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Obsessive social climbing is on display in Bravo’s Real Housewives of D.C., which gives notorious couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi—who infamously infiltrated a White House state dinner—a chance to wow the world with their cringe-worthy “manic” striving, Alessandra Stanley writes in a review of the show for The New York Times. Unlike all the other incarnations of Real Housewives, the D.C. version begins with a couple that’s already famous, offering a window into a mini-scandal. But the Salahis aren’t the main characters of the show; most of the other couples look down on them as “overeager arrivistes.” Stanley says the show’s soap-opera antics are more delicious to behold when set in conservative Washington. The pettiness takes on a newsier form, when one “housewife” says George W. Bush was more of a gentleman than President Obama because Obama didn’t show at an awards ceremony honoring her husband—nor did the president RSVP to her wedding invite.