The car crash of a reality series that people love to hate, but cannot avert their eyes from, is returning for season three. Yes, the content of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” caused frazzled nerves for throngs of respectable black women nationwide. Yet, the “RHOA” remains the highest rated reality show of all the versions within the Bravo TV franchise. So somebody is watching.
Now NeNe, Kim, Sheree and Kandi are back, packing that intoxicating cocktail of drama, laughs, narcissism and cattiness that made this reality show the talk of urban America. Here are seven things to look out for in the new season of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” when it begins on Oct. 2.
1. NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak as “frenemies”: Kim’s and NeNe’s relationship is more complex and involves more subplots than a John Grisham novel. From what we’ve been told, their hate-today, love-tomorrow friendship descends into the ridiculous on season three.
2. Sheree Whitfield, the actress: No, seriously folks. For the longest, she was acting like she had a fashion line, She by Sheree. But now Sheree wants to take her game to the big screen. Then again, most of the dramatic scenes in “Real Housewives” are rehearsed, re-shot and manufactured anyway, so Sheree has a lot of practice in the art of “acting.” “I can picture myself on stage receiving on Oscar.” Yes, she said it with a straight face.
3. Kim Zolciak, the on-again, off-again lesbian: The fleeting fling she had with a renowned lesbian deejay earlier this year reeked of opportunism. She will do anything to get the cameras trained on her. The Wigged One will broach this topic during the new season.
4. Attention whore Dwight Eubanks jockeying shamelessly for more camera face time. He accomplished this by spreading rumors that set off fireworks in several quadrants of the set. We will find out if this tactic works.
5. The introduction of Phaedra Parks: the entertainment lawyer shows midway through the episode as Dwight’s attorney. And she has a lot to say. “I’m a Southern belle from Athens, Georgia. Southern women have a certain type of charm, a gracefulness women in other parts of the world don’t have.” Parks also shares her philosophy of being hated on. “If people aren’t talking about you, you aren’t relevant,” she says.
6. Sheree has already redone her nose, her butt and her breasts, according to her ex-husband, Bob Whitfield. Now Sheree’s “redone” her hair. Her hair is far thicker than it was last season. She’s no longer working on her fashion line, which from all reports, died on the runway. Instead, she’s now learning how to act, her “newfound passion.”
7. Kim the matriarch: “I hope I instilled the same morals and values my parents did in me,” she said without laughing, which is one of the funniest bits of the opening show. “I remember how wild I was, but hey, I turned out well.”
Oh, OK, Kim. If taking on a sugar daddy, chain-smoking in front of your kids and slobbing down your lesbian lover in public — then denying the relationship — is the modern version of turning out well, then who are we to argue? –terry shropshire
