Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Peacock
Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club was the ultimate treat for Housewives fans who spend hours online begging Andy Cohen to rehire their favorite axed reality stars. Once again, viewers got to experience the comic rage of Dorinda Medley, Jill Zarin’s unquenchable thirst, and Phaedra Parks’ lethal shade. The season also featured Real Housewives of Orange County dynamic duo Vicki Gulvanson and Tamra Judge, whose appearances were seemingly just a bridge for them to return to their original franchise.
Now, RHUGT is back for a third season without the ex-wives caveat or anything particularly novel to showcase—save for two former Housewives: Real Housewives of New York’s Leah McSweeney and Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Porsha Williams. But the rest of the guests include women we’ve watched consecutively over the past year, like Gizelle Bryant and Candiace Dillard Bassett from Potomac, Alexia Nepola and Marysol Patton from Miami, and Salt Lake City’s Heather Gay and Whitney Rose.
On paper, this mixture of personalities sounds like a recipe for disaster—the type of glorious, funny catastrophe we expect from this spinoff. While these women contribute a lot to their individual franchises, we learn very quickly—at least in the RHUGT’s first three episodes—that they might not have much to bring to their expansive rental in Thailand aside from stale, rolled-over conflicts and Marysol’s bedazzled tumblers. The end result is a boozy, somehow less riveting version of Lord of The Flies with Heather as the group’s Simon.