Review: Real Housewives of New Jersey

real-housewives2Last season, Bravo TV introduced its fourth installment of The Real Housewives series which has followed the lives of upper class housewives and professional women in the suburban or urban areas of several American cities. Its fourth season introduced America to an affluent section of New Jersey – Franklin Lakes. The five housewives featured on the program were Teresa Giudice, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo, Dina Manzo, and Danielle Staub.

For the first time, the series followed related housewives: sisters Caroline and Dina are married to brothers Albert and Tommy Manzo, while Jacqueline Laurita is married to Caroline and Dina’s brother, Chris Laurita. Last season, drama spewed in every episode as an explicit “tell-all” book written about Danielle by her ex-husband was exposed by a fellow Housewife. As fingers were pointed and alliances were formed, the first season of the New Jersey edition ended with a year end party that resulted in the infamous “table flipping” incident, in which Teresa flipped a table out of rage and frustration. This incident left the audience on their toes for season 2.

The second season premiered on May 3. Teresa is nine months pregnant, and Jacqueline has delivered a baby boy. Tensions are still flaring as members of the Manzo and Laurita families are undecided about their friendships with Danielle. However, last season’s drama over the book is quickly swept under the rug by the second episode.

This season is focusing on the modeling careers of Danielle’s oldest daughter Christine, 15, and Teresa’s oldest daughter Gia, 8. The third episode of the season, which aired on May 17, showed the two girls walking in Fashion Week 2009. So far, season two is a little disapointing, to say the least. Rather than focusing on the unfinished business between the housewives, Teresa and Danielle appear to be using their daughters as weapons in the dispute between the housewives.

If anything, this season shows how stage mothers can face retaliation from their daughters. It may be too early in the season to judge, however, if the season continues to focus on the children of the families rather than the unfinished dispute between the families, it will not measure up to Season 1. Grade: C

–Lili Zheng, WNHS-TV

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