Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
While the ladies of the Real Housewives shows on Bravo are often overlooked for Nobel Peace Prizes year after year, you shouldn’t be so quick to write them off. And that’s especially true of the women of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Season 10 of the franchise premiered last night and served as a solid reminder that this show is one of the realest and boldest on the Bravo lineup. While the other cities can be generalized as “a bunch of rich white women yelling at each other” that does not apply to Atlanta. Well, a little bit of the yelling part. For starters, there are no full-time white cast members on the show (Kim Zolciak Biermann will return this season part-time), immediately giving the show a diversity, a credibility, and an opportunity to broadcast a very different life experience than their counterparts in Beverly Hills or New York.
RHOA works differently than many of the other Housewives franchises as well. You see, these women don’t bother to drag out drama over multiple episodes. Many times, an issue is addressed, it’s shouted about over a table, there are a lot of hand gestures, and then it’s over. They’re direct with each other and don’t rely on whispering behind backs to keep the show going. They don’t need to, and they don’t want to. However, some of the paler seasons have been guilty of rehashing small slights over the course of multiple episodes, or even worse full seasons (and beyond!). But these women have enough going on in their lives that they don’t bother dwelling on minor drama, that they simply dismiss with an eye roll.
They’re also no strangers to major drama, though. Last season’s reunion lasted an unprecedented four episodes, while the women addressed serious topics such as domestic abuse and even rumors of attempted rape. It was heavy and confirmed why this show in particular remains one of the most intense in the Bravo lineup. The reunion transcended the type of petty drama they’ve squabbled about before, stunning the women, the ring master Andy Cohen, and viewers alike. The serious accusations made for sobering television, and Bravo swiftly removed cast member Phaedra Parks from the show for the new season after it came to light that she, despite being a lawyer herself, completely crossed the line in the rumors she started.
The flip side of that though is that no other Bravo show features people this damn funny. The comebacks, the quips, and the one-liners are genuinely hilarious and have proven to be quite gif-able. The way these women are able to tease each other and take a joke simply wouldn’t fly in other cities. You can tell these women have their own unique senses of humor that they know how and when to put on display. If one had to guess, it’s the Atlanta women that need silly lines fed to them by the producers the least of all the shows.
Because of these larger-than-life personalities, Bravo has given many cast members their own spinoff series, from Kim Zolciak Biermann’s Don’t Be Tardy, now in its sixth season (which started as a Don’t Be Tardy For The Wedding special), Kandi Burruss’ The Kandi Factory, Kandi’s Wedding, and Kandi’s Ski Trip, all of which lasted for one season each, and NeNe Leakes’ I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding, which was also one season. Leakes has also used the show to launch her career as an actress and personality across other TV shows and Broadway. However, RHOA can be pointed to when it comes to Married to Medicine, now in its fifth season, and Fashion Queens, a late night fashion-based talked show which featured personalities from RHOA and lasted for three seasons. Burruss also stars in Xscape: Still Kickin’ It, a four-part series that launched after last night’s RHOA premiere.
If you’re a fan of other Housewives cities but have yet to dive into Atlanta, or if you’ve never seen an episode of Housewives, try Atlanta. It’s not going to look or even feel like the other cities, and that’s a good thing. RHOA could serve as a gateway drug to trying out the other franchises, but it’s sort of like starting with the hardest drug and working your way back. There’s a rawness and vulnerability that these women put into their personal relationships and friendships and allow to be captured on camera, that can’t be fun to watch back for them, but is totally engrossing for the rest of us. They’re honest about their bodies, their sex lives, and their ambitions, and at the same time, they balance that with hair flips and give-no-fucks attitudes that keep the episodes fresh and fun.
At the end of the day, is this a group of rich, dramatic women vamping it up for the camera? Yes, it really, really is. But wow do the women of Atlanta know how to keep it exciting, entertaining, and always damn interesting.
