Living Lohan: Like Mother, Like Daughter – Michael Lohan Comes Home
This week’s episode of Living Lohan featured brother Michael Lohan’s first appearance on the show. Michael is younger than Lindsay, but older than Ali, and is off at college while all the Lohan drama unfolds. Much like Rob Kardashian’s story about how it was difficult for him to grow up without his father, Michael Lohan Jr.’s story, at least the beginning of it, was one of the most interesting storylines that Living Lohan has presented thusfar.
While a determined Ali went off and got the family’s sixth little dog (apparently, they were babysitting two of Lindsay’s dogs at the time), much to the chagrin of her mother Dina, Michael came back home to spend time with his little brother Cody. Living with Dina and Ali, along with having to learn to live with all the celebrity that comes his way as a result of his last name, Cody finds himself as the only guy in the house and couldn’t have been more excited to see his older brother come home.
It was nice to see Michael and Cody interacting like normal brothers, not being chased by paparazzi or filling tabloid headlines, but just two brothers spending time with one another. With all the sensationalism that always surrounds the family, it was obvious that Cody was looking forward to just spending time with his older brother, who takes an extremely mature, leadership role in the family that immediately made you like the guy. It’s in moments like this, when Living Lohan isn’t just about Ali or things happening as a result of Lindsay, that the show just becomes a regular reality show about a family.
And for better or worse, it’s actually better that way. Much like Keeping Up with the Kardashians was at its best when the family just did regular things together, Living Lohan would be that much better if more episodes were spent doing regular things. While Ali Lohan might end up being the next big thing, the reality is that most people my age don’t really know who she is, nor are we really anticipating her album.
The show sits in this awkward place, where 50% of each episode is dark, somber, and filled with drama, while the other part focuses on Ali’s career, only with a sprinkling of the family’s lives mixed in. The show is now in full swing and other than seeing some girls making fun of Ali in a previous episode, along with seeing her sign some autographs in a parking lot, we still know very little about Ali Lohan, other than her mother saying she’s a “very bright girl.”
With Michael’s appearance in this episode, viewers got to chip away at the hard shell that the Lohan family has had to maintain in order to sustain some form of privacy. While the Kardashians were able to let down their guard a bit for the show, the Lohans have been having a hard time building connections with viewers because of how defensive they have to be against the media.
Their lives operate like a business and it’d be nice to see their business be a part of their lives instead.
I had no idea there even was a second brother in the family. I always held out hope that Cody could turn out “normal,” but now it’s nice to see that he really does have a fighting chance because he has an older brother to look up to.