GEORGIA CATFIGHT A REAL PEACH!

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA Thursday night at 10, Bravo

Not for nothing, but there's a better fight in the season opener of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" than there was in the recent finale of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Sheree, who is divorced and opening her own new business, decides she wants to throw a party to celebrate herself. An expensive party. She's thinking entrance by helicopter.

No matter, apparently, that just a few scenes earlier, Sheree was saying her ex-husband fell so far behind on child-support payments, she was staring at foreclosure on her house.

Now she wants a party about her, so she's going to have one, and she engages a party planner to execute the details - like having hot young guys carry her into the party on a royal chair, à la Cleopatra, while women throw flower petals in her path.

Less than a week before the party, however, Sheree fears the planner isn't delivering on all his promises. For instance, he can't seem to get the helicopter.

We all know that feeling, eh?

So Sheree confronts him in his office and about all that's missing are cartoon captions over their heads, saying, "Pow! Bam!"

Better, yet, this is only a small part of the second season kickoff.

It spends more time exploring and advancing the tension that kicked up last season between Kim, in particular, and NeNe.

It started with a basic, "Well, I heard she was saying things about me and my man" kind of concern, which escalated and required their friends to pick sides and that whole routine.

One of the central premises of the whole "Real Housewives" franchise, of course, is that rich, successful women, like many of the rest of us, never outgrow their propensity and fondness for the dramas of high school.

They seem to somehow be strangely comforting.

Meanwhile, Lisa wants another baby. But that may depend on which team picks up her pro football player husband, Ed.

At the same time, there are hints that Kandi, the newest housewife, may prove helpful in advancing Kim's dream of becoming a country singer.

It's well-paced if unremarkable drama, and unlike some other editions of the franchise, you don't feel like you should wash your hands after viewing.

But, in the end, the disco-ball moment of this episode is Sheree's dispute with her party planner, so, yes, that's what it's come to in certain corners of television these days: Which camera-happy rich woman throws the best catfight?

All we know for sure is the bar is rising.