14 DAY TRIAL // A short while ago, Bristol Palin promised that her new reality series, “Life's a Tripp,” which just premiered on Lifetime, would offer the world a chance to see her as she really was, a glimpse behind the lies fabricated by the press. She lied, critics are saying.
The first episode of the show aired the other night and reactions to it are mostly negative: instead of presenting the life of the real Bristol Palin, it's just another piece of reality programming, chock-full of fabricated drama and inane dialog.
Most of the first episode shows Bristol and younger sister Willow moving to Beverly Hills in a huge rented mansion, with Bristol's 3-year-old son Tripp.
Their motives for moving from Alaska feel forced, as also does whatever else they do throughout the episode, critics say, as Yahoo Shine perfectly sums it up.
In doing this show, Bristol isn't so much trying to show her real self to the world but rather to emulate another reality family, the Kardashians, by portraying herself as normal, approachable and, at the same time, decadent.
Palin, unlike the Kardashians, fails.
“Even if you have a lasting grudge against all things Palin, there’s no payoff here. It’s a new low for anyone who makes the mistake of watching,” The Washington Post writes.
“We’re left with a show about two sisters, temporarily billeted in a Beverly Hills mansion, mostly complaining about Los Angeles, each other and their lives,” The Los Angeles Times also says.
However, the most scathing review comes from Entertainment Weekly, which basically says there's no reason to watch this show unless you really want to punish yourself.
Both its concept and its execution are sub-par.
“But whatever you were expecting from Bristol Palin’s reality show, I can’t imagine that anyone was expecting Life’s a Tripp to turn into one of the weirdest – and most uncomfortable – reality shows in recent history,” EW writes.
“I have to pause here and note that I have no idea who the hell this show is aimed at. There may be a lot of people who desperately want to watch a pair of wealthy (and somewhat directionless) young women who never have to get real jobs joke about how funny Los Angeles is,” says the same reviewer.
By the end of the first episode, the viewer can't but feel sorry for Bristol, even though it's clear that what they're seeing on the screen is only a representation of what Bristol (and whoever manages her “career”) would want to be.
“When most of us were 17, we were just starting to figure out how to be a person. Bristol Palin was only ever allowed to be a personality. Her story could make a great TV show. But Life’s a Tripp is just awful,” EW concludes.