What happens when you take the beast that is the Real Housewives franchise and tweak the characters, settings and story lines ever so slightly to push the final result from really ridiculous to hilariously ridiculous?

Why you get the Hotwives of Orlando of course!

If you’re like me then you have never watched a single episode of any of the Real Housewives series.  You know about these shows and know they exist, you may know of some of the people involved (NeNe Leakes is my limit here), what they do and know that in general, these Real Housewives shows are just a bag of flashy mess, so thankfully, Dannah Phirman and Danielle Schneider came along and created this incredibly funny, racy and wink wink parody for Hulu that means i’ll never have to watch a Real Housewives episode ever!

Taking notes (or basically whole pages) from the Real Housewives franchise, the Hotwives of Orlando follows the lives of a handful of fictional (and hopefully one day iconic) women whom, just like the Housewives series, “don’t want no drama”.  There’s trophy wife Tawny St. John (Casey Wilson) who is a loving (ahem) wife to her (somewhat) dying husband Phil while spending adult time with her personal trainer (oh hi Joey McIntyre!) and arranging ludicrous charity events such as Classy Canines which aims to see every dog in a pair of heels (only a pair?).  

Big time spender Shauna Maducci (Danielle Schneider) is unable to see her family’s forthcoming bankruptcy over the mounds of designer dresses lying about.  Her anger issues reach everyone from her husband Anthony to her on again-off again best friend Tawny.

There’s also finger in every pie Phenomenon “Phe Phe” Reed (Tymberlee Hill) who is constantly busy with being a lawyer, foot model and aspiring taxidermist (among a myriad of other pursuits) yet she is super supportive of her husband’s chosen career as a sports mascot and a show like this would not be complete without the British cougar in the form of (and winner of the best name ever) Veronica Von Vandervon (Andrea Savage) who relies on her sexually overt and vulgar sense of humor to nab herself younger men.

Rounding out the cast is Christian girl Crystal Simmons (Angela Kinsey) a local Orlando weather girl who while claims to be a devout Christian but has never read the bible because “it’s written in Jewish” and my personal favorite in Amanda Simmons (played by the wonderful Kristen Schaal) a former child star living off the fame that came with being the Florida prune juice girl who also happens to have a rather torrid affair with drugs and alcohol.

The brilliance surrounding Hotwives is that, with just the slightest tweaks from the source material, the absurdity that resides within the Housewives series becomes less jaw dropping “Is she for real?” to “This is fucking funny” for Hotwives and while some are calling the jokes lazy, I call it genius and that even though the jokes are more likely to be relevant to those familiar with the Housewives series, they are not lost on someone like me who refuses to watch the original.  

Schaal, Wilson, Schneider and the rest of the cast must be relishing being able to play these boisterous and brassy women that we’re allow us to laugh at without also feeling sad for.

The first three eps of The Hotwives of Orlando is now available on Hulu with more to come including including the necessary reunion special!