Every now and then, a reality series gets an injection of fresh blood to liven up the drama. For "The Real Housewives of New York City," that came in the form of Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson and Aviva Drescher, the three new cast members for Season 5 of the Bravo reality series.
Replacing veterans Jill Zarin, Kelly Bensimon, Alex McCord and Cindy Barshop seemed like no easy task. Many of the exiting women have longstanding relationships -- and feuds -- with the remaining ladies Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer and LuAnn de Lesseps. However, welcoming the three newbies -- especially Carole, or Princess Carole if you will -- has been a breeze. In fact, the writer and journalist has been the best part of the new season.
Watching Carole be "immature" (her words) with LuAnn in London was refreshing. After seemingly being one-upped on everything, the princess turned the tables on the countess and started to comment on everything LuAnn said. Carole seems like a real human being thrown in with these larger-than-life personalities who agree to be on "Real Housewives." Her ability to comment on the absurdity of these ladies -- and the situations they put themselves in -- is hilarious. Carole is basically the viewer, just hanging out with these women and their pinot grigio. From her confessionals to her hair salon gossip, Carole is the type of woman I want to see on "Real Housewives," especially when there are personalities as large as Ramona's running around the party.
Like Sonja Morgan during Season 3 of "Real Housewives," Carole provides an outsider prospective. She's not feuding with anybody, she doesn't have any supporting players in her life creating drama on the sidelines. She's personable, smart and just what "Real Housewives of New York City" needed after so. much. drama. However, after a few seasons on the series, Sonja has almost become a caricature of the woman viewers first met. Hopefully the same won't happen to Carole -- that is if the producers keep her around. We've still got one more trip for the ladies ("CALM DOWN! TAKE A XANAX!") and everything I've written above could be killed in a single episode. But with Carole, hopefully it won't be the case.