‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ reunion review: Gretchen Rossi, Tamra Barney visit the past

“The Real Housewives of Orange County” kicked off the first of three (!) reunion shows on Monday night, and it was quite a crazy hour of listening to six women and a special guest open up about everything that happened within the past year … and shockingly long before that.

Let’s start with this: What in the world was with Gretchen Rossi and Tamra Barney rehashing old things from back when Gretchen was with Jeff? Who cares anymore whether or not she kissed another guy at this point? This is the part of this show that annoys us, based on the simple notion that there are much more recent things worth talking about here. These two will probably be friends again, and then they will fight again. This is just the way of their world.

As for other segments…

-Okay, the argument between Heather Dubrow and Lydia McLaughlin about the home magazine is pretty darn funny; it was all about Lydia laughing about Heather wanting on the cover, which was supposedly some sort of unreasonable request. Our favorite part of this fight? While Lydia did not have her home on the cover, she did give herself more pages in it than Marilyn Monroe.

-Strangely, Lydia probably still came across the best in this special, mostly because the worst thing that she did was fight with Heather. The rest of it was stuff that you may not agree with, but it’s still better that “you went on TV and said this” and “you lied” and “stay out of my life.” So on, and so forth. (Be sure to also watch this video featuring Lydia and nicknames.)

-Lauri Peterson returned near the end of the special, and decided that she was going to take it upon herself to spill the beans about everything from some strange encounters with Brooks to who worked for her in the way of insurance. The most hilarious part of this? That the two were fighting over whether Lauri just wanted to “hang” a certificate in Vicki’s office. Once again, really? This is what you’re screaming about like it is the end of the world? There is so much unintentional comedy and pettiness here, and Gretchen at times chose to came in and fire away about some things Vicki said about her and Slade (the master of inappropriate comments).

Photo: Bravo