“The Real Housewives of New York City”
In whispered tones at girls’ night, a friend asked, “Have you seen this show ‘The Real Housewives of New York City’?” On Facebook, my girlfriends use secret code to reference the show like: “I should be in bed, but I have to watch Kelly vs. Bethenny” or “Ramona is crazy but this show is like crack.”
The season two finale airs tonight on Bravo at 10pm. As we mourn the end of another hilarious season of “The Real Housewives of NYC”, I think it’s time to end the days of shame and hiding and admit our common addiction. I’ll go first:
My name is Emily, and I watch “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
The New York Times, reviewing the show in its typical liberal-limousine-intellectual-elitist-Upper West Side tone, calls it “…fraudulently offensive to a certain kind of New Yorker who would never actually envy someone like Alex.”
Oh PUHLEEZE – only a newspaper critic who could afford to live in New York would even think to compare him or herself to Alex. The rest of us would never think we are in the same world as these ridiculous women.
The Times’ high-falutin’, moralistic, preachy tone says the women on the show demonstrate that the “the currently fashionable values – humility, intelligence, restraint, style – are eclipsed by money-grubbing witlessness and big-carbon-footprint living.”
Ya think?
Of course the stars of this show are materialistic, narcissistic, self-absorbed, air-brainy, soulless, morally corrupt, vacuous, mean, greedy and inane. That’s why the show is so entertaining.
Part of the pleasure of the show is that we viewers can feel holier-than-thou watching these women during their shopping sprees, infighting, lame parenting and social climbing. I feel like Mother Teresa compared to these women (and I’m no saint).
I think the recession made this series even more enjoyable because it’s an escape from our daily real lives: unemployment, bills that can’t be paid, forced monastic lifestyles, pay cuts, house foreclosures and general anxiety.
The women on “The Real Housewives of NYC” seemingly are not affected at all by the recession. The spending habits on the show have not changed – Jill’s redecorated apartment, LuAnn’s shopping spree with her daughter, Simon and Alex’s house remodeling. Actually, except for Jill’s weird interview with the BBC, they do not appear to realize there IS a global recession.
This show is dramatic, entertaining and hilariously funny. Can the New York Times and its liberal media brethren just understand that viewers are smart and secure enough not to have our morals and values influenced by a bunch of vapid reality show stars?
So, as we fans anticipate today’s season finale, I will publicly and unabashedly state that “The Real Housewives of NYC” is one of the most entertaining shows on TV.
I hope my fellow fans can come out of the shadows and not be feel ashamed to admit that this show is, quite simply, fun. My name is Emily, and I watch “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
Fellow fans-
Let’s have some fun today and discuss the questions we have been batting around in secret. When you respond to the questions below, use numbers so others can follow. Enjoy! -Emily
20 Questions for Fans of “The Real Housewives of New York City”
1. What’s the deal with Simon – seriously?
2. During last week’s show, when Kelly denied ever saying she was superior to Bethenny (“I’m up here, you’re down here”), what do you think Kelly thought as she watched the original video of her saying that exact thing?
3. How can Ramona make fun of women whose eyes are pulled back from plastic surgery when her bug eyes are so scary?
4. Bethenny seems cool and smart, why doesn’t she have any normal friends?
5. Why are they called “real housewives” when 5 out of 6 have jobs?
6. Why “house” when 4 out of the 6 live in apartments?
7. Why “wives” when 2 out of 6 are single? (and with LuAnn’s recently finding out about her cheating Count husband, it’s about to be 3 out of 6)
8. Do they put on makeup before the camera crews show up or do they always wear a full face of it?
9. How do Alex and Simon afford $8,000 shopping sprees on the salary of a hotel manager? (Alex was laid off from Victoria’s Secret but said her salary was only for extras).
10. Do you think Kelly is on drugs? Would this explain her forgetting her conversation with Bethenny and the battery charges against her for beating up her boyfriend?
11. Will Bethenny’s changing dating patterns from rich, successful men to hot, unsuccessful ones find her true love?
12. Kelly is the only one who doesn’t seem to have Botox, agree or disagree?
13. How much do you love Jill’s mom? Do you think she would adopt me too?
14. Alex and Simon don’t seem to have the money to keep up with the rest of them, why were they cast?
15. Kelly reportedly has been living for years with her boyfriend (the one she supposedly beat up), so why is she openly dating Max on camera?
16. Do you think these women hear their own accents when they watch the shows?
17. Are any of them real friends or are they all faking it to be on the show?
18. How does Kelly jog in the middle of the street and not get run over by a taxi?
19. How did all their kids seem to turn out normal with these narcissistic mothers? (Exception: Alex’s badly behaved, forced-French speaking boys)
20. What will cause the fight tonight between Jill and Bethenny that was in the previews?
