Keeping Up with the Kardashians: Learning Self-Defense
This week’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians followed the girls taking self-defense classes after someone vandalized their clothing boutique, DASH. Conveniently, the girls weren’t around for the random criminal act, but it inspired the idea of self-defense classes and later, a session at the firing range.
On the male side, Rob Kardashian turned down an opportunity to model in Japan with a top modeling agency in order to continue his education at the very same place that I went to school (twice), USC.
Despite encouragement from the junk food loving Kim, who has been a bit of an entrepreneur herself with modeling and before that, eBay, Rob made the popular decision within the family and his girlfriend Adrienne Bailon to stay in school. His decision to stay in school actually came as a surprise, as it would make sense for Rob to get out of the country to keep his mind off Adrienne’s time in India, but it is these moments of semi-real life heartwarming decision making that makes Keeping such a great show and this was one of those moments.
Even more, it was an overall better decision for the season, though I would have gone to Japan had I had that opportunity, just saying…
Surprisingly, I’ve never been to DASH or SMOOCH, both of which are owned by the Kardashians in Calabasas, California, though I plan on checking out the stores one of these days. As the profile of the girls grows with the popularity of the E! show, I think it was important to have an episode like this to show any legitimate crazies (as opposed to just big fans) that there will be security at DASH if they want to come by the store.
As much as the episode made for entertaining television fare on a Sunday night, I think that it served as a message on behalf of the Kardashians to subtly let people know that the store still operates like a store at the end of the day and that it’s still a business, not a place to hug E!’s favorite family.
Overall, if your DVR messed up your recording, this week’s episode was just average, missing some good one liners by the sisters and some jokes by Bruce. Regardless, it was far better than last week’s debacle, where the girls set sister Khloe up on blind dates, who unwillingly obliged.
Interestingly, one of Khloe’s blind dates featured on the show named Mr. Troy wrote a blog post criticizing Khloe Kardashian saying,
“She obviously lives off of Kim Kardashian’s name and they have a boutique designer store. It’s one of those places where they act as if they design but they really hire a ghost designer and they pay for all the designer’s ideas. Again they have no talent but Kim’s posterior does the marketing very well. Khloe also spoke on how she smokes and drinks a lot. I think she just did that to completely turn me off or something. I should have told her that I was completely turned off when I saw her walk in the coffee shop in the beginning and there was no need for her to talk at all. After that, we kind of looked at each other because I told her I don’t date girls that smoke and I find it very unattractive. Then I got up and said good bye and walked away.”
Mr. Troy operates a website to help women understand men in the dating world. Interestingly, the byline for his website is “A Women’s Guide on Men.” He’s clearly not a fan of the show and its editing, calling it a “waste of time,” but am I wrong in saying that the byline for his website reads extremely awkwardly for what it’s actually supposed to mean? It makes sense, but not in the way that it’s supposed to on the first read.
It kind of sounds like it is a guide on men written by women or maybe it would make more sense of it said “A Woman’s Guide on Men” or even “A Guide on Men for Women.” It’s just a suggestion, Mr. Troy, not a critique.
Last week’s episode was a bit of a down episode because there was a lot of anger and meanness that isn’t really what the show is about. It was clear that Khloe wasn’t having a lot of fun with this prank and it made for an awkward 30 minutes. While they tried to bring it together in the end with some serious segments of Kim in the “confessional” talking about how they just want Khloe to find happiness, it was probably the most disappointing episode of the season.
This week, with Rob deciding to stay in the country and the girls having some fun at their self-defense class, only to be no match when wrestling their former Olympian step-dad Bruce Jenner once they got home, Keeping Up with the Kardashians came close to finding its way back.
