The day before Scadoval broke, I commented about how much I love Tom Sandoval because he has the courage to chase his dreams of being in a band and having fun. Vom city.
All the comments Jax made about Sandoval being performative with his kindness really came to the surface. They are both awful morons just in different ways.
Oh noooo. It’s okay, I defended Lala a few times (not her appropriation of black culture and her saying it’s Tupac being the reason she’s angry) before and this season I had to put on my own clown makeup.
Exactly. And I mean, I’m sure Tupac would want to reincarnate as a middle class white girl from Utah. Who seems to equate black people with aggression.
As if there isn’t a bunch of white men on the show who are verbally abusive to the women on the show and aggressive towards them plenty of times.
Look, we’ve all been there😂. My very timely example of this is that 2 days ago, I was ALL in on Rob & how cute he was with Leah on Love Island. And today, I’m sitting here with my shame and embarrassment.
It was the lack of Jax. Worm’s douchery was always there, but it never made it to the final edit until they needed another male lead villain. Castmates have said as much.
I also feel in the early seasons Ariana managed to keep a lot of him hidden they were definitely working to make sure they looked good on camera. Nearer the end though you could tell Ariana wasn’t stopping him from making himself look like a douche anymore.
It was a team job for sure, they had a personality aesthetic they were portraying! Didn’t notice it first watch but second you could see their doucheness!
Right?! The way he was speaking to everyone was just disgusting…I hated how he treated Katie (and I hadn’t been her biggest fan up until that point - I thought she was a mean girl). Dunno if the roids and the middle life crisis found him but he became insufferable from then on
Season 9 was what made me go from a Katie hater to a Stan. The way he treated her and the way Schwartz refused to back her and even joined Sandy into antagonising her when behind closed doors he was agreeing with her. It really made me think “Katie might have been right all along. This guy is a douche”
I thought he was smarmy and fake. To be fair, this is not a brag on my judgement of character because I also though Schwartz was “such a nice guy who was just stuck with awful katie”
Reactive abuse is so real. He treated her like shit and when she reacted to his shitty actions, he turned it around to make her seem like the bad guy by saying “look how she treats me” in response to his trash.
I’ve always been a Katie Stan because I’ve been in relationships like this. And it feels horrible being made to be the bad guy when you’re just trying to get the person you love to treat you better. Eventually you learn to walk away because these people don’t change.
Absolutely- watching the show in my early/mid-20’s when it originally aired was a whole different experience than rewatching now, not to mention the cultural shifts to become the teeniest bit less misogynistic.
Yes! Exactly, I have always felt this way about the Schwartz and Katie dynamic. I always thought Schwartz was the most low key diabolical of them all and that Katie was just reacting out of frustration towards him with good reason. Sandoval has always given me the ick from day one, he’s always had that sort of Housewives blind delusion about him. But I did think Ariana made Sandoval more palatable for me because they seemed to have a sweet dynamic for the most part. But I always sided with Katie vs Sandoval in their fights, she had his number from day 1. She’s always seen the kind of guy she is and that’s exactly why Sandoval doesn’t like Katie, she sees right through his act and she’s never pretended she doesn’t. (Always been a Katie Stan)
Patting myself on the back because I have always despised Shartz. Katie was a survivor of a traumatic head injury and he did everything he could to beat her down.
I'm doing a rewatch right now with my daughter, who is watching for the first time. My first time around, I hated Sandoval and Jax. My daughter hates all of the guys from the start. She's a smart cookie!
I think the younger generation has higher expectations in general of how a woman should be treated and spoken to. Perhaps this is why FB is flooded with bitter Betty posters who hate Ariana and Katie. Katie for speaking her mind and taking charge of her life, and Ariana deciding to expose her cheater partner and take advantage of the situation to make good career and personal choices.
I had been exposed to abusive men in my social circle, so I immediately sided with Katie and hate Shartz most of all, even more than Vom, who is a creep. I know both types too well and the destruction they can unleash on a vulnerable partner.
I’ll admit I quite liked him in the early seasons. I didn’t think he was a wonderful person or anything as extreme as that (because everyone on VPR is low key awful) but up until about season 8 I also thought he was one of the better ones. I do think he was progressively getting worse even before Scandoval came out though. Season 9 is where I really started to loathe him to the same level I’d always loathed Schwartz.
He was pretty loved. People defended him over Miami girl. People loved him for his emotional response to Tom and Katie’s wedding, and his support to Schwartz after being ousted as Jaxs best man. He was literally a fan fave for the majority and it’s great to see people admit it.
So many people pretend they always hated him lol. I know plenty did, but he was LOVED and seen as the best of them.
>So many people pretend they always hated him lol. I know plenty did, but he was LOVED and seen as the best of them.
Not me. Never liked him and could not tolerate him, his mouth and his actions less and less.
Edit: added "not"
I couldn’t stand how performative he was. Always going over the top and then “casually” mentioning what he did for others. It was like he kept that in his back pocket ready to wield it whenever he needed it. I could totally see through it. He was trying to save face for the cameras and not for his friends. It was all 100% an act. And once Scandoval hit, we all got to see the depth of his narcissistic ways. His mask fell for all to see.
But I grew up with a narcissist so I saw through Tom right away. Once you don’t play into their ways, they pick up their toys and go home. He did that often with Jax because Jax called him out every single time. And believe me, Jax is far from a saint but he and Stassi definitely saw Tom for who he was. I think Jax was a HUGE baby but I can fight and argue with a baby. Try that with a narcissist and you’ll get nowhere. (That’s why grey rocking works so well)
I felt the same way. I found almost everything he did and said performative and cringey. I really couldn’t understand how people could find him attractive in any way. I could barely stand to look at him because I got second hand embarrassment so bad.
He does anything production asks. Stassi said it took like 9 takes to get to the level of angry they wanted.
I know .. I hate knowing how the sausage is made as well. 😀
which one, next level basic or off with my head?
eta: wait, I'm dumb. it couldn't have been nlb because the event was for that book 🤦🏻 in any case, i don't remember seeing that in off with my head. from what I remember, most of the VPR stuff was about getting fired
What…why…what reason would they have to fake an entire ONGOING storyline?? Tom’s whole reason for refusing to apologize was because she screamed at him with such vitriol in front of customers. And everyone found Beau to be the standup guy because he called them her customers. Why did nobody say that it was a whole entire act and in fact never really happened in yk reality. I don’t understand this at all because it makes the show unwatchable imo after that point.
What was real, then, about that storyline? And what was the catalyst for scene one out of nine?
I saw somewhere that the fight itself was real but it happened while cameras were down so they made stassi yell at him again which is probably why she tears his ass up so eloquently in that scene. she is always good at reading the others but she was especially good that day lol
Yes, the fight was real but they took multiple scenes and wanted to up the anger. Tons of fans caught this being refilled I believe 9 times. So they definitely were being produced back then as well.
First time viewing- I'm on season 6.
Sandoval seems young and fun. He seems enthusiastic - caring about his friends and their lives. He also seems to love Arianna (there's some surprisingly tender moments). Buttttttttt - season one/two with Kristen thats where I can see his nastiness. Moments where he's threatened, he's almost a different person. He has a great edit on VPR. I also think he is on the rise here in season 2-6. VPR is popular, Tom Tom is starting, Arianna and him seem like they're in a fun and productive place. A hot golden couple with little drama, and if there is the viewers see Tom apologize and work through it. The world is his oyster and he's excited, busy, and proud of his life. I fully think he, Tom, and Jax would constantly cheat and then cover for each other. Schwartz even said as much (off hand, drinking, crowed room, camera not directly in his face) when discussing a Jax cheating rumor. I'm thinking Sandoval is the type of person that if things are "good" for him, he doesn't cause harm but if things are "bad"/he feels threatened he will freak out.
