The show promises to raise a number of real issues, from race relations to gay marriage. You probably wouldn't vote these women into political office, but they do seem to be above hair weave-pulling. Good for you? I wouldn't go that far. But despite its best efforts, "Real Housewives of D.C." is educational TV.
The Washington housewives, in short, look and sound a lot like their predecessors in New Jersey, New York, Atlanta and Orange County, Calif., and they fit into the same caricatured roles. It's the setting--and the surreal blend of reality-show characters and button-down Washington--that gives this soap opera more of a kick.
The Salahis are the attraction here. Judging from the season teaser, the show will spend the entire season building up to the infamous dinner-crashing scene, to which the Bravo cameras appear to had access. Remember, a fame whore needs your attention to survive. Look away now.
Housewives D.C. offers neither a portrait of Washington insider society, to which its stars have no access, or even an unvarnished look at any person's real life. People are more complicated than this, and (for much of the day) more normal--what in this context would be called "boring."