, and a lot of really, really bad art. Her bedside manner is stern but sensitive as she calmly lectures couples in a shouty Jersey honk familiar by now to viewers of other Bravo shows. The occasional use of mediation jargon hints at her real (nonreality) experience as a divorce attorney.