Season 4 Must Improve on Season 3

Get out your small dog and your golden chalice, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 4 premiere is Monday night. Kyle Richards, Kim Richards, Lisa Vanderpump, Brandi Glanville, and Yolanda Foster are returning along with newcomers Joyce Giraud and Carlton Gebbia. )Taylor Armstrong, Camille Grammer, and Adrienne Maloof will not be regulars on the hit Bravo reality show this season and I think we can all agree that's for the better.) So, what can we look forward to when the ladies of Piles o' Money, Calif. once again beam into our living rooms? Hopefully, RHOBH Season 4 will bring the realness.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane. Season 3 was pretty ridiculous. The best thing to come out of it was the Brandi vs. Adrienne feud, and the one and only Faye Resnick. The rest was pretty bland. A lot of fans felt manipulated by the obviously scripted portions of the show, most notably that time when Brandi sat down with Scheana Marie, which only served to segue into Lisa's spinoff, Vanderpump Rules. It was right then and there where the show turned from believable reality to totally fabricated reality, but hey, we still tuned in, albeit begrudgingly.

In Season 4, we can likely expect more of the same, but this time, with newness. Yay! Something shiny! The addition of new cast members promises to provide at least some new drama, but as any Real Housewife fan will tell you, the novelty of a newcomer is generally more belabored than it is exciting. Who has the time to get to know the new people? It's a chore.

That said, there seems to be some organic drama to look forward to. Mauricio Umansky cheating rumors, anyone? There have been rumblings that Kyle Richards husband is unfaithful and even had a lovely dalliance with a transvestite at a Beverly Hills hotel. According to reports, this season we'll get to see Lisa and Brandi have an intervention with Kyle in which they discuss her failing marriage. Evidently, Kyle feels so blindsided by the attack that she's no longer friends with either.

Now that sounds like some real drama we can get on board with.

Beverly Hills is in a precarious situation, though. Season 3 walked the line between faux-reality and "real"-reality a little too close for comfort and if Season 4 follows suit, they're going to lose us for good. Why would we watch these ladies fake-fight when we can just wait for Jersey to return where an entire family crashes and burns before our eyes?

There's a lot riding on this season and if it starts out too scripted, the viewers will go elsewhere for their glossy reality shows that feature middle-aged women arguing in full hair and makeup. Ball's in your court, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The season premiere is Monday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. ET.

Image: BravoTV