Now that the Real Housewives of New Jersey and the Real Housewives of New York have come to their respectable ends we get to enter a set of glitz, glam and maybe some over plucked eyebrows? The reunions are always so fun to watch because the women come together some months after the filming of their shows have ended and we get to them all dolled up and re-hash drama, and lots of it! Let’s be honest the reunions are better than the actual shows, yep, I said it!

This time around, the Real Housewives of Jersey and Real Housewives of NYC ended around the same time and the reunions are simultaneously airing. This, obviously, happened because RHONJ had an extended amount of episodes (because of all the drama) and RHONY had less episodes because of the new cast members and wanted to test the waters with the audience. I personally could have done with less RHONJ episodes and less of the reunion: honestly how many times do we have to hear Teresa’s improper english and stupidity? Thankfully we have the RHONY’s reunion, which is much more in line grammatically and in terms of sophistication. Going from RHONJ to RHONY is like leaving a dark scary alley and arriving to a bright open field with roses (but the roses can have their thorns here and there).

When the new season of the RHONY premiered I wrote a A Shiny New Package! analyzing the new ladies and predicting what might happen and now that we have arrived at the end of the season, shocker, I have more to say! These ladies definitely brought some drama and some fun scenes; and I think they were great additions.

Carole brought an interesting history because of her late husband who was cousins with the late John Kennedy Jr.; and who isn’t fascinated by the life of John John, his late wife, his late cousin and his aunt?  Lee Radziwill (née Bouvier) was quite the socialite (as Jackie O’s sister and Carole’s mother-in-law) and I imagine her to have been a real housewife during her heyday. Carole probably was the first housewife in history to stay above the fray, hmm maybe cause she’s normal and is no-drama!  I think she may be too normal for the RH franchise.

Carole’s Mother In Law on the cover of Life Magazine

Initially, I wasn’t a huge fan of Heather but she proved to be a very level-headed woman and managed to diffuse some drama. I’m still not excited by her constant name dropping of her work at House of Dereon and with P. Diddy; I’m pretty sure this doesn’t make you supercredible!

Aviva was quite reasonable in the beginning and then literally went bat shit crazy. I do understand her phobias however and how they spawned from her tragic accident as a child.  What Ramona and Sonja truly don’t understand is that phobias can’t always be explained. For instance her house in Miami is clearly very high up in the sky but she doesn’t have a problem going there: she feels safe there, she has a good feeling about it and it’s familiar.  However, in other instances she won’t go up elevators alone or to apartments that are high up probably because there is no familiarity to them or she is not looking forward to who she will see when she gets there. Unfortunately, Ramona and Sonja can’t fully understand that phobias are not a perfect science.  However, I do think that Aviva got on her high horse toward the second half of the season and became relentless to a point of just being obnoxious and she actually made me like Ramona more, drams!

Luann was basically just boring Luann, I mean Countess Luann (lest I forget her title).  Although she did get a little saucy in St. Barths (which we will hear more about next week on the second part of the reunion).  Aside from her pirate booty (no, not the popcorn) in St. Barth’s, she was pretty much a bore and I think that this should be her last season with the RHONY.

Sonja and Ramona who were dubbed “Ramonja” this season (loved that nickname) were extremely entertaining!  Let’s keep it real here: if Ramona and Sonja don’t drink and act ridiculous on the show, there really would be no show and no drama which also means no jobs for the two of them. #smartladies.  Imagine if the show was just Luann, Carole, and Heather: no one would watch. It would be a big boring fest; I’m not interested in watching them all sit around doing face yoga. #boring.

After an entertaining season we have a pretty easy-going reunion where their points are actually able to be made (unlike RHONJ where Teresa literally doesn’t understand the questions).  The main conflict I feel the need to comment on is the whole Naeem Khan/Countess/Princess/dress borrowing drama. I actually have some personal experience with this (no I am not famous (I wish) nor do I get to borrow dresses from famous designers, (ugh I also wish!) but I have interned at some very high-end fashion houses and Naeem Khan just happens to be one of them (#whatacoincidence).  So allow me to give you a little intel on the issue: high-end designers that cater to a red carpet and celebrity clientele live to have celebrities or people in the public eye wear their clothes. All these fashion houses have a PR person whose main job is to get the designers’ dresses on people who will be photographed, etc. This is not some secret covert operation, it’s a HUGE part of the fashion business: people get photographed wearing your clothes then (wealthy) people see those clothes and buy them.  The countess offering to wear his clothes (whether Naeem offered or the countess asked is irrelevant) is a wonderful thing for both Naeem and the countess: he gets press and she gets to wear a beautiful dress. Carole trying to play up Naeem’s status is a little frustrating to me. Naeem is a well-known designer within the fashion industry, but until the RHONY he was not so well-known outside of people who follow and know fashion-don’t lie you had no idea who he was until the show.  How often do you see a celebrity wearing a Naeem dress? Leslie Mann (Judd Apatow’s wife) wore one at the Emmy’s recently and she was the only star wearing one. Padma Lakshmi, from another Bravo franchise, often wears Naeem’s gowns and hmmm, she’s not exactly Michelle Obama, Padma, like the countess, owes her fame to Bravo.  I guess Carole forgot to mention that Padma wears Naeem Khan also.  Carole’s real issue is that she’s just not that into Luann and when you don’t like someone you don’t really want them befriending your friends.  Duh!

I can’t wait for the conclusion of the reunion next week. We get to hear more about that crazy toaster oven that Sonja branded (btw’s who brands a toaster oven?). Pretty sure the gang at Sears have that taken care of.

Oy Vey…what would I do without these housewives!