Keeping up with the Kardashians Season Two   Starring: Kris Jenner, Bruce Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian Odom Universal Pictures (UK) RRP: £12.99 8288677 Certificate: 15 Available 26 March 2012

Reality programs gained popularity following Ozzy Osbourne ’s show, the format spawned many imitators, from shows which had something genuine to say to others which just treated their, fame obsessed, subjects like freaks of nature. One of the more popular shows in the States is Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The popularity of reality show cannot be denied, though, for the life of me, I have no idea why anyone would want to watch the daily goings on of such a vacuous bunch of people.

The Kardashians appear to be famous on the same basis as many people today who don’t actually look like they contribute much to society except for allowing the media to follow every deed and very occasional thoughts that they might have.

The family is headed by Kris, who gained the name from her late husband, who was famous for defending O.J.Simpson. Her new husband, who also has inherited a dead man’s name, is Bruce, once an athlete, but now condemned to live a life of luxury surrounded by slight mad women.

The undoubted star of the show is their eldest daughter, a magnificent grotesque named Kourtney (incidentally, very few of the characters have names which do not begin with a K, possibly because that’s as far as the family’s ability with the alphabet goes), although Kim comes in a close second. Although she runs a small business, Kourtney's main obsession in life is her own innate narcissism. She behaves, speaks and appears to have the emotional maturity of a twelve years old.

The show mostly consists of the audience following around the family as they discuss their love lives and related minutia around being generally rich. Unfortunately, for the makers of the show, the family are not natural actors, therefore when some of the action has to be staged, probably for dramatic purposes, the wooden reactions of the cast are an immediate indication that this is faked up.

So, given that this was likely to bring ridicule on the family, why would anyone want to do it? Well, the Kardashians have made millions from the fame, but I do question what sort of society places people in the public arena, just to take the p*ss out of them. I didn’t like the show, but mostly I didn’t like what it said about the audience.

Still, it’s very popular in the States, where it has spawned a number of sequels, made millions for the network and is watched by millions. This current box set consists of all eleven episodes from the second season. There are two extras on the disc, although I was unable to find them, probably because the menu system looked like it was created on someone's home laptop.

If you liked The Only Way is Essex, then there is much here that you’ll probably like, just don’t feel good about yourself while your laughing at the strange people, who are probably laughing at you for making them even richer.

5

Charles Packer