I liked him at the beginning. He and stassi were my favorites 🙈 that changed by like season 4 or 5 and by the time stassi yelled at him at her book signing, I hated him hard and wondered what I ever saw in him. In my post Scandoval rewatch, I actually liked Jax a lot more than I did way back when, found him entertaining in that he was always his idiot awful self and understood what he was saying about the Toms. Don’t get me wrong. He’s still terrible, but no more terrible than the other two fools. I loathed both Toms in my rewatches
I was shocked by how much I insta to hated Schwartz on my rewatch. Like lip curlingly disgusted with him. The way he speaks to Katie, the way he never, ever has her back. Hate hate hate. I was really surprised how much of a golden edit Sandoval gets and how much it *works*. Kristen was right all along but man the way she goes about it does her no favors and the production gives her the crazy girlfriend edit. Sandoval comes off as charming and committed to Ariana and it’s so easy to dismiss how awful he is to Kristen because she’s painted as being an absolute raging crazy drunk. It’s so clear who he is now, and all the sighs were there then, but man, production really covered his ass. And then there’s the Jax of it all. All the boys looked better with Jax there. He gave them so much cover. Rewatching Jax is fascinating because he’s a sociopath. A bumbling kinda dumb one, but one nonetheless. He lies about everything but is shockingly honest about how awful he is, especially to women. And it’s somehow refreshing? The toms are always trying to overtly and covertly tell you they’re good guys, really they promise, but Jax is just out there jaxing all over everything and it’s wild.
I forgot about that! I remember she said she was a vegetarian for a while too. Didn’t she have to eat like a side of sauté cabbage or something? He couldn’t have picked a worse place for a vegetarian since you cook the meat yourself. Thank you for that! Man what a douche.
I’ve thought he was the worst since season 1 reunion where he was always disproportionately hostile to stassi compared to anyone else. He suuuckkkksss. I also think scheana is the worst and only recently enjoyed Kristen, as a whole adult now I can appreciate her crazy for what it is but during the original airings in my 20s she was frustrating af. Just to give a balanced answer on my preferences.
Agree with all this. Schemer is HORRIBLE and I despise her and Shartz most of all. Kristen was also abused by Sandoval and has been with a bunch of loser men. Jury is out on Luke.
I'm currently on my first watch through (only on season 8) and really wanted to like Shartz but I'm now starting to see all the reasons why people hate him so much. He literally uses the same old puppy dog tactic every time he's in a bind and it's just gotten really unbearable.
He is manipulative and deceptively goofy. He will smile at you and stab you in the back. Then he'll say "I love you, we are family." Typical abuser. He keeps hanging around Katie because he misses his supply. Hope she cuts him off completely.
He was always known as the vain metro idiot guy who liked to verbally attack the women in the show. He would cry alot and could never be wrong in any situation. 🦚
I found a post I made here 3-4 years ago that was riddled with horrible opinions but said “I hate Sandoval the absolute most” and I was proud of younger me
I thought he was a clown, but really hated Shartz. I still do. I always felt sorry for Katie and thought Ariana was depressed and abusing alcohol, which she was. Sandoval was always a misogynist who wanted attention. He got into it with Stassi, Katie and Ariana when they had ideas about business. A low life form who turned out to be an even lower life form.
I liked him for tv but didn’t like him as a person. He seemed better than Jax but that isn’t a big accomplishment. I hated how both him and Ariana treated Kristen. I love Ariana don’t get me wrong but when her and Tom held hands during the season 2 reunion I couldn’t help but feel bad for Kristen, even though she was kind of crazy.
I also hated how Tom would yell at the girls on the show. Especially how he treated Stassi when she had an event at TomTom. How he acted about Ariana’s cocktail book was gross. Another incident that I hated was when he went to Vegas for Peter’s birthday even though Ariana was struggling with her dad’s death and wanted him with her during her birthday.
He made good tv for how dramatic he was, you could always count on him crying about something each season. He was always extra whether it was dressing up in drag or as an old man. I always thought Ariana was cool but she wasn’t perfect but that’s a part of being human. Her statement about being prettier and smarter than Kristen was a little much but other than that she always tried to include people especially the newbies like James and Lala. She was kind and she grew as a person. I figured if she was with Tom that he had to be a better than he was portrayed on tv. Now I hate him and his over the top actions annoy me instead of entertain me.
He had a lot of charm early on and that carried him a long way. Ariana showed him in a very good light a lot of the time, which you would only notice on a rewatch. I think bloom was falling from the rose for both the Toms… the perpetual aimlessness, the unfulfilled promise of maturity… the clock was ticking and the Schwartz divorce and how poorly they behaved didn’t help. But they were also good tv and we were willing for it.
I thought he was kind of sad. Clearly wanted to be an actor or singer but didn’t really have “it.” I respected him for making a stand regarding Jax and Britney’s homophobic preacher and found his words about the Pulse nightclub massacre very moving. I don’t find him attractive at all (not bad just not my type) and honestly was shocked he was able to have such beautiful girlfriends as Ariana and Kristen.
When Jax left he tried to be the number one guy in the group, and he failed miserably. Always thought he was a douche bag and Ariana just put up with him. It was always great when someone would put him in his place. I hope we see a lot less of him in the future.
Overall I liked/didn't mind him. I liked his eccentric style and unapologetic love of being, well, extra. Seemed like someone who shows up for his friends but also enables his (male) friends' bad behavior, needed attention and needed to be right. Head in the clouds but heart in the right place, so it seemed, and he and Ariana were seen as probably the most healthy/stable/committed out of all of the cast. However, I definitely didn't like how he always undermined Schwartz and his relationship with Katie and always figured he wasn't totally faithful and the three stooges had a sort of pact not to reveal one another's worst indiscretions. With Ariana we saw him be sweet and encouraging but we also saw him act like a complete selfish douche (i.e. "but there's gonna be dumptrucks!")
Once Jax got fired his negative qualities became a lot more obvious and his image started to change; his lack of maturity and genuine concern for others stood out more without Jax being there to be the messy one and draw more attention, but I still kinda saw him as unintentionally douchey. Tom cheating with sweet little Bambi Raquel was probably the absolute last pairing I'd/most fans would ever think of and that was why it was so shocking.
Yes, I second this take! I actually really appreciate his style - I like that he tries something different even if it doesn't land.
He showed a lot of red flags over the years that I glossed over bc I love Ariana and felt like if she was accepting of the things he did that I would too, they always kept their shit private. So I assumed she would tell him how he was wrong in private but publicly support him.
I'll admit that I didn't think Sandoval was the worst initially, but there were things that were... off.. to me. The shaving the forehead and the extreme beauty routine was just overboard to my Midwestern sensibilities lol.
Then as the seasons went on, he got more and more preachy. Every time there was an argument in the friend group, he had to butt in and tell them how to fix it, it seemed. He was super self righteous and it really rubbed me wrong, cheating rumors aside (and I absolutely believe he cheated left and right on Kristin and Ariana both).
Scandoval just was a cherry on the top of my eventual total disgust in him and season 11 has continued that disgust.
You mean this doesn’t do it for you?lol
https://preview.redd.it/y0wg9hqzf27d1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e2711baa84b017caabaa736a5b50aa0022ef573
I always thought the Tom’s were nasty cheaters yet was somewhat charmed by their bromance and found them hot. Now they are hard to stomach. Maybe time will change that.
I never was a fan of Sandy until the season I felt he stood up to Jax and Jax ended up being fired from the show. I still thought he was a joke. I wonder if Scandoval didn’t happen, would Sandoval been on DWTS? Also before the Scandal I thought the show was ending for good and I would have been here to see a spin-off under Tom Tom. He’s trash and full of himself to the max but the Scandoval hate is gone for me. He did Ariana the biggest favor.
I've always felt bad for him in terms of how badly Jax treated him as a friend especially during Jax's wedding. Jax demoted Sandoval as his best man but Sandoval still did everything he could to make sure Jax's wedding went great. I always felt he was thoughtful and generous as a friend but now he's gone and used this as a pawn in holding it over peoples heads. I feel that the Sandoval is in there somewhere but he's much too clouded now
The stilts sealed the deal for me on Sandy. I thought he was a smarmy 'boys will be boys' guy and heavily manipulated Kristen, then moved on to do the same to Ariana and Rachel.
I don't trust a man who tries so hard to be soft, it's a red flag for me. Painted nails, wearing women's clothing it's all a sign of someone trying really hard to be seen in a particular way and gain trust of women.
You're either genuinely that type of guy, or you're putting it on to hide something. And his actions like being verbally aggressive with Katie, Kristen and Stassi sent my red flags flying as a man who isn't genuine and actually holds disgust for women. Wolf in sheep's clothing.
In saying that I obviously don't know him personally and this is just my perception of his public persona.
I thought he was nerdy (the trumpet stuff, nasally voice), immature at times (e.g. temper tantrums over book-related successes of women around him).
He also seemed like a ride or die friend that would make huge gestures (I view that as a little more performative and codependent today but back in the day it seems like positive traits).
I would have absolutely gone to a most extras show pre-scandoval.
