I first suggested to my wife that she watch “Jon & Kate Plus 8” because I told it was funny watch Kate scream at Jon.Now there’s absolutely nothing funny about this show.
I don’t remember the first time I heard about “Jon & Kate Plus 8” or the first episode that I watched but for some reasons, maybe cultural osmosis, I always knew about the show. This show first started out as television specials and evolved into a television show which this last Monday had the start of its fifth season.
Towards the end of the fourth season, photographs of Jon with another lady and rumors about an affair showed up on television tabloid shows and in magazines. Between the finale of the fourth season and this recent premiere the media interest in Jon and Kate’s relationship has continued to build.
Besides Jon’s alleged affair, rumors have come up that Kate also had an affair. People on both sides have come up saying that things have happened and it’s hard to say what has factually happened. Even though we don’t know for sure what exactly is going on in their relationship, we know something is off. Where there’s smoke there’s a fire, and the premiere of the fifth season of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” made it clear that something was wrong.
My wife likes watching “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” It’s not her favorite show but she’s probably seen almost all of the episodes. I’ll casually watch the show with her sometimes and it can an interesting and entertaining. I enjoy watching the dynamics of the kids and how they have grown up. Jon and Kate are not “television parents” but real people. They fight, make mistakes but at the end of every episode, they reaffirm their love for each other and their children.
For me, that’s the crux of the show: no matter how hard life is, no matter how bad things get, people can make things work and still love each other through it all. If Jon and Kate can get their eight kids on an airplane and on a ski trip, then maybe I can handle my classroom full of third graders. I may feel overwhelmed like Jon and Kate often do but it’s ok, we all have our moments. Sometimes life is hard but it’s ok if we keep love in our hearts.
I’m not an idiot, I know that “Jon & Kate Plus 8” is a reality show. If you take a couple days of any of our lives and film it, we can be made to be the most intelligent person or the biggest idiot. There are conscious choices on any kind reality show to portray people a certain way depending on what they leave in as well as what they leave out. We don’t get the whole story of what happens in “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” What we get is an “interpretation” of the events.
“Jon & Kate Plus 8” as a piece of art, not necessarily a representation of reality, in the past four seasons has expressed the hopes and dreams of that we all have for future generations while struggling to define what it means to be a family. However, the premiere of the fifth season expressed something very different.
Watching this last episode of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” was horrifying. I knew that this episode was going to address the rumors surrounding Jon and Kate from the commercials, but I didn’t expect to be so disturbed by what was revealed.
You know what, it wasn’t what the episode showed us, but what we didn’t see that was truly disturbing. We didn’t see Jon and Kate fight. Jon and Kate did not reveal whether they were separated or not and we still have no clue about the truth behind the conflict in their lives. All of this stuff is left to our imagination, which only makes it more powerful.
As a piece of art, the premiere was shockingly effective in evoking feelings of despair, sadness and loss. The director and editors are to be commended for creating one of the effective pieces of television I’ve watched in a long time. Was it effective in expressing emotions that I want feel again any time soon? No, but art isn’t always about expressing, rainbows and puppy dogs, sometimes it shows us darkness.
Part of what is disturbing about this episode is that behind the “reality show” we know that there is some truth: a family is falling apart. Watching Jon and Kate fight in the toy store makes us feel better about our own flaws, watching their relationship slowly fall apart reminds us of what we fear the most.
I will continue to watch “Jon & Kate Plus 8” this season, hoping that they can pull it together. This would not only be a great dramatic arc but it will also mean something very real for the Jon, Kate and their eight children. This resolution like the ending of a great television drama may not come exactly the way that I expect but I hope it does come.
I want this not only for Jon and for Kate, but for my own belief that through love there is nothing that two people cannot overcome.
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