'Bethenny Getting Married?' - 'Mi Casa, Su Casa' Recap (Series Premiere)

(S01E01) Just a commercial break away from a heated exchange with former friend Jill Zarin on the first of a 3-part reunion for this season's 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' Bethenny Frankel arrives at a fashion show with her mini entourage.

Invited to walk a runway, she smiles wide, putting on an exaggerated saunter in a clingy red dress that showcases her prominent, pregnant belly.

As the only cast member of any of Bravo's 'Housewives' series to get her own show, at the start of 'Bethenny Getting Married?' she is finally a housewife of sorts.

Seemingly faster than her 2 healthy-eating books became New York Times bestsellers, the one-time single entrepreneur has secured a fiancé, gotten pregnant and begun to finish her 3rd book. For the 'Housewives' cast member who not long ago complained about not being able to "have it all," the order of these events became inconsequential.

"I have an obscene amount of things going on right now," Bethenny admits. Yet considering the reality star's seemingly glutted schedule, the story of the head of the "Skinnygirl" empire and her fiancé Jason Hoppy as they head to the altar is, so far, a confection of a reality show.

"It's a departure from 'Housewives,' it's just different," Bethenny told host Andy Cohen during the post-premiere installment of 'Watch What Happens: Live!' "It's like dessert after a heavy meal."

It's hard to argue with that as Bethenny playfully tosses zingers Jason's way and he laughs, ever happy to play along. Amidst the lovey-dovey, it's kind of nice to know Bethenny hasn't abandoned all her punch. Her asides during the New York series have always seemed like an effortless art. A kindred spirit to 'The Muppet Show' balcony-dwellers Statler and Waldorf, she could give acclaimed actors lessons on how to be funny at awards shows.

Deflating what she deems Jason's unreasonable request for his own desk, she reminds him that his old apartment was in such a questionable state she contracted crabs (yes, hyperbole, though if they needed a visit to clarify that issue, rest assured we'd probably see that go down, too). She also doesn't hesitate to more-than-suggest that Jason has always had a fetish regarding pregnant women.

As the sound bite queen of 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' the thirty-nine-year-old Bethenny might have less ridiculousness to digest and assess in this storyline, but she doesn't disappoint, spitting out a few more gems:

"Do I look like a slutty pregnant woman?" she ponders of her tight red number at the fashion show.

"Shotgun? It's like a cannonball," she tells Jason, pshawing any notion that she'd be worried about getting married shortly before giving birth because of her obvious bump.

"You need to be a team player!" This, while scolding her Lhasa-something dog Cookie, who gets all bothered about people coming to the apartment to interview for an assistant's job. (Cookie's favorite, the straight ex-college football player Max, makes the final cut, despite Bethenny's rather pleasant conversation with the visibly nervous food blogger she likens to a brushless Napoleon Dynamite).

Before the show began, it was easy to wonder if Bethenny would play the constant comic to Jason's straight-straight man. While their exchanges are more balanced than that, it would be nice to see more of Jason. More Jason asides, Jason moments, more of Bethenny being the listener.

There are the things that bind them together as a couple: "Both of us would rather be eating potato skins at a mall," Bethenny plainly states, enhancing their likability, as if legions of Team Bethenny adherents didn't already make that impossible. What's not to like about this sweet couple kicking back in their apartment, away from the cattiness, people saying things are "toxic," people saying things are "done," people being "over it," the step-and-repeat, granting of apologies over drinks/IVs of pinot grigio, and other assorted hallmarks of 'Housewifery' by Bravo?

Yes, 'Bethenny Getting Married?' leans toward the saccharine. For a segment of the 'Housewives' viewership, it might not provide enough drama. But if the entire show was all happy happy, joy joy, we might not be getting much of a story here.

Besides Bethenny's imposing schedule, we're reminded of her daunting history with relationships. She's getting married, but she's already been engaged three times, and even married once, for all of 7 months. She goes to therapy to work through her baggage before walking down the aisle, which unsurprisingly touches on her harried past as it relates to her family. There's a lot to tackle: her wholly absent and recently deceased father, leaving home at fifteen to attend boarding school, facts that make the multi-hyphenate admit she's surprised she didn't end up in a crack den.

"My life was a total circus and Jason's was a poetry reading," Bethenny says in her trademark succinct style. Jason articulates another difference between the two that has many practical, or direct, implications: "She would rather stay in," he says, "I would rather be around people."

So it makes sense and is actually rather refreshing when they have a tiff about Jason's friend staying over for the Hoppy-Frankel housewarming, an idea Bethenny says conforms more to people that aren't expecting a baby and building a private home.

"This is our place, not your place," Jason asserts, rejecting the notion that spending time with friends is a college-age priority. So when the self-professed, sometime-curmudgeon Bethenny learns that her fiancé, away on business as snow pounds New York City, will not be able to get a flight back home in time for the housewarming, she doesn't hesitate to remind him that his friends are coming from out of town to the party that he wanted to have. While it would have been nice to see if they really hashed this one out when he got home, what makes this the Bethenny show and not 'Housewives' is the happy resolution.

Bethenny decides to compromise, to play the smiling housewife host and entertain her guests, friends and friends of fiancé alike. Jason calls in and makes an appearance via speakerphone, cutesy-chatting with Simon van Kempen, one of the other 'Housewives' husbands. Everyone's pleased. Roll Desilu Productions.

Not so fast. We get a sneak peak of a future episode. Even-more-pregnant Bethenny is trying to achieve calm. She's standing in a hoisted wedding dress, peeing in a bucket.