Yes, yes, another Jon & Kate Plus 8 post. Sue me, I got sucked in to TLC’s weekend marathon and ended up watching way more of them than I ever planned to.
Since TLC marathoned the episodes from beginning to the present, you could see the evolution of the Gosselins from a young family, struggling to make ends meet to their current trainwreck of a situation. Whether you loved them or hated them, chances are you’ve spied them on a tabloid cover or heard about them even if you don’t watch TV. And if you haven’t, well, consider yourself lucky.
Normally, I could care less about celebrities. They have their lives and I have mine and that’s just fine. I don’t envy celebrities for what they have because while the money would be really, really nice, life under a microscope sure as hell isn’t. Even so, when a family like the Gosselins come around and practically GIVE you the microscope, can you really be blamed for looking?
Having followed the Gosselins on and off, my first impression of them was that they were a young family, struggling to get by in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Twins AND sextuplets? Just the idea of The Little Empress having a twin is enough to make me curl up in a fetal position and rock back and forth moaning, “Oh god no oh god no oh god no.” (Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter to pieces but she. is. a. handful.) Watching Mady Gosselin twirl around, the spirited energy bomb that she is, makes curl up in the aforementioned fetal position because good lord, Mady is exactly how I was as a child and is likely a reflection of what I have to look forward to with The Little Empress. God help me. And it was extraordinary to see how Kate Gosselin managed her humoungus household. If she was a little stressed out, who could blame her?
But then the one hour special became a series on the Discovery Health Channel which then got moved to TLC which has since morphed from The Learning Channel to The Litter Channel because it seems like most family shows have something to do with folks having multiples or huge families. (And yes, I watch these on occasion too because, wow, trainwreck.) And with each subsequent evolution of the show, the Gosselins changed as well. Far from being the young, just trying to make it family that I think most families could relate to, they’ve quickly become a celebrity family that very few people can relate to. They became a family that folks loved or hated. Casual watchers of the show — myself included — saw something wrong in the body language between Kate and Jon. As the show became more popular, more mainstream, some fans hated to admit that they loved the Gosselins; meanwhile anti-fans loved to hate them.
Why does the media even bother elevating people to celebrity status? Is it to worship them or to hate them?
I guess that in some sick way, the allegations of Jon being unfaithful and the Gosselins marriage being on the rocks has brought them crashing down to earth. Casual couch potato viewers — myself included, sadly — jumped from their couch saying, “I knew something was wrong!” Online forums buzz with news on who has outed the Gosselins for what they are, blogs speculate what is next, Gosselin lovers, haters and “… wtf is this all about?” folks tuned in on Monday to watch the painful, train wreck of a season premiere.
The silences, the body language, Kate’s palpable animosity, Jon’s resigned body language, the strain. To us, it is a television show; to them, it is their lives. I feel so very ashamed to be peeking in on what should be some very private parts of their lives and yet I remind myself that it is okay because they are choosing to air it for us.
I can’t help but wonder what will be next for the Gosselin kids. The sextuplets are 5 and the twins are nearly 9. They are no longer the uber cute little kids they once were. When TLC drops them — and they will, make no mistake. The entertainment world is cruel and you’re only as desirable as your marketing team wants you to be — what will happen to the kids? Will they notice that the attention is gone? (I’m sure Mady will!) Will they miss the free trips, the special treatment? Or will they bounce and recover?
And what of Jon and Kate? I mentioned to my sister that TLC’s marathon of Jon & Kate Plus 8 episodes over the Memorial Day weekend felt a lot like a memorial service. See how they used to be! See how they changed! See what changed! The season premiere really felt like the beginning of a slow death for the show, like a train slowly but surely about to crash to a stop. It is horrible and you know people are going to get hurt but you just. can’t. look. away.