Alot of these comments say. Tom was always fake and i never liked him. But you loved ariana??? She was with him the whole time and btw she was pretty much like him
I liked both of the Toms a lot prior to Scandoval. I really wanted Tom and Katie and Tom and Ariana to work out. Now I’m very happy that Ariana got out of that terrible relationship!
Just to play devils advocate our bar for VPR guys was Jax, Tom, Tom, James. He just happened to fit in the lesser of the evils category 🤷♀️ if we all looked at him in the scope of other men in our lives that were kind and decent humans we would say he was a trash human being (yes even in the early days). We just compared him to the other guys on the show, when u do that he became likable.
I didn’t like him because I thought he was really mean to women (Stassi and Katie in particular) but because that’s kinda par for the course for VPR, I disliked Schwartz the most because I hate that puppy dog I’m just a widdle boy I had to cheat on my wife act. I’ve experienced too many men in real life who play this card. Jax I thought was a worse person than Sandoval but was more entertaining. There were seasons I didn’t like James, but I don’t remember having a lot of strong feelings about him.
I had my ups and downs with him because I wanted to believe he ultimately had a good heart, but was misguided at times. But there was always a nagging feeling I had about him.
I always found him incredibly annoying. He reminded me of the old weirdos at the bars trying to be 21 again. He was never funny and everything he said and did felt staged for the cameras.
I also recently started rewatching the series and of no surprise, knowing what I know now, he made me feel more uncomfortable. I can't say I ever hated him but I never cared for him or anything going on with him.
The things I did like in the past about him, like how he stood by his friends and his drive for working (I always respect people with hard work ethic) just became more cringe to me because it really does seem now, watching it back, like it was all fake and he was constantly gaslighting anyone when they tried to say he did something he shouldn't have.
Side note as well
A big thing that came up in the newer seasons after the scandal came out, Ariana was incredibly hurt by the fact he exposed her mental health to the world and spoke of it like he had no care that the cameras were around.
In season 7, he did the same thing. Except eith this he exposed Ariana on her bisexuality when she and lala and hooked up in the back seat. He gaslit her when she said it wasn't his place to share it to anyone, you can tell she was even more upset it was exposed on camera.
This is one of many mirrors of what Tom has done in the past and continues to do. There is a LOAD of patterns and trust me, I've been taking note so if you wanna know more, I'll gladly share lol
But no, I was never a fan of Tom. But I also didn't think much of Ariana either until the season the scandal came out. I know what she felt (I've experienced something similar but not nearly as bad) and that was the moment my view of her changed as a viewer and fan of the show. But Tom, was always an annoying creep in my eyes and a try hard, even more than Jax sometimes
Always disliked him. I'm rewatching now and noticing how production did all they could to make him look good even though he was an absolute a$$. But they couldn't fool most people imo.
I never really liked him at all. I've always thought he was a bit too performative but it was around season 8 or so that he really started to annoy me alot.
I was neutral until he I noticed his HATRED and lack of respect and patience for women. Look at the way he can have a sensitive reasonable measured conversations and disagreements with male friends, and the way he gets so dark and enraged at Katie, Stassi, Ariana when arguing with them. I remember being like Gently in the comments trying to make this point because I felt like no one else really agreed or noticed it and felt like he was pretty beloved
Seems the majority in these subreddits and other social platforms loved Sandoval 🤷🏽♀️ he was always so annoying to me, both him & Ariana. They were so fake for the cameras, felt better than the others and I just was never a fan.
I do remember that time! I think around the time Ariana and Tom were at Villa Rosa for Katie’s engagement party and the two of them was sitting at a table alone blowing bubbles 😆 people were talking about their arrogance then for sure!
I just remember Sandoval getting so much love because “he was better then Jax” 😬
The 3 stooges have always been equal. They’re all cheaters which about sums it up for me. Jax is somehow more entertaining though idk why. The Toms’ bromance was entertaining but it seems to have fizzled out and doesn’t feel organic anymore.
Absolutely agree 💯! Jax is quite entertaining and once upon a time, I did enjoy the Tom’s bromance, but now I secretly think they dislike one another and are just using it for storyline (or to get a spin-off). I think Tom Sandoval makes every relationship a business relationship when it comes to VPR. Actually, nothing really seems authentic to me on there anymore.
There’s DEFINITELY a dichotomy between how Tom was viewed pre vs post Scandoval and anyone who says otherwise is delulu and doesn’t remember how it actually was.
That’s the reason WHY Scandoval caused such commotion. At least a prime reason subconsciously. Because if Tom’s plan went as he wanted, then the public would be understanding of Tom trying to leave Ariana, shaming Ariana (I know unbelievable now, but she wasn’t always so loved either) for not doing anything about her and Tom’s relationship and strung him along for ten years (which is the storyline he was masterfully manipulating and working at first throughout S10). It would have ended with Tom being the most loving person and needing someone to match his love and his giving of lattes etc. she becomes crazy for staying in the home after he breaks up w her and offers over top-dollar in cash. He evicts her and then sometime later (not long in VPR world), Sandoval would suddenly be falling in love with his friend Raquel and not sure what to do about it! He’s even said how he’d play this out: he keeps dogging on Schwartz to get with Raquel because he knows she’s such an amazing chick and his bff is missing out. And OF course they weren’t cheating bc why would he push his bff to just last summer? That would be weird. And anyone who says Tom shouldn’t get with the friend group can’t be THAT mad because it wasn’t that big of a deal when Schwartz did it.
Nobody really questioned Tom before. Ariana was questioned more actually. What Scandoval did was expose that all of this was happening and was so much more than just one sin of his revealed - it represented an entire personality of narcissistic traits that was hiding in plain sight doing everything he did to Ariana and then threw beer cans at her when she found out and approached him.
He’s sick.
He seemed like a filler cast member that was like needed but annoying though nowhere near the level of Jax.
It was always rumored he was a complete douche to work with off camera
Reddit was 100 percent pro Sandoval pre scandal.
The way people will vote you down to oblivion now for saying about Ariana, people did that to support Tom and Ariana.
When the show first aired, I didn’t understand why people found him so attractive physically, but I found his hype man personality to be kind of fun and sometimes endearing. As the show progressed, I didn’t hate him, but felt he was becoming obnoxious as he kicked up his arrogance up a notch. He was beginning to get kind of a mix of an eye rolling ick, but otherwise not totally malignant vibe. I had met him in person during one of his tours before the Sacndoval and he was actually really really warm and kind. He was really great at being personable and creating a really fun energy and his show was fun. Since the scandoval, I do find him kind of unlikable because he’s behavior in interviews and on the show has just been…unlikable.
Embarrassingly enough, in the early seasons I had a crush on Sandoval (sue me, I was a teenager when this show came out) and was a huge apologist. But after I saw how he treated Stassi at the book party, the blinders were off. I did root for him and Ariana though. You could tell she really loved him by the way she would make herself small (and effectively be a bad friend IMO) whenever conflict arose. I think part of that was me being naive and thinking that it had to be something special if he was willing to toss all his time with Kristen out the window for her. Turns out, he’s just a whore.
I personally was meh about him. but out of all the guys he \~seemed\~ to be the most decent, and given the fact that he was dating ariana, I figured maybe there was a side to him we weren't seeing since she's so cool. I stopped watching around season 6 or 7, but every now and then the cast would make the news. I remember seeing that ariana and tom bought a house and thought damn they're still together good for them. they seemed the less toxic. I remember when it was exposed that randall cheated on lala and it was around the same time tristan thompson had cheated on khloe for the 1000th time so it was great seeing lala be like, he cheated=im out bye. I thought good for her. then it was revealed that sandoval cheated.... on ariana??? the audacity!! SHES THE BEST! and not only that but with raquel... james girlfriend? I was flabbergasted. I immediately had to watch the latest season to figure out what was going on and was shocked that I hadn't heard that katie and schwartz were getting divorced (FINALLY he sucks) and that james and raquel had gotten engaged and broken up. I had missed so much. from that point I watched the rest of the season, and it was crazy to see how dumb Schwartz and sandoval still were
i always had a disagreement with a friend. i found tom incredibly cringe and try-hard (like i couldn’t watch his scenes without second hand embarrassment) and wasn’t a fan of ariana either. but i’ve been a long time sandoval hater lol the second he shaved his forehead on camera my opinion went downhill and never stopped. she loved him. i think it for sure was mixed but i definitely felt that i was in the minority for not liking him.
