Jon + Kate + 8 = ???
Jon and Kate Plus 8 premiered last night pulling in a whopping 9.8 million viewers and you could cut the tension between the couple with a chainsaw. It was the most depressing thing I’ve watched in a long time. Will they stay together? We still don’t know. Apparently, neither do they.
In a nutshell, for the few of you out there who haven’t watched the show, Jon and Kate are the parents of 5-year-old sextuplets and 9-year-old twins. The TLC “reality” show follows their lives as they deal with raising their enormous brood.
Internet rumors say the couple gets paid $25,000 per episode by TLC in addition to the money Kate brings in by traveling all over promoting her book and speaking.
And in case you haven’t noticed the tabloids at all the grocery and convenience stores, rumors are flying that Jon had an affair with a 23-year-old school teacher and that Kate is carrying on with her bodyguard. True? Who knows. They both deny any cheating but during last night’s premier, it was obvious that the two are on a one-way non-stop rollercoaster ride to the big “D.”
Jon looked horrible and could barely make eye contact with the camera, much less his wife. His eyes were red with bags under them. He looked bloated and sunburned.
Kate seemed to be working really hard at keeping her anger buried deep inside. The show was ostensibly about the sextuplets’ fifth birthday but the real meat of the episode was the question of will they or won’t they… stay together… as friends… for the kids’ sake… for the money the show brings in…
Kate, sporting fresh tri-colored highlights in her strange, reverse-mullet side-banged spikey-backed hairdo, wearing a big fake smile throughout the birthday party, laughed too loud, made too many dumb jokes and basically tried to put a happy face on a really sad situation. “I did not sign up for the public scrutiny of everything,” When the birthday party got underway, Jon, who had spent the entire episode apparently locked in his bedroom avoiding the cameras and his wife, rolled up in his flashy white sports car, looking very Hollywood with his expensive Ray Bans. He and Kate barely spoke a word to each other and basically never looked at each other.
When the family posed for a group photo, Kate’s heartbreaking voiceover said it all: that she was afraid this would be their last family photo together.
Meanwhile, paparazzi lurk around every corner, licking their chops at the magazine covers they’re shooting.
Here are some of my observations about Jon and Kate and their relationship.
Kate has a bad habit of being way too controlling of Jon and the way he deals with the kids. She is a neat-freak and doesn’t seem to care whom she alienates in her quest to control situations. BUT, I don’t think she is as evil as many other bloggers and commentators play her up to be. She has her own insecurities that make her act the way she does.
I think she has a real complex about certain things such as her intelligence and her importance. She is constantly belittling Jon for his choices of words, grammar, etc. I think this stems from her desire to be viewed as extremely intelligent. And her attempts to be in control of everything seem like ways she makes herself feel more important. Or maybe, she just thinks nobody is quite as smart as she is and that she deserves to be in charge of everything… I’m no psychologist.
Jon may be sick of the way his wife treats him but after having watched the show for two years, it seems obvious to me that he just rolls over and lets her treat him however she wants. He never stands up for himself. Now, it seems like he’s completely over the whole situation. He hates being on television, hates the cameras constantly in his face, resents his controlling wife, is tired of having to be responsible for so many people and wishes he could go back to being just your average IT guy with 8 kids.
But now, the two seem addicted to the spoils of being stars. The money, the attention, the fans, the swag, the vacations, you name it.
The good news is that I think the show could go on forever whether they are together or not. With TLC’s bizarre lineup of shows featuring little people, families with way too many kids, mystery diseases and women who didn’t know they were pregnant, a show featuring a divorced couple juggling 8 kids would fit right in.
But the viewers might not be so happy. It’s been a show that people could safely watch with their children, complete with cute kid characters, lots of good family scenes sprinkled with some moral and biblical messages. If Jon and Kate split up, will parents be as happy letting their children tune in?
And, in the long run, is continuing the show really the best thing for the 8? Those kids don’t know life without cameras in their faces.
Jon and Kate say that they only have their children’s best interests at heart. Would the kids be better off with poorer parents but freedom from paparazzi hounds? And could the marriage have survived if camera crews weren’t constantly shooting their marital problems in high definition?
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