‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ season 5 preview: An optimistic view
Since the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” often pride themselves of being the first word of the show’s title, we may as well bring the same sort of “real”-ness to our lead-off statement here: season 4 of the show was a mess, and not in the fun, “hot mess” sort of way. Instead, it was just a jumble of moving parts that never really fit together, and we saw the ladies (at least those who would actually talk to each other) fight about the same things week in and week out. This drop in quality was also indicated in the ratings, which were down most of the season from the year before.
Now, the positive: there really is a reason to be optimistic about the new season, mostly because some of these women are doing real things to show us that they are successful rather than telling us: Phaedra Parks and Kandi Burruss will continue to do their thing, and we will also see NeNe Leakes really make some major strides forward in her acting career as she moves out to Los Angeles to do more work on “Glee” coupled with “The New Normal.” We are excited to see some of the behind-the-scenes process involved in being a new scripted TV star, and it should bring an exciting dimension that wasn’t there before.
As for the newbies, we’re happy that early indications suggest that both Kenya Moore and Porsha Williams-Stewart bring some drama with them; however, we’re also happy that it’s not so much that we have a Kim Zolciak-level feud on us. Speaking along those lines, it’s really a good thing that Kim has a reduced role this season; she’s in a different place than the other ladies, and her stories last year without NeNe around were largely boring and repetitive.
Even as someone who lost the love for the ATL last season, Sunday night’s premiere still has us excited. With new blood, new locales, and new stories, maybe season 5 can bring back some of the fun and sass to this show that we once loved. Let’s hope so.
For those of you who want more of NeNe, the sneak peek clip below is really all about her.