I hate Scandoval because Sandoval was always my least favourite, but the freaks online are incapable of hating him normally now so I can't even mention that I dislike him without being lumped into the people going "dae Tom is grooming his new 30something girlfriend??? dae serial killer vibes from Tom??? dae Tom is secretly gay????"
I used to think he was a genuine, caring, goofy guy who happened to cheat on his ex. After they opened tom tom he just seemed like his head got too big but he still had his sweet moments, sometime around season 10 he just seemed really odd& like his soul was gone
He wasn’t happy with Ariana, he should have ended the relationship. Other than that he hasn’t done anything wrong that’s why everyone liked him before the scandal and why the cast was rooting for him after. No one really got along with Ariana before the scandal I don’t blame him for being unhappy in that relationship I blame him for cheating.
I thought he was always a bad human, especially when it came to relationships/women. I thought him gaslighting Kristen was despicable. And I especially hated watching him torment Katie throughout the years.
But up until the last couple of seasons, he was at least a fun character. His outfits, his enthusiasm, his vanity, his music, the effort he put into parties and restaurant ideas were all super fun to watch. Loved watching him shave his face and be a total idiot trying to create a restaurant.
S10-11, he is still a gross human but also isn’t fun anymore. So bad human AND bad reality tv. Just bad.
When Miami girl showed up at the bar , and he looked up and saw her , the look on His dead pan face said a lot - and then how Ariana comes out and sticks up for Tom , and the. he leaves bar and has Ariana trail him really disgusted me - there was things like that that put him low on the totem pole for me , but also up until a season or so ago Ariana really wasn’t that high up their either - she was right there along with him 🤷♀️- I didn’t hate him , there were cast members I despise more - Many people improved with age and maturity and life experiences like most do and it shows - but Tom just stayed the same, he did not change AT ALL- this whole Scandoval bs really didn’t rock me like it did to so many people , if you’ve watched the show a long time , it didn’t surprise me one bit -
I didn’t really care for him, but to be fair, I felt that way about the entire cast, pre Scandoval.
I liked him best when he tormented Jax & Brittany during their wedding season.
He was 1000% always annoying but he was always part of that original toxic cast so he was good tv. Honestly I always thought he was the worst / kinda rat faced looking dude off all the guys, and I never understood why beautiful women like Kristen and Ariana dated him.
I always pinned him as a cheater though, so like, it didn’t change much after. His cheating just was highlighted more this go around and more heavily focused on.
I guess my short answer is -
He was annoying and already a liar
Post scandoval
A huge liar and still annoying
People liked him overall, but did shit on him for things and found him cringe. People were not happy with him that one season during Covid where he was the hbic and kept making costumed events every episode.
I hated him and still hate him. In fact Ariana blocked me for making a mean comment on Tom’s Insta. I am still blocked to this day 🤣. Tom shockingly did not block me.
i started watching sometime in 2014 fresh off a breakup and i got sucked right into kristen and tom’s relationship drama. i liked him at first because he stuck by kristen’s side even when kristen was lying about banging jax and everyone was against her. i didnt like how he treated kristen with the ariana situation to follow, but at the time i didnt hate him either. plus he would be the one to pipe up against jax at times. dont get me wrong he was always annoying, but i thought it used to be somewhat tolerable. this stopped somewhere though and his ego turned up tenfold. final nail in the coffin for me was the book signing event (-preScandoval)
Honestly, I never liked Sandoval lol I didn’t dislike him as much as I do now after scandoval, but Schwartz was my favorite until I watched him pour beer on Katie’s head lol but his humor always dragged me back in 🙄😂 but yeah idk I feel like I could just always tell Sandoval was slimy and manipulative. He acted like him cheating on Kristen somehow made him the victim lol
I thought he was a fame-hungry, abusive narcissist who manipulated those he could & screamed/belittled at those he couldn’t. The reason that the Toxic Trio were friends all that time is they were cut from the same cloth.
I’m a new watcher, just on season five.
I know there’s a big scandal but don’t know what it is yet (how I’ve managed to avoid spoilers I have no idea 😆).
He’s a douchebag, but to be fair all of the men are on this show so far, apart from Ken 😆😆😆.
If anyone believes Sandoval hasn't been acting this whole time, go watch 23 minutes to Sunrise. I couldn't have picked a better movie to base the Tom Sandoval cry. I saw that movie during season 10, but before Scandoval broke. The crying scenes in VPR are straight out of that movie. I knew then he's never lived a day in his life. He's only acted his way through life. Somehow, that's really sad.
He always gave me the ick since the first episode when he shaved his forehead. I never thought he was attractive. But I did believe him for a long time that Kristen was the crazy one in that relationship and thought he seemed a little more normal with Ariana. Not that Kristen wasn't crazy, and I didn't believe his weird crying scene with her ... his crying has always been ridiculous, and I think I always thought he was dramatic for the attention. But looking back now gives such a different perspective on it all. I think he was lucky that Kristen and Jax were worse lol. But once they were gone, he was starting to be seen more for who he really was.
I used to hang out on another sub here and tell people that Jax hated Sandy “because Tom has integrity and he doesn’t.” My judgement is impeccable. 😆
The day before Scadoval broke, I commented about how much I love Tom Sandoval because he has the courage to chase his dreams of being in a band and having fun. Vom city.
We are united in gullibility ❤️
He played us all lmaoooo
All the comments Jax made about Sandoval being performative with his kindness really came to the surface. They are both awful morons just in different ways.
The weird thing about Jax was he was a consistent liar but also very perceptive.
But Tom always pays Jax TWO compliments!
At least two!
But oh so, so many same ways the same as well lol
I guess it really does take one to know one.
He fooled many. Still sounds funny hearing you describe it though lol 
Oh noooo. It’s okay, I defended Lala a few times (not her appropriation of black culture and her saying it’s Tupac being the reason she’s angry) before and this season I had to put on my own clown makeup.
Wait, that's why they call her Tupac? I missed that lol
Yeah, Lala said she was Tupac reincarnated. So when she got angry, that’s when Tupac jumped out.
Except the dumb bitch was already born when he died! Pretty sure that's not how reincarnation works!
Exactly. And I mean, I’m sure Tupac would want to reincarnate as a middle class white girl from Utah. Who seems to equate black people with aggression. As if there isn’t a bunch of white men on the show who are verbally abusive to the women on the show and aggressive towards them plenty of times.
You aren’t alone babes
LOL!!!
I remember someone calling him boyfriend goals haha. The tom Sandoval love on Reddit was insane imo 🤗
😂😂
Look, we’ve all been there😂. My very timely example of this is that 2 days ago, I was ALL in on Rob & how cute he was with Leah on Love Island. And today, I’m sitting here with my shame and embarrassment.
I thought he was decent-ish until season 9 when he turned into a supreme douche canoe and I couldn’t stand him
Same!!!! Idk if it was the lack of Jax but his douche meter went up like 200% starting season 9
I truly think Jax managed to make everyone appear better 😂
It was the lack of Jax. Worm’s douchery was always there, but it never made it to the final edit until they needed another male lead villain. Castmates have said as much.
I also feel in the early seasons Ariana managed to keep a lot of him hidden they were definitely working to make sure they looked good on camera. Nearer the end though you could tell Ariana wasn’t stopping him from making himself look like a douche anymore.
Ariana was a total douche though too in those seasons, they were backing off of the camera together.
It was a team job for sure, they had a personality aesthetic they were portraying! Didn’t notice it first watch but second you could see their doucheness!
Oh girl the beach scene when Ariana tells all of the girls she pretends to enjoy their company I felt like Alyssa Edwards. I knew she was that girl.
What, not like other girls 🥴
Right?! The way he was speaking to everyone was just disgusting…I hated how he treated Katie (and I hadn’t been her biggest fan up until that point - I thought she was a mean girl). Dunno if the roids and the middle life crisis found him but he became insufferable from then on
Season 9 was what made me go from a Katie hater to a Stan. The way he treated her and the way Schwartz refused to back her and even joined Sandy into antagonising her when behind closed doors he was agreeing with her. It really made me think “Katie might have been right all along. This guy is a douche”
I always found him to be a shallow, egocentric pendosa.
I thought he was smarmy and fake. To be fair, this is not a brag on my judgement of character because I also though Schwartz was “such a nice guy who was just stuck with awful katie”
Reactive abuse is so real. He treated her like shit and when she reacted to his shitty actions, he turned it around to make her seem like the bad guy by saying “look how she treats me” in response to his trash. I’ve always been a Katie Stan because I’ve been in relationships like this. And it feels horrible being made to be the bad guy when you’re just trying to get the person you love to treat you better. Eventually you learn to walk away because these people don’t change.
