Finale - Is it the Finale for the Show as well?

From the Daily News -


The appeal of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" has always been that it gave us average viewers a peek into a world many desire but few achieve.

In many ways, it has also shown average viewers that, well, it may be a world they don't want to be a part of, either. It's a cutthroat, catty place where painful Botox shots and breast implants are the cost of entree, and the running tab includes broken marriages, screwy kids and bad dye jobs.

But that world also made for delicious television.

They were different.

Until now.

In Tuesday night's third-season finale (10 p.m.), which also feels a lot like a series finale, the stars of this reality docudrama show us they're not really much different after all.

That's sad.

For example, halfway through this disjointed episode, which starts with Lauri Waring's overhyped wedding, the action cuts to a party at Jeana Keough's home where all of the women are back together: Vicki Gunvalson, Tammy Knickerbocker, Waring, Tamra Barney, Quinn Fry and, yes, former member of the exclusive clique, Jo De La Rosa.

There, insurance mogul Gunvalson pounds down martinis like a champ.

"Vicki's always a ton of fun," says Barney, seen dancing behind Gunvalson and pawing her breasts.

Then they bounce breasts - a "booby kiss" - Barney says, followed by a tight shot of Barney's surgically sculpted cleavage.

"When she gets drunk, she's all about the boobs," Barney adds about Gunvalson.

There are a million cheap jokes that could be made at this juncture. But more importantly, at that instant the show was over. The thrill was gone. Gone was the wall that separated average folks from the appalling filthy rich that made this show such a delight.

With a few brief lines of goofy dialogue and a video clip, "The Real Housewives" shifted - from a window into a seemingly glamorous world many could only visit on TV to a moment no doubt played all over Sunday by two drunk Giants fans doing a belly-bounce after Lawrence Tynes split the uprights to put the Giants in the Super Bowl.

After three seasons, we learn these Orange County types are no different from the fans at the corner tavern.

Booby kiss, belly bounce, we're all alike.

Bravo hasn't said whether the Orange County women will be back. There's a version of the show with Manhattan women just around the bend.

Waring's wedding segment was a bust in more ways than one, but notably TV-dramawise. And, Keough's party really feels like a cast wrap event.

Good thing.

It was fun when we thought the women were really different. It's not so fun when we find out they're just like us.