Meet the (New) Real Housewives of New York City
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Bravo
This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by editor Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
The greatest endorsement I can give the new reboot of The Real Housewives of New York City is that the entire premiere revolves around a fight over whether or not one cast member made a rude comment about a cheese board at a party.
What was actually said about the cheese board? Why would someone insult something as innocuous and, most would say, normal as presenting a cheese board at a gathering? Who is the person who spread the gossip that someone was maligning the cheese board? Then, in the classic Housewives evolution from ludicrous to existential: Is everyone overreacting about the cheese board, or does the cheese board discourse represent something deeper about relationship dynamics?
If you are a scholar of what we in the field like to refer to as RHONY, this should be thrilling information, like music to the ears. (A Countess Luann original, perhaps.)
On Sunday night, an entirely new cast makes its debut on RHONY, the first time Bravo has ever rebooted a Housewives franchise entirely. Fans are equal parts bereft and excited: How could RHONY possibly exist without the batty charms of Ramona Singer or Sonja Morgan? But also, how could that iteration have possibly continued, with the late-run episodes cannonballing into problematic, uncomfortably dark waters? Moving on is hard, but is it worth it?
The cheese board incident says yes. It’s a classically inconsequential, legitimately funny tiff that would have been right at home in the original RHONY. The fact that it’s so ridiculous entertains us. And if we were all to stand in front of a mirror and tell our reflection the harshest, meanest truth about ourselves, it would be that escalating such petty nonsense is all too relatable. That’s the magic of Housewives: We…
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