“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” — Season One

The conceit of Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise is to showcase women who make the fictional characters on ABC’s Desperate Housewives seem like amateurs. And in that sense, The Real Housewives of New Jersey is successful. The women certainly are colorful, but as interesting? No. Still, it’s easy to see why this series is popular. The women are pretty enough, plenty catty, and some are even downright diabolical. They’re kind of what Heidi from The Hills might grow up to become 10 or 15 years down the line.