At home with Tivo

Day 2 of being housebound with the stomach flu. Good times, y'all!
By midday, however, I was feeling good enough to fire up the Tivo and pick a saved program to watch. (In contrast, yesterday I was so incapacitated, I could barely leave my bed and could not tolerate any sensory stimulation whatsoever.)
Apparently the last show Tivo recorded was on Bravo, because Bravo popped up on my screen, and there it was: The Real Housewives of Orange County.
I know, I know.
Believe me, for the first minute it was on, I was all, "Ugh. Why do they make this crap? Can anybody get a reality show these days?" But then 20 minutes later, I was still watching. Here's the thing: I am nosy. I am interested in other people and their daily lives. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy when I grew up, simply because I liked people-watching. Now add to this curiosity the fact that these women are super-wealthy, and I'm not. I had to see what their lives were like! (That is, I had to see what their lives were like within the contrived construct of a scripted reality show, of course.) It was too much for me to resist. I got sucked in!
Right away I learned that at least three of the housewives aren't housewives at all. They're working women with successful real-estate careers. (So why do they call the show "The Real Housewives of Orange County"? Isn't that totally inaccurate?)
Anyway, I couldn't immediately scorn a group of hard-working women (all mothers, too). I mean, I respect women with careers. I suppose I could've scorned the mom who went clubbing with her 21-year-old son, or the mom who stage-managed her daughter, who was modeling jeans at a local boutique. But mostly I was just fascinated. These women just live a completely different lifestyle than I do, and it's not necessarily a bad one. It's just different. And it's not as if these women's lives are free of hardships. One of them recently lost her husband. Another one is estranged from her husband and struggles with her weight.
Anyway, I can't judge the whole series on one partial episode. But I have to admit, the half-episode I watched today thoroughly engrossed me.
And so here comes the confession: The Real Housewives is now season-passed on my Tivo.