‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ Premiere Is Flawless TV
The best show on TV is back. After an explosive Season 4 finale subverted all reality TV expectations and blew up The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as we knew it, the modern soap opera has continued ascending its icy slope, crowning itself as the best of Bravo’s many offerings. It’s such a good premiere, crushing the desperate narrative that the show needs Monica Garcia to survive.
The ladies of RHOSLC have something much more pertinent in their arsenal: bath bombs. The Season 5 premiere leans all the way into wackiness—without ridiculously juvenile editing—to snuggle audiences right into the bizarro world of couture furs, off-beat theme parties, and indecipherable drama. It feels like home.
A first in Real Housewives history, the premiere takes place entirely at one event. Well, that’s with the exception of flashback scenes used to contextualize all the drama. RHOSLC is a very unique Housewives show in that it’s structured more like a scripted drama than a docuseries. There is no better editing team on Bravo, proven by the expert montage that opens the episode. Nothing can top haunted choral music playing over pseudo-intellectual quotes like “we choose to share what most try to hide—and then we wait for the world’s opinion” while the ladies walk through their barren homes.