Reality on Bravo

In case you missed last night’s season premier, here’s what happened:

The show opened in true Real Housewives of Orange County fashion - with a parent buying her daughter a huge gift. Vicki Gunvalson, work-a-holic mother of two (Briana and Michael), bough her daughter a brand new Mercedes for keeping her grades up while in college. Briana’s in nursing school and doing well, but her mother definitely misses her. The kicker? Briana has to make the monthly payments, which are over $270 a month. Um…thanks, mom? Now, putting a down payment on a Mercedes is nothing short of amazing, but at the same time, if my mom did that, I’d be so mad. Any college student renting her own apartment will find it difficult to take on such a high bill. If it were me, I would have bought a more practical car. But that’s me. I don’ live in the OC. Anyway, the ladies went to lunch, and Briana told her mom that she and Colby (the sweetheart boyfriend) were going to Washington to camp out and see a concert. That was met with a resounding “No you aren’t” from Vicki. Vicki, I love you, but your daughter is 20. You can’t control what she does. Using your finances as a way to control your adult kids is unhealthy. Let her go, or one day, she’ll go anyway and she won’t be looking back.

Moving on…Lauri Waring is working on planning her wedding to George Peterson. They’re thinking about having the wedding at one of George’s two houses, and the guest list so far is at 400, but has to be cut to under 200 if they want to have it at their smaller house. Woah mama. 400 people? I don’t even KNOW 400 people. This season, we get to meet George’s daughter Mackenzie (not sure I’m spelling that right…will look it up when Bravo’s site is in better condition), who is 18 and graduating (presumably with Kara?). Josh is out of the picture, and Sophie and Ashley seem to be around the house. George’s other two younger kids (one boy and one girl, I believe) haven’t been shown much. According to RHOC news, their mother, Gina, has refused to let them be filmed on the show. In any case, for graduation, Lauri and George are sending MacKenzie to South Beach, along with the 22-year-old Ashley to supervise. Now THAT seems dangerous. Forget the responsible Briana going to Washington for a concert. George’s daughter has talked about how she is going out “partying” and Ashley admitted that she’ll probably drink on this drink. Yeah…seems like a reaaaaaal good idea…

Jeana Keough is busy as always, and in this episode she was helping Kara, 18, plan her graduation party. Kara is a brunette these days and had broken up with Steven (she wished him “the best”…and then stuck out her tongue. hehe, I know how you feel, girl). Kara has decided on Berkley, and the event planner that did her graduation party had more special things planned than most people do for their weddings. Shane is playing baseball in Toronto, so Matt missed Kara’s graduation to see his first game. That would piss off a lot of people, but I think it makes sense for the Keough’s. After all, Shane has to go when he gets called up if he wants to actually make it big, and Matt supported him and his baseball legacy while Jeana supported Kara at graduation. You know who didn’t go, though? Colton. What happened to that kid since last season?!? He was so sweet, and now he’s all bad-ass and getting to be more like Shane every day. And that’s not a good thing.

Tammy Knickerbocker is working on rebuilding her house, which flooded almost three years ago when she was baby-sitting Jeana’s kids for a week. The real story here, unfortunately, is that Lou Knickerbocker, Tammy’s ex-husband and Megan and Lindsey’s father, had a massive heart attack and passed away. He didn’t have a will. He wasn’t prepared. So now, his mail-order bride, a girl from Thailand who barely speaks any English, inherits all of his money and the girls get nothing. I guess they can’t really do anything to battle that, which is really, really sad, because you know that Lou would have taken care of his girls. Sigh.

Last but not least, there’s the new girl in town, Tamra Barny. She seems really sweet and laid-back, and she really is pretty hot, just like she claims. Tamra had a kid at age 18, and her son is now 21. That marriage didn’t work out, but she went on to marry Simon and have three more children, all under the age of ten currently. The oldest son moved out at age 18 because he didn’t see eye to eye with Simon, and Tamra admitted that they’ve talked about divorce because they didn’t agree on how to parent him. Now, he’s moving back in, and Simon gave him a list of rules, including a curfew. Give me a break. He’s 21 years old, and you can’t expect him to be in the house by 1. That will last a whole two weeks, tops. In any case, he seems like a decent guy, but a bit spoiled, just like every other OC kid out there. Tamra is turning 40 this year, so I guess we’ll see how she copes this season!