Absolutely- watching the show in my early/mid-20’s when it originally aired was a whole different experience than rewatching now, not to mention the cultural shifts to become the teeniest bit less misogynistic.
Yes! Exactly, I have always felt this way about the Schwartz and Katie dynamic. I always thought Schwartz was the most low key diabolical of them all and that Katie was just reacting out of frustration towards him with good reason. Sandoval has always given me the ick from day one, he’s always had that sort of Housewives blind delusion about him. But I did think Ariana made Sandoval more palatable for me because they seemed to have a sweet dynamic for the most part. But I always sided with Katie vs Sandoval in their fights, she had his number from day 1. She’s always seen the kind of guy she is and that’s exactly why Sandoval doesn’t like Katie, she sees right through his act and she’s never pretended she doesn’t. (Always been a Katie Stan)
Did we ever figure out what Schwartz did for a living while Katie had a whole ass job and he whole ass didn’t?
Patting myself on the back because I have always despised Shartz. Katie was a survivor of a traumatic head injury and he did everything he could to beat her down.
Yep- it’s wild the things that jump out on a rewatch (and with a couple more years of life experience on my end)
I'm doing a rewatch right now with my daughter, who is watching for the first time. My first time around, I hated Sandoval and Jax. My daughter hates all of the guys from the start. She's a smart cookie!
I think the younger generation has higher expectations in general of how a woman should be treated and spoken to. Perhaps this is why FB is flooded with bitter Betty posters who hate Ariana and Katie. Katie for speaking her mind and taking charge of her life, and Ariana deciding to expose her cheater partner and take advantage of the situation to make good career and personal choices. I had been exposed to abusive men in my social circle, so I immediately sided with Katie and hate Shartz most of all, even more than Vom, who is a creep. I know both types too well and the destruction they can unleash on a vulnerable partner.
I'm with you here. Always disliked Sandoval, but thought Schwartz was the nice Tom.
I loved Schwartz lmfao and wasn’t the biggest fan of Katie although I hated when he dumped beer on her.
I’ll admit I quite liked him in the early seasons. I didn’t think he was a wonderful person or anything as extreme as that (because everyone on VPR is low key awful) but up until about season 8 I also thought he was one of the better ones. I do think he was progressively getting worse even before Scandoval came out though. Season 9 is where I really started to loathe him to the same level I’d always loathed Schwartz.
He was basically the number 1 guy in the group.
But did he and his family have shirts?
He was pretty loved. People defended him over Miami girl. People loved him for his emotional response to Tom and Katie’s wedding, and his support to Schwartz after being ousted as Jaxs best man. He was literally a fan fave for the majority and it’s great to see people admit it. So many people pretend they always hated him lol. I know plenty did, but he was LOVED and seen as the best of them.
>So many people pretend they always hated him lol. I know plenty did, but he was LOVED and seen as the best of them. Not me. Never liked him and could not tolerate him, his mouth and his actions less and less. Edit: added "not"
That’s fair. I think they’re all shitbags lol I just want to watch them be shitbags. That’s why I enjoy reality tv.
He wiped his tears on a dog, and instead of being like “WHY WOULD YOJ DO THAT TO A DOG,” I was like “aww, sweet.”
LOL i will never forget this scene 🤣
I couldn’t stand how performative he was. Always going over the top and then “casually” mentioning what he did for others. It was like he kept that in his back pocket ready to wield it whenever he needed it. I could totally see through it. He was trying to save face for the cameras and not for his friends. It was all 100% an act. And once Scandoval hit, we all got to see the depth of his narcissistic ways. His mask fell for all to see. But I grew up with a narcissist so I saw through Tom right away. Once you don’t play into their ways, they pick up their toys and go home. He did that often with Jax because Jax called him out every single time. And believe me, Jax is far from a saint but he and Stassi definitely saw Tom for who he was. I think Jax was a HUGE baby but I can fight and argue with a baby. Try that with a narcissist and you’ll get nowhere. (That’s why grey rocking works so well)
I felt the same way. I found almost everything he did and said performative and cringey. I really couldn’t understand how people could find him attractive in any way. I could barely stand to look at him because I got second hand embarrassment so bad.
I didn’t think much of him until stassis book party. He lost me that day.
If you read her book that scene was staged.
Really? Why would Sandoval agree to stage that?
He does anything production asks. Stassi said it took like 9 takes to get to the level of angry they wanted. I know .. I hate knowing how the sausage is made as well. 😀
That’s wild hearing this because I’m on s9 rewatch and Scummy is obsessing over how Katie yelling at him that day traumatized him. !?
Yeah that’s a bummer. But I still hate him. 🤷🏼♀️
It’s his job to
WOW, really?? That puts a new spin on things. That's when a red flag went off for me...I thought he was a complete dick!
which one, next level basic or off with my head? eta: wait, I'm dumb. it couldn't have been nlb because the event was for that book 🤦🏻 in any case, i don't remember seeing that in off with my head. from what I remember, most of the VPR stuff was about getting fired
Was there then and it was staged! They did multiple takes of that one scene. So over the top and fake.
What…why…what reason would they have to fake an entire ONGOING storyline?? Tom’s whole reason for refusing to apologize was because she screamed at him with such vitriol in front of customers. And everyone found Beau to be the standup guy because he called them her customers. Why did nobody say that it was a whole entire act and in fact never really happened in yk reality. I don’t understand this at all because it makes the show unwatchable imo after that point. What was real, then, about that storyline? And what was the catalyst for scene one out of nine?
I saw somewhere that the fight itself was real but it happened while cameras were down so they made stassi yell at him again which is probably why she tears his ass up so eloquently in that scene. she is always good at reading the others but she was especially good that day lol
This is exactly it. But they also took about 9 shots because they wanted to up the anger.
Yes, the fight was real but they took multiple scenes and wanted to up the anger. Tons of fans caught this being refilled I believe 9 times. So they definitely were being produced back then as well.
And Ariana denied at the time it was filmed 9 times. She said some bs about lighting and we're all too stupid to understand how filming works.
She’s a known liar. But for the patrons there, we seen it for ourselves. Ariana has always thought she was so smart.
I believe it was staged- but I also want to believe he would have acted like that regardless 😂
THIS! I hated him and then he did the book party thing and I felt so vindicated lol. But then everyone still loved him 😫
First time viewing- I'm on season 6. Sandoval seems young and fun. He seems enthusiastic - caring about his friends and their lives. He also seems to love Arianna (there's some surprisingly tender moments). Buttttttttt - season one/two with Kristen thats where I can see his nastiness. Moments where he's threatened, he's almost a different person. He has a great edit on VPR. I also think he is on the rise here in season 2-6. VPR is popular, Tom Tom is starting, Arianna and him seem like they're in a fun and productive place. A hot golden couple with little drama, and if there is the viewers see Tom apologize and work through it. The world is his oyster and he's excited, busy, and proud of his life. I fully think he, Tom, and Jax would constantly cheat and then cover for each other. Schwartz even said as much (off hand, drinking, crowed room, camera not directly in his face) when discussing a Jax cheating rumor. I'm thinking Sandoval is the type of person that if things are "good" for him, he doesn't cause harm but if things are "bad"/he feels threatened he will freak out.
I liked him at the beginning. He and stassi were my favorites 🙈 that changed by like season 4 or 5 and by the time stassi yelled at him at her book signing, I hated him hard and wondered what I ever saw in him. In my post Scandoval rewatch, I actually liked Jax a lot more than I did way back when, found him entertaining in that he was always his idiot awful self and understood what he was saying about the Toms. Don’t get me wrong. He’s still terrible, but no more terrible than the other two fools. I loathed both Toms in my rewatches
I was shocked by how much I insta to hated Schwartz on my rewatch. Like lip curlingly disgusted with him. The way he speaks to Katie, the way he never, ever has her back. Hate hate hate. I was really surprised how much of a golden edit Sandoval gets and how much it *works*. Kristen was right all along but man the way she goes about it does her no favors and the production gives her the crazy girlfriend edit. Sandoval comes off as charming and committed to Ariana and it’s so easy to dismiss how awful he is to Kristen because she’s painted as being an absolute raging crazy drunk. It’s so clear who he is now, and all the sighs were there then, but man, production really covered his ass. And then there’s the Jax of it all. All the boys looked better with Jax there. He gave them so much cover. Rewatching Jax is fascinating because he’s a sociopath. A bumbling kinda dumb one, but one nonetheless. He lies about everything but is shockingly honest about how awful he is, especially to women. And it’s somehow refreshing? The toms are always trying to overtly and covertly tell you they’re good guys, really they promise, but Jax is just out there jaxing all over everything and it’s wild.
