Let's rank the new Real Housewives Of New York City, shall we?

Tagline: “I always bring the flavor. It’s not my fault you don’t have any taste.”We’ll be clear: We don’t like Jessel Taank. In the grand tradition of Ramona Singer, Jessel is a nightmare houseguest (“I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold, and I live in England,” she complains about Erin’s Hamptons home), an ungrateful giftee (“I feel like a Christmas tree. I’m a fucking Christmas tree,” she complains about Jenna’s lingerie present), and is, overall, socially uncouth. But those exceptionally bratty moments from the fashion publicist have been offset by some unhinged character reveals that hint at messy potential. She hasn’t had sex with her husband in more than a year, but once stuck a popsicle up her vagina. She’s the first Indian star of any Real Housewives franchise and that traditional heritage added an extra layer of drama to her IVF proceedings. And she was making headlines before the show even aired, vomiting in view of paparazzi at the swanky premiere party at the Rainbow Room. Every Housewives season needs somebody that annoys everybody, and it’s looking like Taank is that person.

Tagline: “I’m a true New Yorker. The only bull I’ll take is by the horns.”Just as you need one who bothers, you need another who is always bothered: the Manhattan-born realtor, interior designer, and shakshuka lover has found herself in the middle of many of season 14’s dramas thus far, playing aggrieved defense when Brynn dubs her restaurant choice not trendy enough, or when Jenna decides she’d rather stay at her own Sag Harbor abode than at Erin’s, or when Sai mocks the aforementioned Israeli egg dish she whips up for the women’s breakfast. Out of the new class of Housewives, Lichy is the closest spiritually to those of years’ past, with equal parts sensitivity and snark that echo early days Bethenny.

Tagline: “I love to laugh, but make me mad and I’ll date your dad.”“It’s hard to stay mad at Brynn,” said Erin, her most frequent dueling partner, in the season 14 premiere. “She’s fun, she’s sweet, she’s bubbly. She makes it light enough that you kind of forget.” And yes, for the first few eps of the season, all of that extra-brut effervescence threatened to flood the fact that Brynn is an actual person, not just a performative TV personality. She’s a shameless flirt (“There’s a 20 percent chance I might marry him and it’s increasing,” she declares of her third ex-fiancé), a campy camera hog (she welcomes guests to Sai’s house back-first so they can all get an eyeful of her derrière in a low-cut gown), and a cheeky menace—and delighting in her drama-causing deviousness like a younger sibling. But the August 6 episode revealed that beneath all that flamboyance hides a deeply wounded woman who has survived familial abandonment and abuse, who isn’t afraid to get vulnerable about the realities of her biracial identity, and who is constantly searching for the warmth and validation of love that was denied to her at such a young age. There’s greatness here—or, at the very least, great TV.

Tagline: “My lashes may be fake, but I definitely keep it real.”There’s aspiration built into The Real Housewives empire. Viewers take voyeuristic pleasure in peeking into a world of haute fashions, extravagant properties, and busy social calendars week after week. But RHONY season 14 proves that even its wealthy, well-heeled stars aspire to be more—they aspire to be Jenna Lyons. Lyons was the only “name” going into the reboot, having cultivated fashion-world fame as the former creative director of J.Crew, dressing everyone from Beyoncé to the Obamas, and parlaying that industry notoriety into her own reality show (the now-defunct Stylish With Jenna Lyons), guest spots on , and frequent real estate on magazine covers. And that status is evident among the rest of the cast: Jenna is immediately given the best room during their Sag Harbor sojourn, the mere sight of her 400-pair shoe closet leaves the women fangirling, and they immediately acquiesce to her biting (but correct) style critiques. (“You can’t have Alexander Wang on your back and Balenciaga on your bag.”) But there’s an element of mystery to Lyons that is intriguingly at odds with the reality of, well, reality TV. Reasons for those reservations are clear: The first openly gay Housewife, Lyons was infamously outed by New York tabloids while she was still trying to find her queer footing. Whether the buttoned-up personality will eventually allow the cameras into her psyche as readily as her closet remains to be seen, but for now the struggle between her outsized status and natural introversion is a knotty, compelling watch.