When last we heard from “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” the women were in Bermuda, toppling apparent traitor Monica Garcia and her reign of rumor-mill terror — with Heather Gay chanting the instantly meme-worthy “Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!” Now the Housewives are back with season 5′s debut episode Wednesday night, which suggests strong feelings are simmering under the seemingly perfect Architectural Digest-photo shoot surface of their televised lives. Based on this first episode, and clips teasing the rest of the season, it appears that without Monica as a common enemy, they will still find plenty to argue about among themselves — and, perhaps, with new cast members who made their debuts this week. Prologue: What’s ‘real’? Instead of a standard “previously on.
..” montage, the new season starts with a peek behind the reality-show curtain.
Fleetingly, we’re shown the cramped studio where the Housewives’ “confessional” scenes are shot. The women sit on a stool, with a large poster of their respective living rooms as a backdrop — a surprise to some who perhaps thought Bravo crews set up in the women’s actual homes. Then, we swoop in for aerial shots of those massive homes (largely on the East Bench or in Park City) before dipping inside several to catch the cast — first Heather, followed by Whitney Rose, Angie Katsanevas, Meredith Marks and Lisa Barlow — seemingly living their best lives.
In a voiceover, Angie notes th.