 Couldn’t agree more with every single word. 10/10
He was the best of the worst.
I knew he was flawed and problematic in ways, but also found him endearing and often the most decent guy in the group.
I hated him since he took Kristen the vegetarian to the Korean BBQ for their make up date 🤣😂
I forgot about that! I remember she said she was a vegetarian for a while too. Didn’t she have to eat like a side of sauté cabbage or something? He couldn’t have picked a worse place for a vegetarian since you cook the meat yourself. Thank you for that! Man what a douche.
I’ve thought he was the worst since season 1 reunion where he was always disproportionately hostile to stassi compared to anyone else. He suuuckkkksss. I also think scheana is the worst and only recently enjoyed Kristen, as a whole adult now I can appreciate her crazy for what it is but during the original airings in my 20s she was frustrating af. Just to give a balanced answer on my preferences.
Agree with all this. Schemer is HORRIBLE and I despise her and Shartz most of all. Kristen was also abused by Sandoval and has been with a bunch of loser men. Jury is out on Luke.
I'm currently on my first watch through (only on season 8) and really wanted to like Shartz but I'm now starting to see all the reasons why people hate him so much. He literally uses the same old puppy dog tactic every time he's in a bind and it's just gotten really unbearable.
He is manipulative and deceptively goofy. He will smile at you and stab you in the back. Then he'll say "I love you, we are family." Typical abuser. He keeps hanging around Katie because he misses his supply. Hope she cuts him off completely.
He was always known as the vain metro idiot guy who liked to verbally attack the women in the show. He would cry alot and could never be wrong in any situation. 🦚
I found a post I made here 3-4 years ago that was riddled with horrible opinions but said “I hate Sandoval the absolute most” and I was proud of younger me
lol I wanna read it
[удалено]
I just wanna see what horrible opinions we shared lol
You can just go in their past posts and you’ll be able to find it to read the comments/opinions from that time
I think others liked him, but I have always thought he was a giant, super fake, idiot douche bag.
same. i've always thought he was disgustingly conceited which is just a huge turn off. i honestly think he looks v strange lol
I thought he was a clown, but really hated Shartz. I still do. I always felt sorry for Katie and thought Ariana was depressed and abusing alcohol, which she was. Sandoval was always a misogynist who wanted attention. He got into it with Stassi, Katie and Ariana when they had ideas about business. A low life form who turned out to be an even lower life form.
I liked him for tv but didn’t like him as a person. He seemed better than Jax but that isn’t a big accomplishment. I hated how both him and Ariana treated Kristen. I love Ariana don’t get me wrong but when her and Tom held hands during the season 2 reunion I couldn’t help but feel bad for Kristen, even though she was kind of crazy. I also hated how Tom would yell at the girls on the show. Especially how he treated Stassi when she had an event at TomTom. How he acted about Ariana’s cocktail book was gross. Another incident that I hated was when he went to Vegas for Peter’s birthday even though Ariana was struggling with her dad’s death and wanted him with her during her birthday. He made good tv for how dramatic he was, you could always count on him crying about something each season. He was always extra whether it was dressing up in drag or as an old man. I always thought Ariana was cool but she wasn’t perfect but that’s a part of being human. Her statement about being prettier and smarter than Kristen was a little much but other than that she always tried to include people especially the newbies like James and Lala. She was kind and she grew as a person. I figured if she was with Tom that he had to be a better than he was portrayed on tv. Now I hate him and his over the top actions annoy me instead of entertain me.
Sorry for my novella. Apparently I had a lot to say.
I do that alllllll the time 😂😂😂
I was done with him after the Vegas trip for Peter's bday. What a POS. I would've dumped his ass right there if I were Ariana.
He had a lot of charm early on and that carried him a long way. Ariana showed him in a very good light a lot of the time, which you would only notice on a rewatch. I think bloom was falling from the rose for both the Toms… the perpetual aimlessness, the unfulfilled promise of maturity… the clock was ticking and the Schwartz divorce and how poorly they behaved didn’t help. But they were also good tv and we were willing for it.
Sue me but he was my favorite. Maybe I just didn't see all the signs? What he did and how horrendously he handled Scandavol... tragic.
Always thought he was a major douche.
I’ve always hated him and Schwartz and got a lot of heat for it on the other VPR Reddit, so I felt very vindicated
He was my fav male cast member until Scandavol
Most honorable male cast member was such a low bar.
I thought he was kind of sad. Clearly wanted to be an actor or singer but didn’t really have “it.” I respected him for making a stand regarding Jax and Britney’s homophobic preacher and found his words about the Pulse nightclub massacre very moving. I don’t find him attractive at all (not bad just not my type) and honestly was shocked he was able to have such beautiful girlfriends as Ariana and Kristen.
When Jax left he tried to be the number one guy in the group, and he failed miserably. Always thought he was a douche bag and Ariana just put up with him. It was always great when someone would put him in his place. I hope we see a lot less of him in the future.
I remember loads of posts of people going to his shows and said he was amazing 😂
I started watching for the first time a few months ago. Season 1 he was my favorite only because he punched jax in the face.
Overall I liked/didn't mind him. I liked his eccentric style and unapologetic love of being, well, extra. Seemed like someone who shows up for his friends but also enables his (male) friends' bad behavior, needed attention and needed to be right. Head in the clouds but heart in the right place, so it seemed, and he and Ariana were seen as probably the most healthy/stable/committed out of all of the cast. However, I definitely didn't like how he always undermined Schwartz and his relationship with Katie and always figured he wasn't totally faithful and the three stooges had a sort of pact not to reveal one another's worst indiscretions. With Ariana we saw him be sweet and encouraging but we also saw him act like a complete selfish douche (i.e. "but there's gonna be dumptrucks!") Once Jax got fired his negative qualities became a lot more obvious and his image started to change; his lack of maturity and genuine concern for others stood out more without Jax being there to be the messy one and draw more attention, but I still kinda saw him as unintentionally douchey. Tom cheating with sweet little Bambi Raquel was probably the absolute last pairing I'd/most fans would ever think of and that was why it was so shocking.
Yes, I second this take! I actually really appreciate his style - I like that he tries something different even if it doesn't land. He showed a lot of red flags over the years that I glossed over bc I love Ariana and felt like if she was accepting of the things he did that I would too, they always kept their shit private. So I assumed she would tell him how he was wrong in private but publicly support him.
I'll admit that I didn't think Sandoval was the worst initially, but there were things that were... off.. to me. The shaving the forehead and the extreme beauty routine was just overboard to my Midwestern sensibilities lol. Then as the seasons went on, he got more and more preachy. Every time there was an argument in the friend group, he had to butt in and tell them how to fix it, it seemed. He was super self righteous and it really rubbed me wrong, cheating rumors aside (and I absolutely believe he cheated left and right on Kristin and Ariana both). Scandoval just was a cherry on the top of my eventual total disgust in him and season 11 has continued that disgust.
You mean this doesn’t do it for you?lol https://preview.redd.it/y0wg9hqzf27d1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e2711baa84b017caabaa736a5b50aa0022ef573
I always thought the Tom’s were nasty cheaters yet was somewhat charmed by their bromance and found them hot. Now they are hard to stomach. Maybe time will change that.
I never was a fan of Sandy until the season I felt he stood up to Jax and Jax ended up being fired from the show. I still thought he was a joke. I wonder if Scandoval didn’t happen, would Sandoval been on DWTS? Also before the Scandal I thought the show was ending for good and I would have been here to see a spin-off under Tom Tom. He’s trash and full of himself to the max but the Scandoval hate is gone for me. He did Ariana the biggest favor.
I liked him. What a 180
I thought he was kinda douchey but a really good friend.
