The long awaited return of one of the more popular Housewives franchises came back tonight with the fifth season premiere of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”. Amidst a ton of rumors after last season of cast members leaving like Caroline, Jacqueline and Kathy, those were put to rest tonight when all of them have come back again. This series is a little different from the rest in that there really hasn’t been “recycled housewives” and there is still three of the original cast members and Melissa and Kathy have remained a series regular for the past three seasons.
We left off last season with everything in insane turmoil, notably from the intense three part reunion that left Teresa at odds with pretty much, well everybody. The show started tonight with everyone dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, in which the Jersey Shore was one of the areas in the east coast that got hit the most. To put it simply but beautifully, Melissa said- “Sandy, you are a bitch”. Incredibly true. Melissa, Teresa and Kathy go to the Jersey Shore to find their houses pretty destroyed from the inside. All seem to have pretty great attitudes about this in particular Caroline, who said “We lost power for 11 days, so what”. I am enjoying all the positivity in this episode so far, but we all know there is a different storm a brewing.
The majority of the episode focuses on Teresa and Melissa and getting their daughters together because respectively they each miss each other. Rightfully so. There is so much insane tension between the two women that even though they want them to hang out, they don’t know if being around each other is the right thing to do. Mind you, these women are acting more immature than their daughters themselves, in that they should look at the bigger picture and focus on making the relationships right with their children so they don’t wind up acting like Teresa’s mother and Kathy’s father who didn’t speak for years.
Besides the usual gab fest that is Terlissa, Jacqueline reveals more struggle in dealing with her son’s battle with Autism. You can see how incredibly frustrating it is for her and to see the relief on her face when he was able to say the word “iPad” was truly remarkable to watch. I can honestly say that Jacqueline has been my favorite throughout this besides Caroline because she truly is a good person that just happens to be going through a lot family wise with a disobedient daughter (although from the preview this season that might be changing) and a son who is going through a very tough condition. Love you Jacqueline.
The story line for Caroline seems to be family oriented yet the one curve ball here is that she has become somewhat of a sister now to Joe Gorga, Melissa’s husband. Joe sees her as a sister type that he feels he doesn’t have with Teresa, which somehow seems to irk Melissa. Rumor has it that they are making Melissa the villain this season which I thought should’ve happened in her original season as the new girl is always portrayed that way to a certain degree until the audience gets comfortable with them. WATCH WHAT HAPPENS!!!