Television

The Salahis Are Back

Real Housewives of D.C. follows the “manic strivers.”

Obsessive social climbing is on display in Bravo’s Real Housewives of D.C., which gives notorious couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi—who infamously infiltrated a White House state dinner—a chance to wow the world with their cringe-worthy “manic” striving, Alessandra Stanley writes in a review of the show for The New York Times. Unlike all the other incarnations of Real Housewives, the D.C. version begins with a couple that’s already famous, offering a window into a mini-scandal. But the Salahis aren’t the main characters of the show; most of the other couples look down on them as “overeager arrivistes.” Stanley says the show’s soap-opera antics are more delicious to behold when set in conservative Washington. The pettiness takes on a newsier form, when one “housewife” says George W. Bush was more of a gentleman than President Obama because Obama didn’t show at an awards ceremony honoring her husband—nor did the president RSVP to her wedding invite.