Can the "monsters" of Real Housewives weather this specific cultural moment?

Vulture

"This is a strange time for the Housewives franchise, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary this March," says Brian Moylan. "It became a cultural phenomenon because we loved watching awful rich(-ish) people behaving awfully. It was an escape. It was a way for us to feel better about our own lives because, while poorer, they weren’t as awful as these women’s. Sure, they could be monsters, but they were our monsters. But can our monsters weather this specific cultural moment? The RHONY-reunion COVID fight reveals two big problems that Housewives, along with much of reality television, is staring down right now. The first is something that was part of the Kardashians’ undoing: Reality TV takes so long to get to us, we’ve already seen the fights play out either in the press or on social media long before they make their way to our TV screens. How can this fight feel fresh when it’s already been dissected by the most ardent fans on Twitter, Instagram, and probably Pinterest and Grindr and all other places that the women and gay men who love the Housewives congregate? The other problem is the fact that our escape is no longer an escape, as the reality of COVID life begins to intrude on the franchise. In this way, the lag time of production has been a blessing: During lockdown we were feeding on episodes filmed in the blissful before-times when no one knew what an R number was. (Are we entirely sure it’s not the number of women with the last name Richards on any given episode of RHOBH?) Sure, we were stuck in the house, but at least we had this to soothe us in between our doom-scrolling. That is about to end, and I’m not sure that any of us are ready for it."