I watch the Real Housewives series. Yes, with a mix of incredulity, awe, and disdain, but I’ve been an avid viewer of all seasons. I don’t watch all Reality TV. In fact, I watch very few shows, but with great enthusiasm. My preferences are limited to a few favorites that offend both your intelligence and morals. I can’t explain my need to watch shows like Girls Next Door, Jon and Kate Plus 8, or Real Housewives, other than to say they simplify life in a way I find relaxing and reassuring. Even when Kelly Bensimone goes on an incoherent tangent, and the audience is supposed to simultaneously ridicule and envy her, I find solace in such escapist drama. Without these vicarious catfights, affairs, and temper tantrums, who knows onto whom I would unleash the beast within.
This season of Real Housewives features a cast from Franklin Lakes, NJ, a ritzy enclave of pampered wives, spoiled youth, and absent fathers. The women behave quite differently from the casts of Orange County, Atlanta, and New York. The children are younger, the wives don’t have jobs for the most part, and most of the women are family by blood or marriage. In many ways, this season more accurately resembles the actual Desperate Housewives. Murder and intrigue in an upper class, suburban neighborhood. Unlike NY, Atlanta, or OC, this is Jersey. When you take away mention of Colombian cartels, prostitution, and husband snatchers, what’s left?
Still, best cast and season goes to NY: Season 2, hands down. You can’t beat the intense fan reaction to big personalities blindly and vocally standing by their complete idiocy. Best moment ever: on the reunion episode, after listening to the other women bicker for 20 mins, Kelly interjects with disgust, “I can’t stand listening to this. You guys are always talking about authenticity, accountability… I’m bored!” “KADOOZ,” in the words of Ramona, TO THAT!
Needless to say, I’m looking forward to insanity with a political spin.
“have you ever heard of the mountain and the molehill?”