The Real Housewives of New York is just like real life only made up TV baloney.

I know you sophisticates and bon vivants don’t waste your valuable time with reality TV. But luckily you have me to watch it for you so I can clue you into the cultural zeitgeist.

The basic premise of all of these shows is that there is a bunch of women who are friends who interact in a particular city. Of course over time we have found that they are not really friends. They are cast by production and every year they add a new woman to the mix. The older women get fired or have contract disputes and there is a lot of turnover. They just need to keep a few basic people to have some continuity.

New York Housewives is a special case. They brought back one of the originals Bethenny Frankel to hype the ratings. The problem is that they are loading the dice to make everything from her perspective. Her talking heads frame the production and everything is gauged to flow through her skewed perspective.

Currently Bethenny is engaged in a war with her cast mate Dorinda’s boyfriend John. John is a portly ethnic guy who owns a famous dry cleaners who handles a bunch of celebrities’ dirty drawers. Beth’s think he is fat and disgusting and that Dorinda should break up with him. You know the way fancy people feel about Donald Trump and his supporters. She just hammers him in a condescending brutal fashion that sets Dorinda off. Recently she flat out said he was using cocaine and that he was just a piece of crap. Plus she is body shaming another cast mate by saying she is anorexic when that is something that everyone accuses her of being. Sort of like Hillary claiming Trump is a crook. You know a pot calling a kettle African American. It is amazing how a stupid little reality show echoes larger concerns.

You see that is what a reality show is in reality. A window. A meataphor. Something you can watch and see how it is a microcosm of larger concerns. Or you can just watch it for its train wreck entertainment value. It’s like anything else. Like a novel or a painting or a movie. There is more there than meets the eye. If you have the eyes to see.