Why Bling Empire fans love Anna but aren’t wild about Kane in season 2

If you’re like us and binged your way through Bling Empire season 2, then you may be scratching your head asking yourself what you just watched. 

Don’t get us wrong, we were thoroughly entertained by the shade thrown, the opulent fashions shown and, of course, the jaw-dropping parties planned. However, we found ourselves having two major takeaways from the season. First, fans love Anna Shay. They can’t seem to get enough. Second, Kane took a nosedive in popularity. The audience wasn’t happy with several things he did. Naturally, with Anna and Kane creating such strong opinions among fans, we decided to take a look at why. 

Beware, the following post contains spoilers.

Why do Bling Empire fans love Anna Shay?  

From her very first moments on Bling Empire, Anna managed to captivate the audience with her raw and uncensored personality that calls it as she sees it. She’s also incredibly down-to-earth, which is both ironic and refreshing considering Bustle has her personal net worth listed as the highest among the cast. Anna remained the same from season 1 to season 2, which of course only caused viewers to reaffirm why they adore her so much. While we could continue to shower her with compliments, we’ll opt to get into why she’s become such a favorite among fans. 

Anna shut down gossip

Not only does Anna not want to participate in gossiping about other people, but she has a unique way of shutting down the individuals who bring rumors to her front door. Case and point, when Kane stopped by her home to download her on what was being said about Chérie Chan, Anna swiftly turned the conversation into a discussion about Kane’s family dynamics. 

He was obviously uncomfortable addressing things being said about his relatives, which Anna made sure to remind him is the feeling of discomfort people who are the subject of gossip often experience. This was a masterclass on how to teach someone the dangers of circulating "tea." 

Anna does her own work around the house

It’s not common to see a millionaire on television doing her own handy work. So when Anna was in her foyer on a ladder fixing her chandelier, viewers were incredibly impressed. Over the course of the season, she did other "normal" things like working in her garden and driving her own car, which further made her come off as endearing. 

Anna doesn't really feed into Anna vs Christine beef

Simply put, the rivalry between Anna and Christine Chiu is dumb. That’s mostly because it seems lopsided given Anna doesn’t really care enough about Christine’s feelings or antics to participate in the traditional back and forth. Despite the latter trying over and over again this season to make it seem as if Anna has an issue with her, many viewers just aren’t buying it. 

When the two discussed the allegation circulating around town that Anna wanted to destroy Christine, Anna just dismissed it as ridiculous. She couldn’t fathom wasting her time or possible freedom making threats about someone she just doesn’t want anything to do with. 

Anna’s level of "unbothered" is nothing short of entertaining. 

Why do Bling Empire fans not like Kane Lim?

Then there’s Kane Lim. If there was ever a time someone on reality television wanted to play the "bad editing" card, now may be it. Kane’s sophomore season on Bling Empire wasn’t a great one to watch as he was often caught in the middle of cast drama, was the residential gossiper and almost made a habit of throwing his own friends under the bus. It was as if he made it his mission to do whatever he could to drive most of the plot points of the last eight episodes. Yet, in him taking on this new persona in the series, he’s managed to alienate viewers. 

So what in particular led fans to turn on Kane this season? 

Kane blindsided Kevin 

Well for starters, Kane inexplicably railroaded his best friend Kevin and his relationship with Kim Lee. Instead of being supportive of Kevin’s blossoming romance with Kim, Kane went to Kim and told her Kevin was not to be trusted because the model was recently entangled with some other girl. Then it’s revealed the entanglement happened roughly a month prior to Kevin attempting to date Kim. The whole scenario just came off as messy and unnecessary, because Kane inserted himself in something that wasn’t his business and made his bestie look like a bit of a schemer. 

This situation was worsened when Kane didn’t apologize for what he had done. Instead, he wound up soliciting an apology from Kevin of all people. 

Kane threw his friendship away with Chérie Chan over idle gossip

Despite barely being present for Bling Empire season 2, Chérie Chan’s relationship with Jessey Lee was a hot topic of conversation. There apparently was a lot of confusion as to whether Chérie and Jessey got involved while the latter was still married to someone else. As tongues wagged among the cast about what was fact and fiction in terms of the couple and their romantic timeline, Kane acted as if he was hurt that his good friend Chérie wouldn’t tell him if she was dating Jessey while he was still married. Furthermore, Kane felt his friend should have shared if her fiancé had a whole other family before her. 

The problem with that kind of logic is Kane thought he was entitled to information that has absolutely nothing to do with him. Even if by some Hogwarts explanation he could justify why he was owed the details of Chérie’s relationship, he went to multiple other cast members first to share the hot gossip about his "friend." Kane could have just gone directly to the source instead of serving as the group’s TMZ. 

Kane played middle man between Anna Shay and Christine Chiu

As previously discussed, the narrative that Anna is running around town threatening Christine is a bit ridiculous. However, before Christine sat down with Anna to discuss it, she talked about the situation with her buddy Kane. She shared her concern with tears in her eyes. While in that moment he consoled Christine, a few scenes later he was talking about how absurd her claims sounded. Sitting with Kim and Kelly Mi Li, they all even made snide remarks about her.

Fans of the series may not necessarily rally behind Christine, but they certainly didn’t care for Kane talking about her behind her back. 

However, in a twist, Kane's role as middle man may backfire come season 3 given the conversation between Anna and Christine. 

Be sure to rewatch some of your favorite moments from Bling Empire season 2 over on Netflix.