Why The Real Housewives of #NewYork City Is Having Its Best Season Ever—8 Seasons In

It isn't supposed to be like this. The laws of reality television tend to dictate that no show remains captivating for more than a few seasons, even with cast shakeups. It's just the way our attention spans and the concept of diminishing returns operate. Yet, here we are in the eighth season of The Real Housewives of New York City and the Bravo staple is unequivocally having its best season ever.

Yes, ever.

After a glorious run of early seasons that introduced the world to Bethenny Frankel, Jill Zarin, Ramona Singer, Countess Luann de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Kelly Bensimon and Sonja Morgan, and took us to Scary Island ("Go to sleep!"), delivered an electrifying collection of episodes that documented the very real, very raw dissolution of the series' central friendship between it's very own Lucy and Ethel (Bethenny and Jill), it truly seemed as though the big fun in the Big Apple was nearing its expiration date.

Bethenny, Bravo's first true breakout star, left the series for greener pastures (her own spinoff, followed by two seasons of her very own talk show), a revolving door of cast changes brought in duds (Cindy Barshop who?) and clearly-contrived drama generators (Aviva Drescher and her flying leg), and original stars found themselves either demoted (Luann in season six, thanks to stalled contract negotiations) or straight-up fired.

Who can forget the bloodbath between seasons four and five that Jill, Alex, and Kelly get the ol' heave-ho?

But after a few years spent re-building the line-up, Bravo has finally found the perfect alchemy in this current season. How did they achieve this level of pure unadulterated reality TV bliss? We're glad you asked.

First, the obvious. The return of Bethenny to RHONY has been key. After her talk show didn't work out as well as she'd hoped and she swallowed a bit of her pride, the B came back for season seven, but barely. She spent most of her time keeping the women at arm's length as she tried to get a read on the new ladies she was sharing the spotlight with, while also getting re-acquainted with the familiar faces she'd thought she'd left behind. Technically homeless and in the throes of her divorce, the Bethenny that we saw last season was struggling to reclaim her place not just on the series, but in the world. But this season? Now, that's a different story.

Season eight Bethenny is peak Bethenny, golden age Bethenny, the best Bethenny she can be. The rapier wit we fell in love with in the early days is back in full force, along with her complete inability to suffer even the slightest of fools without speaking her mind. One need only look to her scorched earth sit-down with Sonja over the latter's decision to ape the former's brand with a prosecco of her own called Tipsy Girl, or her unrelenting smackdown of Luann at relatively new Housewife Dorinda Medley's home in the Berkshires over everything the Countess has ever done, or her verbal combat with Dorinda's boyfriend John Mahdessian to see that she is once again, the reigning queen of Bravo, as she was always meant to be. Of course, one Bethenny does not a show make.


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