There’s no arguing that Bling Empire is Netflix’s runaway hit for the beginning of 2021. In the first week after its release, fans binged the series as quickly as they could. Amidst the opulence and social-hierarchy jockeying, there was a quiet moment that caught viewers attention. At the end of episode six, a placard read “In memory of Cindy Tran 1960-2019.” So who was Cindy Tran?
Bling Empire follows several millionaires in their over-the-top lives in Los Angeles. One of the cast members is heiress Cherie Chan. She and her wealthy, long-time boyfriend, Jessey Lee, were already raising one child and had their second child during the filming of Bling Empire. With their parents’ combined net worth of roughly $200 million, those children are sure to grow up with the best things that money can buy. Cherie and Jessey’s story arc in the series is focused on family, as they raise their two children, talk about marriage, and Cherie mourns a loss in her family.
Cindy Tran was Cherie’s mother and played a big part in Cherie’s life. Cherie put a great deal of trust her mother’s advice. When she was younger, Cherie signed a deal with Sony Records to become a pop star in Japan, but her mother Cindy wanted her to have a more stable job. So Cherie left her musical career and became a business woman, starting her own line of tequila. She and her mother stayed close until Cindy’s passing.
As Bling Empire was filmed in 2019, the loss of Cindy was fresh. Cherrie struggles with her grief, going to see a psychic and telling him that her mother was so sick, she had to stay in a hospital until she died. Fans were touched when, during a particularly rough time in Cherie’s mourning, her friends Kane Lim and Kevin Kreider went to Cherie’s house, prayed with her, and performed a Buddhist ritual. To round off the emotional episode, episode six was named “The Other Side” and dedicated to Cindy Tran.
This episode also saw Kevin Kreider facing some of his struggles as an adoptee who never knew his parents or why his family gave him up. Watching him confront a piece of himself that felt incomplete inspired viewers and left many, including Kevin, teary eyed.
“The Other Side” was a touching episode that showed there are pains that no amount of money can spare you from, that are part of the worldwide human experience. While plenty of Bling Empire’s appeal is the drama and glamor, episodes like this one humanize characters who live in a world most viewers can’t relate to.