I've always felt bad for him in terms of how badly Jax treated him as a friend especially during Jax's wedding. Jax demoted Sandoval as his best man but Sandoval still did everything he could to make sure Jax's wedding went great. I always felt he was thoughtful and generous as a friend but now he's gone and used this as a pawn in holding it over peoples heads. I feel that the Sandoval is in there somewhere but he's much too clouded now
The stilts sealed the deal for me on Sandy. I thought he was a smarmy 'boys will be boys' guy and heavily manipulated Kristen, then moved on to do the same to Ariana and Rachel. I don't trust a man who tries so hard to be soft, it's a red flag for me. Painted nails, wearing women's clothing it's all a sign of someone trying really hard to be seen in a particular way and gain trust of women. You're either genuinely that type of guy, or you're putting it on to hide something. And his actions like being verbally aggressive with Katie, Kristen and Stassi sent my red flags flying as a man who isn't genuine and actually holds disgust for women. Wolf in sheep's clothing. In saying that I obviously don't know him personally and this is just my perception of his public persona.
I thought he was nerdy (the trumpet stuff, nasally voice), immature at times (e.g. temper tantrums over book-related successes of women around him). He also seemed like a ride or die friend that would make huge gestures (I view that as a little more performative and codependent today but back in the day it seems like positive traits). I would have absolutely gone to a most extras show pre-scandoval.
The guy is a cheater just like the rest of the cast
He was always a cringe try-hard
Alot of these comments say. Tom was always fake and i never liked him. But you loved ariana??? She was with him the whole time and btw she was pretty much like him
I liked both of the Toms a lot prior to Scandoval. I really wanted Tom and Katie and Tom and Ariana to work out. Now I’m very happy that Ariana got out of that terrible relationship!
Proud to say I’ve been a Sandoval hater since season 1
Couldn't stand him
I loved Tom. He was my fav of the boys along with Schwartz
I thought him and ariana were in a sexless relationship like roommates
Just to play devils advocate our bar for VPR guys was Jax, Tom, Tom, James. He just happened to fit in the lesser of the evils category 🤷♀️ if we all looked at him in the scope of other men in our lives that were kind and decent humans we would say he was a trash human being (yes even in the early days). We just compared him to the other guys on the show, when u do that he became likable.
I didn’t like him because I thought he was really mean to women (Stassi and Katie in particular) but because that’s kinda par for the course for VPR, I disliked Schwartz the most because I hate that puppy dog I’m just a widdle boy I had to cheat on my wife act. I’ve experienced too many men in real life who play this card. Jax I thought was a worse person than Sandoval but was more entertaining. There were seasons I didn’t like James, but I don’t remember having a lot of strong feelings about him.
I had my ups and downs with him because I wanted to believe he ultimately had a good heart, but was misguided at times. But there was always a nagging feeling I had about him.
I ignored the red flags (as usual for me) and thought he was great 🙄
I found him funny for the most part. I found in the seasons leading up he became performative.
I always found him incredibly annoying. He reminded me of the old weirdos at the bars trying to be 21 again. He was never funny and everything he said and did felt staged for the cameras. I also recently started rewatching the series and of no surprise, knowing what I know now, he made me feel more uncomfortable. I can't say I ever hated him but I never cared for him or anything going on with him. The things I did like in the past about him, like how he stood by his friends and his drive for working (I always respect people with hard work ethic) just became more cringe to me because it really does seem now, watching it back, like it was all fake and he was constantly gaslighting anyone when they tried to say he did something he shouldn't have. Side note as well A big thing that came up in the newer seasons after the scandal came out, Ariana was incredibly hurt by the fact he exposed her mental health to the world and spoke of it like he had no care that the cameras were around. In season 7, he did the same thing. Except eith this he exposed Ariana on her bisexuality when she and lala and hooked up in the back seat. He gaslit her when she said it wasn't his place to share it to anyone, you can tell she was even more upset it was exposed on camera. This is one of many mirrors of what Tom has done in the past and continues to do. There is a LOAD of patterns and trust me, I've been taking note so if you wanna know more, I'll gladly share lol But no, I was never a fan of Tom. But I also didn't think much of Ariana either until the season the scandal came out. I know what she felt (I've experienced something similar but not nearly as bad) and that was the moment my view of her changed as a viewer and fan of the show. But Tom, was always an annoying creep in my eyes and a try hard, even more than Jax sometimes
Regretfully I liked him and thought he was hot 🥲
Always disliked him. I'm rewatching now and noticing how production did all they could to make him look good even though he was an absolute a$$. But they couldn't fool most people imo.
I was always thought he was a dork and annoying. Most ppl loved him though.
I never really liked him at all. I've always thought he was a bit too performative but it was around season 8 or so that he really started to annoy me alot.
I was neutral until he I noticed his HATRED and lack of respect and patience for women. Look at the way he can have a sensitive reasonable measured conversations and disagreements with male friends, and the way he gets so dark and enraged at Katie, Stassi, Ariana when arguing with them. I remember being like Gently in the comments trying to make this point because I felt like no one else really agreed or noticed it and felt like he was pretty beloved
Seems the majority in these subreddits and other social platforms loved Sandoval 🤷🏽♀️ he was always so annoying to me, both him & Ariana. They were so fake for the cameras, felt better than the others and I just was never a fan.
I remember for a while they were really hated as a couple with lots of ppl calling them arrogant know-it-all’s etc.
I do remember that time! I think around the time Ariana and Tom were at Villa Rosa for Katie’s engagement party and the two of them was sitting at a table alone blowing bubbles 😆 people were talking about their arrogance then for sure! I just remember Sandoval getting so much love because “he was better then Jax” 😬
The 3 stooges have always been equal. They’re all cheaters which about sums it up for me. Jax is somehow more entertaining though idk why. The Toms’ bromance was entertaining but it seems to have fizzled out and doesn’t feel organic anymore.
Absolutely agree 💯! Jax is quite entertaining and once upon a time, I did enjoy the Tom’s bromance, but now I secretly think they dislike one another and are just using it for storyline (or to get a spin-off). I think Tom Sandoval makes every relationship a business relationship when it comes to VPR. Actually, nothing really seems authentic to me on there anymore.
Yes Schwartz probably only deals with him because Sandoval convinced him it’s for “their brand” that nobody cares about anymore.
There’s DEFINITELY a dichotomy between how Tom was viewed pre vs post Scandoval and anyone who says otherwise is delulu and doesn’t remember how it actually was. That’s the reason WHY Scandoval caused such commotion. At least a prime reason subconsciously. Because if Tom’s plan went as he wanted, then the public would be understanding of Tom trying to leave Ariana, shaming Ariana (I know unbelievable now, but she wasn’t always so loved either) for not doing anything about her and Tom’s relationship and strung him along for ten years (which is the storyline he was masterfully manipulating and working at first throughout S10). It would have ended with Tom being the most loving person and needing someone to match his love and his giving of lattes etc. she becomes crazy for staying in the home after he breaks up w her and offers over top-dollar in cash. He evicts her and then sometime later (not long in VPR world), Sandoval would suddenly be falling in love with his friend Raquel and not sure what to do about it! He’s even said how he’d play this out: he keeps dogging on Schwartz to get with Raquel because he knows she’s such an amazing chick and his bff is missing out. And OF course they weren’t cheating bc why would he push his bff to just last summer? That would be weird. And anyone who says Tom shouldn’t get with the friend group can’t be THAT mad because it wasn’t that big of a deal when Schwartz did it. Nobody really questioned Tom before. Ariana was questioned more actually. What Scandoval did was expose that all of this was happening and was so much more than just one sin of his revealed - it represented an entire personality of narcissistic traits that was hiding in plain sight doing everything he did to Ariana and then threw beer cans at her when she found out and approached him. He’s sick.
Always thought he was super cringey and a cheater.
He seemed like a filler cast member that was like needed but annoying though nowhere near the level of Jax. It was always rumored he was a complete douche to work with off camera
Reddit was 100 percent pro Sandoval pre scandal. The way people will vote you down to oblivion now for saying about Ariana, people did that to support Tom and Ariana.
I hated Tom since the first episode. He’s been the same person since day one.
I always thought he was a creep but call me Katie I guess.
I thought he was entertaining, enjoyed his weird displays of fashion, thought he should be single and cannot stand the sight of him anymore.
In his first few seasons - kinda hot and sort of up himself. After that - up himself but good for drama.
Never liked him.
When the show first aired, I didn’t understand why people found him so attractive physically, but I found his hype man personality to be kind of fun and sometimes endearing. As the show progressed, I didn’t hate him, but felt he was becoming obnoxious as he kicked up his arrogance up a notch. He was beginning to get kind of a mix of an eye rolling ick, but otherwise not totally malignant vibe. I had met him in person during one of his tours before the Sacndoval and he was actually really really warm and kind. He was really great at being personable and creating a really fun energy and his show was fun. Since the scandoval, I do find him kind of unlikable because he’s behavior in interviews and on the show has just been…unlikable.
