First, I have to say this is not as much of a train wreck as "Being Bobby Brown," but you can see the same trajectory in this TV series. It is supposed to tell us about Houston's family life after Whitney Houston's passing, but you are basically watching her daughter Bobby Kristina's downward spiral. I said sequel to "Being Bobby Brown" because you again watch an unbalanced and lost young woman's toxic and codependent relationship with a loser black guy. This time, his name is Nick Gordon. Bobby Kristina is obviously lost, distraught, and still grieving for her mother. She desperately clings to her boyfriend and tries to stand up in her daily life, but the problem is that her boyfriend is also not a solid figure. The only positive note about this TV show is Patricia Houston's presence. It looks like she has become a kind of legal guardian for Booby Krisitna, and she tries to guide her into doing the right things like hiring an acting coach for acting lessons and bringing her a script for her own career. She also supports her own musical career, but she was so distracted by his boyfriend that she basically spent all her time with Nick Gordon. There are also some moments when she drinks and looks high; it's beyond disturbing considering what happened to her mother. This show just looks untimely and unnecessary. Maybe they decided to make this TV series with good intentions, but it looks like it just backfired. As I said, it's not a train wreck, and again, you can't see any positive material about the Houston family in this show.
3 Reviews
Appalling...and ultimately, tragic...
howyoodoon21 August 2015
"The Houstons: On Our Own" is the television equivalent of a "snuff film": Watch an unbalanced, desperately lost 19-year old stumbling toward her own suicide! One wonders what in the name of God these people were thinking--the year after Whitney Houston's death, her "loving family" put a camera on Bobbi Kristina Brown and her fiancé/brother...and a largely uninteresting menagerie of hangers- on, leeches and shirttail relatives. Now that both Whitney and Bobbi Kristina are both dead, this absolutely atrocious "show" acts as a perfect companion piece to "Being Bobby Brown"--which is commonly considered to be the very worst "reality" show in television history. Poor, lost little Bobbi Kris is clearly either drunk or stoned throughout the episodes--but never mind letting the girl grieve in peace or getting her to a rehab! Let's fire up the cameras and watch as she begins her inexorable spin toward the grave. Nearly three years to the date of her mother, Whitney's own death, Bobbi Kristina was found face down in her own bathtub, surviving in a coma for seven more months before being taken off life support, dead at just 22 years old.
Whose idea WAS this? Who is responsible for this horrific train-wreck? HOW could this have seemed a good idea, especially in light of how "Being Bobby Brown" pretty much signaled the end of Whitney's own dignity (and, by extension, her career...and life)? In what possible way could this have been a positive thing for this clearly unstable young woman? Presumably--the fault lays at the feet of "Executive Producer" (and executor of Whitney's estate), Patricia Houston--the wife of Whitney's charm-free brother, Gary (who admitted, after Whitney's death, that he was the one who introduced her to cocaine). Watching this mercifully brief series (a pilot and 12 episodes)in its entirety, this shameless woman, "Auntie Pat," constantly talks about how her entire life is about "protecting Bobbi Kris" and how nothing bad will happen to BKB "on my watch". Her words seem even emptier, now that her niece has essentially killed herself.
There are a few, brief moments that are truly touching...such as in Episode 4, when BKB breaks down and tearfully admits how painful it is to deal with her mother's legacy. And hearing the 80-year old Cissy Houston positively wailing out a from-the-gut rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at a rehearsal for a Whitney Houston tribute--one wishes these producers had taken their money and their energies and just did a tribute show to this remarkable woman, whose life is most certainly worthy of a full-fledged appraisal. Not these idiotic, vain, uninteresting fools, preening for the camera, while Bobbi Kristina is teetering on the edge of her grave.
This show should be packaged with "Being Bobby Brown" and marketed as a different kind of "reality show": Shows that actually contribute to the death of their subject! SNUFF TV! What a world we live in....
Whose idea WAS this? Who is responsible for this horrific train-wreck? HOW could this have seemed a good idea, especially in light of how "Being Bobby Brown" pretty much signaled the end of Whitney's own dignity (and, by extension, her career...and life)? In what possible way could this have been a positive thing for this clearly unstable young woman? Presumably--the fault lays at the feet of "Executive Producer" (and executor of Whitney's estate), Patricia Houston--the wife of Whitney's charm-free brother, Gary (who admitted, after Whitney's death, that he was the one who introduced her to cocaine). Watching this mercifully brief series (a pilot and 12 episodes)in its entirety, this shameless woman, "Auntie Pat," constantly talks about how her entire life is about "protecting Bobbi Kris" and how nothing bad will happen to BKB "on my watch". Her words seem even emptier, now that her niece has essentially killed herself.
There are a few, brief moments that are truly touching...such as in Episode 4, when BKB breaks down and tearfully admits how painful it is to deal with her mother's legacy. And hearing the 80-year old Cissy Houston positively wailing out a from-the-gut rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at a rehearsal for a Whitney Houston tribute--one wishes these producers had taken their money and their energies and just did a tribute show to this remarkable woman, whose life is most certainly worthy of a full-fledged appraisal. Not these idiotic, vain, uninteresting fools, preening for the camera, while Bobbi Kristina is teetering on the edge of her grave.
This show should be packaged with "Being Bobby Brown" and marketed as a different kind of "reality show": Shows that actually contribute to the death of their subject! SNUFF TV! What a world we live in....
Disgusting!
mkross9285 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I only watched the trailer of this. The summary says that this show chronicles how Whitney Houston's family coped with her untimely demise. I'm disgusted that they would do a show so soon after her death. I don't know why her family agreed to do the show, but it seemed to me like the producers were more concerned with money than the loss of a person. Perhaps this is why her daughter didn't even live half as long as Whitney did. The poor girl wasn't allowed to figure out how to just grieve and move on in her own way. I hope the producers are ashamed of themselves.
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