The Real Housewives of New Jersey premieres tonight and I am so excited since I have waited for months for this. After the teaser clip was released I could barely contain my excitement. Raw and real, this season looks to be a standout.

First, I have to say that I am biased because I love Dina Manzo. Reality TV junkies like myself already met Dina & Tommy Manzo when they featured their extravagant wedding on “My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding”. Dina was so likeable and what I didn’t know at the time was that Dina married her sister, Caroline’s, husband’s younger brother. The wedding cost over $1.5 million and three years later the Manzo’s are back on reality TV to provide another dose of their Jawsey lifestyle. And so far, I love what I see.

In a commercial for Bravo’s latest installment of its hit franchise, ‘housewife’ Caroline Manzo barks in her thick accent, “Let me tell you something about my family, we’re as thick as thieves. And we protect each other to the end.” Is it any wonder that the show is being called a real-life version of The Sopranos? Caroline called the comparison nonsense saying, “We’re Italian and geographically we happen to be where the Sopranos were set—brilliant marketing on Bravo’s part. We have the same Italian traditions and values because Italians are all about values. But to put us in the same bed as that? On the business side of it? Stop it. That’s nonsense.” Dina Manzo said of the comparison, “The Sopranos was such a phenomena in this area, I think its brilliant marketing on Bravo’s part but I think once the show airs you’ll see a marked difference in who we are and what the Soprano’s portrayed.”

Caroline, the matriarch in the group and mother of three, is joined on the show by her sister and sister-in-law Dina Manzo (they married brothers), another sister-in-law, Jacqueline Laurita (she married one of Caroline and Dina’s brothers) and longtime family friend Theresa Giudice. The fifth, Danielle Staub, is the outsider in this tight knit group and said to be one of the most controversial “real housewives” we’ve ever seen. Want a sample of a day in the life of Danielle? “Hey listen, scumbag, you are a piece of shit to stand up somebody like me. You’re probably some fat banker or you walked in and saw how hot I am and you said I could never be with that, which, you’re right. Have a good life…or die. I don’t care.” That’s what Staub screams into the voicemail of a blind date she met on the Internet who she previously had phone sex with, but when they planned an actual date he stood her up.

The Manzo’s own The Brownstone, a family-owned premier banquet hall which employs a few of the Manzo children. Caroline is married to Albert Manzo, owner of the Brownstone and the son of Albert (Tiny) Manzo, whose 350-pound body was found loaded with bullet holes, his arms and legs bound in plastic, in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental in 1983. Caroline’s baby sister Dina is married to Albert’s brother, Tommy, so they are sisters married to brothers. The sisters’ brother, Chris, is married to Jacqueline Laurita, a former Las Vegas cosmetologist, and Dina and Caroline treat Jacqueline as a younger sister. It’s an interesting first, since this season includes women who actually know one another well as opposed to the other series which pits unknowns against each other. It’s an interesting look into the real lives of a close knit family, and not just five women who live their lives separately. Although they are not related to Teresa Giudice, they act as if they are. Teresa, the mother of three girls, is married to Joe, who owns a construction business. Be prepared for shopping sprees with the big spender of the group who yearns for larger breasts. Could breast implants be a purchase made during filming?  Lastly Danielle Staun, who is not related to the group or even Italian, is the outsider of the group. She befriended Jacqueline at the hair salon, but her relationship with the other ‘housewives’ is complicated.

With the good comes the bad and as we await the season to unfold, the ladies are already feeling the sting of instant celebrity with negative press. Dina and Danielle were on Good Day New York this week to clear up accusations made by the NY Post about Manzo’s charity and Staub’s supposedly modeling career as well as tax liens. Both ‘housewives’ said the Post didn’t do their homework and printed information that is incorrect, but it’s something they’ll have to get used to as all eyes turn to them. Caroline recently met New York City Housewife Alex McCord. “Alex told me to get a thick skin and enjoy the ride,” Caroline says. “She said great things come with it, so enjoy it. And you know what? She couldn’t be more right…I will take the good out of it, and with the lemons, I will make lemonade.”

The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs tonight at 11PM Eastern moves into its regular 10 p.m. time slot on May 19.