'Real Housewives Of Atlanta' Cast Heads To Hawaii

It's probably for the best that The Real Housewives of Atlanta took a week off, because the Oscars cooked up way more drama than this show has been able to generate in the last few weeks, which have been plagued by a very unfortunate, repetitive debate between Kandi and Porsha. Hopefully, the RHOA cast trip to Maui will shake things up, but so far it hasn't changed much, since the first night was dominated by the Porsha/Kandi rivalry. Yes, once again the same exact things come up: Kandi is accused of having a secret sex dungeon and a husband who pretends to be named Marvin on the weekend in order to find young ladies to bring home with them. Porsha can't even realize when her sister is cautioning her against spreading rumors about rape and sexual assault, and thinks she's getting a high-five. It's not enjoyable or fun to see this rehashed again, so thank goodness this is left in the first few and the last few minutes.

Once again, Kandi is trying to pass off her empty room as a potentially functional restaurant, but in order to decompress from painting and flooring, she and Todd decide to the be couple designated to pretend that they've brainstormed the cast trip. It starts out as a "girls' trip," but then expands to include couples. Of course, at this point, most of the RHOA have some unconventional couplings. Kandi & Todd are, of course, married. Cynthia & Peter are divorced, as are Shereé and Bob. Porsha somehow decides to bring her boyfriend, whom I thought she broke up with already, and Phaedra ust brings the Holy Spirit, from how she's been talking.

The one thing I can't understand is why does Kenya want to go back to Matt, the boyfriend she called abusive and accused of being a horrible person? I mean, from what she claimed, it seemed like he was the worst possible person to start a relationship and family with. He repeatedly broke glass around her house (allegedly), yelled at her and her dad (sort of), and then left her because he no longer wanted to be involved with her. Kenya leaves her dogs with him while they're on the Hawaii trip, though, suggesting that they still have some relationship. It's weird.

Overall, this first episode sets up a trip that could be cringeworthy by the time it's done. But for a season of Real Housewives of Atlanta that's been airing for over four months now, it still feels like it's waiting to get started.