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ShowsReal Housewives of Orange CountySeason 3
The cast widens — competing loyalties and a more complex OC social map

The Fault Lines

Season three expands past the Coto de Caza gates and adds cast members who bring competing loyalties and a wider slice of the OC social world. The format is now fluent; the question is whether the expanded cast configuration generates the pressure the founding pair did.

Filmed
Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Premiered
Feb 5, 2008
Bravo · February 2008
Episodes
14
Format
Social reality
Further cast expansion, wider social geography
Cast size
7 players
Expanded to seven cast members
On this page
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 05Adjacent in the canon
  5. 06Also appears in
01The take

The Fault Lines.

The OC social world grows more complicated — more loyalties, more geography, more room for fault lines to form.
02The shape of the season

A rhythm worth tracking.

The franchise widens in its third year — more cast members, more competing loyalties, a more complicated OC social map. The format is now fluent and the production handles the expansion competently, but the season spends meaningful time absorbing its own cast changes. The social world grows interesting in new directions without quite reaching the founding pair's peaks. A transitional entry that earns its place: watchable on its own terms, necessary to the early run's argument.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #03 slot.

Slot #03 of 3 in the Real Housewives of Orange County Editor's Canon. The seasons on either side show what I ranked it against.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
06Also appears in

Cross-references.

Real Housewives of Orange County — Editor's CanonEditor's Canon · #03
Real Housewives of Orange County S3 — The Fault Lines — tiered.tv