The double-episode debut of Hulu and Freeform’s Love Thy Nader, executive produced by Jimmy Kimmel, doesn’t deal in the type of overly manufactured drama that so commonly drives reality shows. Rather, we see star Brooks Nader brilliantly overcome a harrowing personal challenge that arose during one of the biggest moments of her professional career.
The series is officially described as “a bold coming-of-age reality series [that] follows the unapologetic and determined Nader sisters—Brooks, Sarah Jane, Grace Ann and Mary Holland—who left their humble beginnings in the Louisiana bayou for the glamour and grind of New York City.”
“Brooks’ breakout success has led them into the high-stakes world of modeling, the social scene of Manhattan’s elite, and opened the door to a whirlwind of attention in their romantic lives,” Hulu’s synopsis continues. “Set against the backdrop of Soho lofts, fashion campaigns and skyscraper dreams, Love Thy Nader explores the ultimate question of what it really means to ‘make it.’ In a city where one can burn bright or go up in flames, sometimes the only thing truly needed is a sister who has your back.”
From the jump, viewers are dropped into a whirlwind of work, transition and romance. Brooks has just moved into a chic Soho apartment with her three sisters, and she’s mere days away from launching her debut collection with Hudson Jeans, a project into which she’s poured “blood, sweat, and tears.” Simultaneously, she’s also finalizing a drawn-out divorce from her first husband while moving at lightspeed with Gleb Savchenko, her former Dancing With the Stars Season 33 partner who’s already openly discussing a move-in and marriage.
Brooks provides exposition, detailing how she idolized seminal supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell while going up in a conservative Baton Rouge household. “My parents were like, ‘To be successful, you need to go to college, you need to meet a guy, you need to get married, you need to have babies, you need to be a good wife.’ L-O-L,” she cheekily tells the camera.
Brooks’ fans already know the alternative path that she forged. She beat 10,000 applicants in an open casting call to appear in the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue—it’s revealed that Brooks won after being “hand-selected by Christie Brinkley.” She’s since capitalized on that moment through ceaseless work that’s yielded the cover of SI Swim in 2023, her DWTS stint, multiple brand deals, fame, and now, Love Thy Nader.
In the first episode, titled “Not in the Bayou Anymore,” Brooks is firmly established as the role model to her three sisters, all of whom are close with each other and their parents, Breaux and Holland Nader. Savchenko drops by for a short visit that comes across as passionate but slightly awkward as Brooks’ entire family attempts to feel him out. The true crux of the episode comes in the final minutes right after Savchenko departs. He leaves his phone in a cab, briefly assuaging Brooks of any worry that he’d been ghosting her. But when the driver delivers the phone back to Brooks’ address, she finds indisputable evidence that he’s been unfaithful, including photos of several women and a contact named “Joshua Tree Threesome Girl.” A title card reading “Gleb denies all accusations of cheating” appears.
Episode 2, ruthlessly titled “Threesomes in Joshua Tree,” is where viewers witness just what Brooks is made of. The first scenes show all three sisters consoling her after Savchenko’s indiscretions—Sarah Jane uses Gen Z parlance to describe the situation as “so tox.” At this point, Brooks is just hours away from her Hudson Jeans launch event. “I can’t bed-rot like I want to,” she says. “I have to work. It’s going to be really, really hard.”
Putting on a bold face, Brooks heads to the launch party for her Hudson Jeans line. She’s keenly aware that this is much more than a vanity event as she rubs shoulders with Ellie Goulding and mingles with department store and label execs who still need to be convinced to purchase the line. Though her romantic world came crashing down hours ago, Brooks maintains her composure brilliantly—even when she’s approached by Dancing With the Stars superfans who fawn over her and Gleb’s relationship.
“Watching Brooks at this Hudson launch put on a face and ask everyone how they are…” Mary Holland says. “At the end of the day, it’s her work ethic and her professionalism that I really respect.” Taking inspiration from her eldest sister, Mary Holland in the same episode decides to leave her lucrative position as an investment manager at Deutsche Bank to pursue modeling full time. Meanwhile, Sarah Jane and Grace Ann, also working models, attend a meeting with their reps at elite NY-based agency Ford Models. While the younger Sarah Jane is working diligently to make the leap from cosmetics modeling to high-fashion runways, it’s revealed that Grace Ann hasn’t been quite so dedicated, as she’s spurred by her agent to decide between becoming “a Palm Beach housewife or a New York City model.”
After the tumultuous events of these first two episodes, it’s decided that Brooks could use some R&R in Miami. She’s of course accompanied by Sarah Jane, Grace Ann and Mary Holland, who are serving double duty as sisters and her support system in an especially trying time. As Brooks said in the intro of Love Thy Nader, “This is why I work hard: to bring my sisters along for the ride.”
Love Thy Nader is available to stream now on Hulu, with new episodes premiering weekly on Freeform channel.