Picks and Pans Review: I Dream of Nene

By Tom Gliatto, ULRICA WIHLBORG, JOANNE FOWLER

UPDATED 10/11/2010 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 10/11/2010 at 01:00 AM EDT

The Real Housewives franchise is finally out of the nation's capital-what a monument to stupidity that series turned out to be-and moving back to Atlanta. Season 3, launching Oct. 4, will bring on two new wives (a model and a lawyer), but the show will probably always belong to NeNe Leakes. Even though she starts the new season upset by the way her husband has been handling money, NeNe remains effortlessly funny-a queenly joker, somehow amused even when she's ticked off. "You have the best personality ever," Housewife Kim Zolciak tells her after they've patched up their feud. "You make my stomach hurt."