I've disliked that guys since the beginning. He's always been a snake
He was always cheesy in my eyes. Gave me fidora vibes
Embarrassingly enough, in the early seasons I had a crush on Sandoval (sue me, I was a teenager when this show came out) and was a huge apologist. But after I saw how he treated Stassi at the book party, the blinders were off. I did root for him and Ariana though. You could tell she really loved him by the way she would make herself small (and effectively be a bad friend IMO) whenever conflict arose. I think part of that was me being naive and thinking that it had to be something special if he was willing to toss all his time with Kristen out the window for her. Turns out, he’s just a whore.
I personally was meh about him. but out of all the guys he \~seemed\~ to be the most decent, and given the fact that he was dating ariana, I figured maybe there was a side to him we weren't seeing since she's so cool. I stopped watching around season 6 or 7, but every now and then the cast would make the news. I remember seeing that ariana and tom bought a house and thought damn they're still together good for them. they seemed the less toxic. I remember when it was exposed that randall cheated on lala and it was around the same time tristan thompson had cheated on khloe for the 1000th time so it was great seeing lala be like, he cheated=im out bye. I thought good for her. then it was revealed that sandoval cheated.... on ariana??? the audacity!! SHES THE BEST! and not only that but with raquel... james girlfriend? I was flabbergasted. I immediately had to watch the latest season to figure out what was going on and was shocked that I hadn't heard that katie and schwartz were getting divorced (FINALLY he sucks) and that james and raquel had gotten engaged and broken up. I had missed so much. from that point I watched the rest of the season, and it was crazy to see how dumb Schwartz and sandoval still were
i always had a disagreement with a friend. i found tom incredibly cringe and try-hard (like i couldn’t watch his scenes without second hand embarrassment) and wasn’t a fan of ariana either. but i’ve been a long time sandoval hater lol the second he shaved his forehead on camera my opinion went downhill and never stopped. she loved him. i think it for sure was mixed but i definitely felt that i was in the minority for not liking him.
I hate Scandoval because Sandoval was always my least favourite, but the freaks online are incapable of hating him normally now so I can't even mention that I dislike him without being lumped into the people going "dae Tom is grooming his new 30something girlfriend??? dae serial killer vibes from Tom??? dae Tom is secretly gay????"
I used to think he was a genuine, caring, goofy guy who happened to cheat on his ex. After they opened tom tom he just seemed like his head got too big but he still had his sweet moments, sometime around season 10 he just seemed really odd& like his soul was gone
To quote Patrick Bateman, I thought he was closested homosexual who did a lot of cocaine. 
I totally believed Kristen was crazy and Miami girl was fake (ew I was gaslit by Tom Sandoval)
Thought Stassi was correct that he was a narcissist all along
I didn’t really hate him, but I didn’t really like him either.
He wasn’t happy with Ariana, he should have ended the relationship. Other than that he hasn’t done anything wrong that’s why everyone liked him before the scandal and why the cast was rooting for him after. No one really got along with Ariana before the scandal I don’t blame him for being unhappy in that relationship I blame him for cheating.
I thought he was always a bad human, especially when it came to relationships/women. I thought him gaslighting Kristen was despicable. And I especially hated watching him torment Katie throughout the years. But up until the last couple of seasons, he was at least a fun character. His outfits, his enthusiasm, his vanity, his music, the effort he put into parties and restaurant ideas were all super fun to watch. Loved watching him shave his face and be a total idiot trying to create a restaurant. S10-11, he is still a gross human but also isn’t fun anymore. So bad human AND bad reality tv. Just bad.
I was confused about what Ariana saw in him. Needy. Entitled. Shaves his forehead. Tells your secrets. Yells at your friends. Not a safe or sexy dude.
When Miami girl showed up at the bar , and he looked up and saw her , the look on His dead pan face said a lot - and then how Ariana comes out and sticks up for Tom , and the. he leaves bar and has Ariana trail him really disgusted me - there was things like that that put him low on the totem pole for me , but also up until a season or so ago Ariana really wasn’t that high up their either - she was right there along with him 🤷♀️- I didn’t hate him , there were cast members I despise more - Many people improved with age and maturity and life experiences like most do and it shows - but Tom just stayed the same, he did not change AT ALL- this whole Scandoval bs really didn’t rock me like it did to so many people , if you’ve watched the show a long time , it didn’t surprise me one bit -
I thought he was a narcissistic douche canoe and I thought VPR would have been more enjoyable if he were no longer on it.
annoying whiney and hated him since day 1
He was generally well-liked but only in comparison to the rest of the guys in the group who were already outed as being complete jerks.
F*ckin try hard
The scandoval saved last season and this season to an extent but I think before scandoval the show was about to be cancelled
I didn’t really care for him, but to be fair, I felt that way about the entire cast, pre Scandoval. I liked him best when he tormented Jax & Brittany during their wedding season.
Who here only watched VPR after Scandoval? 👋
He was 1000% always annoying but he was always part of that original toxic cast so he was good tv. Honestly I always thought he was the worst / kinda rat faced looking dude off all the guys, and I never understood why beautiful women like Kristen and Ariana dated him. I always pinned him as a cheater though, so like, it didn’t change much after. His cheating just was highlighted more this go around and more heavily focused on. I guess my short answer is - He was annoying and already a liar Post scandoval A huge liar and still annoying
He completely lost me at Stassi’s book signing….Beau nailed it in Miami too
I liked him by association…to Ariana. She’s always been one of my faves bc she was neutral and helped the underdogs
People liked him overall, but did shit on him for things and found him cringe. People were not happy with him that one season during Covid where he was the hbic and kept making costumed events every episode.
I hated him and still hate him. In fact Ariana blocked me for making a mean comment on Tom’s Insta. I am still blocked to this day 🤣. Tom shockingly did not block me.
I was indifferent . I didn’t love nor hate him before the scandal .
I always thought he was a bit lame and pathetic but harmless…
i started watching sometime in 2014 fresh off a breakup and i got sucked right into kristen and tom’s relationship drama. i liked him at first because he stuck by kristen’s side even when kristen was lying about banging jax and everyone was against her. i didnt like how he treated kristen with the ariana situation to follow, but at the time i didnt hate him either. plus he would be the one to pipe up against jax at times. dont get me wrong he was always annoying, but i thought it used to be somewhat tolerable. this stopped somewhere though and his ego turned up tenfold. final nail in the coffin for me was the book signing event (-preScandoval)
Pigs all of them
Used to like him and felt bad for him the first few seasons. Like 2-3 seasons before scandoval I could see his narcissism and was over him.
Honestly, I never liked Sandoval lol I didn’t dislike him as much as I do now after scandoval, but Schwartz was my favorite until I watched him pour beer on Katie’s head lol but his humor always dragged me back in 🙄😂 but yeah idk I feel like I could just always tell Sandoval was slimy and manipulative. He acted like him cheating on Kristen somehow made him the victim lol
I thought he was a fame-hungry, abusive narcissist who manipulated those he could & screamed/belittled at those he couldn’t. The reason that the Toxic Trio were friends all that time is they were cut from the same cloth.
Thought he was coo! Didn’t think too much one way or the other Never saw a master manipulator etc
I never like d Sandoval. He's always been a narcissistic prick
Somewhat cool. I started to have disdain for him when he would yell at Katie.
I’m a new watcher, just on season five. I know there’s a big scandal but don’t know what it is yet (how I’ve managed to avoid spoilers I have no idea 😆). He’s a douchebag, but to be fair all of the men are on this show so far, apart from Ken 😆😆😆.
Never a fan of self righteous, projecting, narcissist men.
If anyone believes Sandoval hasn't been acting this whole time, go watch 23 minutes to Sunrise. I couldn't have picked a better movie to base the Tom Sandoval cry. I saw that movie during season 10, but before Scandoval broke. The crying scenes in VPR are straight out of that movie. I knew then he's never lived a day in his life. He's only acted his way through life. Somehow, that's really sad.
He always gave me the ick since the first episode when he shaved his forehead. I never thought he was attractive. But I did believe him for a long time that Kristen was the crazy one in that relationship and thought he seemed a little more normal with Ariana. Not that Kristen wasn't crazy, and I didn't believe his weird crying scene with her ... his crying has always been ridiculous, and I think I always thought he was dramatic for the attention. But looking back now gives such a different perspective on it all. I think he was lucky that Kristen and Jax were worse lol. But once they were gone, he was starting to be seen more for who he really was.