TVSquad

If you've been watching the current season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you've seen an uptick in the nastiness. Wig-pulling, sniping, one wife referring to another as a monster, bad singing ... It's been a wallow in bad behavior. As shocking as what's been on the air, this news yesterday was shockingly real: A.J. Jewell, the fiance of Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kandi Burruss, died after a parking lot brawl Friday night.

On the show, Kandi is the newest wife (although she was not presently married), and the successful singer/songwriter in the course of this season, she's been struggling with her engagement to A.J. He had six children from a previous relationship, and Kandi's mother has been against her daughter marrying him. Mama even refused to have a picture taken with A.J.

The news that this man has died is truly surprising and sad.

If Don were ten years older and this was 1972 instead of 1962, we'd be saying that Don Draper is going through a mid-life crisis. After spending last week contemplating a new future with the jet set, or at least getting the offer of a hobo-existence without the worries of finances or fidelity, Don was compelled to look back before making a choice. That phone call at the end of The Jet Set was to the real Mrs. Draper.

Back home, meanwhile, Betty is again faced with having to grow up. Between her father's decline, Don's disappearance and her rebukes of Arthur and Glenn, Betts has been forced to be more than she's been in the past. Sally's latest stunt shouldn't be a shock considering that she's snuck a drink earlier this season and clearly idolizes everything her father does.

Sally blames Betty for Don's absence, and Betty realizes that pain she's been feeling is just as acute for her child and she does something human about it -- she gives Sally the boots to cushion the blow of the truth that Daddy may not be coming back.

Good gravy, that was bad.

After being rather impressed with Army Wives, I thought the next original offering from Lifetime, Side Order of Life, would offer something just as engaging and worthwhile, but instead I was given a full hour of cookie-cutter characters, lame dialogue and a plot I've already seen in about eight million other TV shows, movies and books.