B-  /7

Alright, so I was a month late to leave the most ridiculous and no-holds-barred Housewives party of the year. Sue me. But you’ll have to get behind Danielle and her entourage first.

A season that seemed scripted in many ways (Who goes to say “hi” to someone who makes her react like a rubber ball elastically strung to a plastic paddle? I guess Teresa does. She’s very nice to do that.) was also a season that continues to prove that the (upper-class, white, assumedly Catholic, etc.) housewives of New Jersey are both stringently focused on family and unafraid to avoid politeness. Sans the reunion special, the finale proved to be Danielle’s final appearance on Housewives’ cameras and it shoved in our faces the divide that continues to persist between the two “families” of the show. This consistent attraction to family, unfortunately though, sacrifices and shrinks the extravagant drama over which we’ve been salivating this season.

Throughout the finale frequent flashes of familial events pop up to remind us of what keeps these women connected. After an extravagant trip to Italy, the Giudices get together with the Caroline and Jacqueline branches of the Manzo family. The women discuss the Danielle-Ashley affair, continually reminding themselves of why Danielle is such a horrible person and why Caroline, the unofficial Mafiosa of the Manzos according to Danielle, must arrange a meeting with the woman of their ire. Reaction shots of all the Manzos present at the dinner while the discussion takes place lead us to believe that every member of the family is engrossed in an unofficial battle. Continue reading →