Roseanne Barr is smart and funny and honest and abrasive and more, all in a kind of unsettling way. Which makes her pretty interesting.
She's self aware too, as the title of her new reality show "Roseanne's Nuts" (Lifetime, 9 tonight) proves, and in just one episode you get a glimpse at her special brand of crazy, landing you dead center in her world, and making for a half-hour of jittery fun.
We meet Roseanne in her new life; she's chucked Los Angeles living to move to Hawaii with her boyfriend Johnny to run a macadamia nut farm and lead a more peaceful, simple life. Of course, because she has gobs of money, it's a big piece of land, but still.
Money has not only afforded her land, it's gotten her lots of therapy, and thus, insight, so while she still mouths off, Roseanne is clearly more conscious of what she needs and wants in life. Johnny seems a good match for her too; he points out that 'sometimes you're a bitch,' (and flashback scenes back him up) and when she barks about being away from the machinations of L.A., he points out that a camera crew is filming them. (And to the show's credit, the crew is shown.) He lovingly grounds Roseanne.
In the first episode, wild pigs are eating up Roseanne's nuts and she goes to war. Her oldest son Jake comes to visit too; Roseanne wants him to move to her utopia, but he's unconvinced that she'll make it. When Roseanne says 'it's like marriage, if I like it after a year I'll stick it out, if not, I'll leave,' Jake points out that's not exactly how marriage works. He lovingly grounds her too.
Roseanne is a bit high maintenance but she's never boring, and is one of the more fun people I've seen end up with the cash to do and say whatever she wants. It's tough to make a full assessment from one half-hour, but those qualities alone make for good reality TV.
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon. 
