GOSSELINS, GOBLINS & GHOULS

Kate Plus 8 (2010)

I am an unapologetic fan of Jon & Kate Plus 8 and to a lesser degree Kate Gosselin herself, despite her many glaring flaws.  She’s a type of bitchy that I can appreciate and that makes for good TV.  Even I must admit, however, that past the first few seasons the show degenerated into a fame-whoring mess, going from a realistic look at parents navigating the challenges of having eight young kids to a shrill single mom posturing for the cameras.  Unfortunately this episode falls into the latter half, as it was part of a series of specials that came post-divorce.

Kate has replaced Jon with a plastic pumpkin head.  Upgrade?!

Kate is living in the manse, sporting the extensions, manicured nails and fake tan that mark her post-fame transformation.  Any sense of reality is lost as she stops to sign autographs while shopping and when it comes time to decorate the basement she’s helped solely by the camera crew in lieu of a husband, family or friends.  A fair amount of the episode is taken up with non-holiday related things like the return of the family dog.  It gets dull fast; so dull that halfway through Nick elected to go do the dishes rather than watch the rest of the episode.  Now that’s dull!  Despite these flaws, however, there is some Halloween goodness to be found. 

First Kate lives out one of my fantasies by going on a Party City shopping spree, randomly stuffing three carts full of Halloween decorations in order to create a haunted basement for her kids.  Clearly Party City is footing the bill; indeed you get the sense that throughout this episode Kate doesn’t actually pay for anything, whether it’s pumpkins, dog treats or hay rides.  Still it’s fun to watch her navigate the aisles and later return with the kids to pick out costumes amid the usual last-minute costume mob.

Other Halloween highlights include a trip to the pumpkin patch, a game of toilet paper mummy wrapping, a hayride, pumpkin carving and a trick-or-treating finale.  Cara forgoes a costume and goes as “Cara Gosselin” which violates every tenet of Halloween decorum that I value.  She is forever disqualified from Halloween! 

The kids and their costumes.  And Cara.

All of the above scenes are enjoyable but cracks constantly appear to remind the viewer that this family is living anything but an ordinary life.  While on the aforementioned hayride, in one of the episode’s more surreal moments, Kate recalls the very first episode of the show, in which the family also went to a pumpkin patch.  She asks the kids if they remember and they respond by saying that of course they do because it’s all on the tapes. They’ve traded actual memories for taped episodes of their own show. 

Now that’s scary!

This post brought to you by the good people at Party City.

Recurring Themes: Alexis wears the ever-popular Cleopatra Costume while Kate designs a basement Homemade Haunted House for the kids.

Halloween Quotient: It would be a 4 if not for the bloated running time and non-Halloween stuff crammed in, so this rates a 3.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

This episode is up on Netflix so see it if you have the time and can tolerate this tainted version of Kate Gosselin.  Otherwise you can skip it in favor of the superior Season 1 episode “Ten Little Pumpkins.”