DaveChung.com – A Guy’s Blog From Girl World

I give up. Living Lohan is officially an awful show.

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While it took others just an episode or two to realize how horrible this show really is, I tried to give it a chance and I now want all those 30 minute bursts of life back. In tonight’s show, which could very well by my last viewing of this god awful program, Ali Lohan singlehandedly created some of the most unbearable, spoiled television moments in the history of reality TV after the family moved to Las Vegas so that she could start recording her album.

Not only was Ali’s self-deprecating, compliment fishing attitude painful to listen to as she repeatedly wasted everyone’s time in the studio saying “that was so bad” over and over, she showed a spoiled attitude that is helping no one go to “Team Ali” when watching this show. If you haven’t been watching, which chances are you haven’t, Ali Lohan somehow landed a recording deal with the show’s executive producers, the Maloofs, to record a full length pop album.

After a smattering of track choosing footage, along with some smidgens of Ali’s subpar singing that makes Making the Band appear Emmy worthy, the family picked up and moved to Vegas so that Ali could achieve her dream of being a pop star.

Now, let’s get past the fact that Ali is really not a good singer. She’s not a bad singer, but compared to any of the girls on Making the Band, she’s pretty much Miley Cyrus in terms of vocal ability, without the Disney-approved personality. While there’s no doubt that Ali has her sights set on Miley “The World’s Biggest Celebrity” Cyrus’ crown, the problem is that this show is doing absolutely nothing to help Ali get anywhere near the fanbase that Miss Montana enjoys.

The problem here is that Ali Lohan is finally learning what it means to work. For those of us who worked in restaurants at 13-14 years of age, Ali is living in the penthouse suite at the Maloof-owned Palms Casino in Las Vegas, singing all day. Instead of being grateful to her mother who undoubtedly set all this up for her with the help of E! powers that be and the Maloof family, Ali complained about not being able to go out with her brother and mother because she was “in the studio” all day.

I understand that the girl was exhausted, but she needs to realize that the only reason her brother, who is missing his soccer season, and mother are there in the first place is for her. They’re the ones making the sacrifice, not her. She’s getting to do what girls her age can only dream of doing instead of working minimum wage jobs like the rest of us did at this age.

So yes, Ali put down the track. Next week, Kendra from Girls Next Door will be stopping by, but I don’t know if I will be. Living Lohan could very well be one of the five worst shows of regular cable television (not including public access). 

Tonight’s episode of Living Lohan

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focused on Ali and Cody getting brother Michael Lohan and his girlfriend Nina back together, along with the struggles that “Nana” Lohan, Ali’s grandmother, has been having since her husband of fifty years passed away. 

While it was nice to see Michael Lohan continue to have a presence on the show because he provides a lot of positive 
energy to the family, the family struggled to figure out why Nana didn’t want to come to Las Vegas to watch Ali record her album.

After running through excuse after excuse, Nana finally revealed that her apprehension towards traveling with the Lohan clan came down to a lack of motivation that has stayed with her since the passing of her husband. While persistent, mother Dina Lohan wisely backed off and it looks like the Lohans will be heading off to Vegas next week, sans Grandma.

Clearly, there are a lot of haters who are not such big fans of Living Lohan

, especially when compared to shows like The Hills

or Keeping Up with the Kardashians. And tonight, while I’m not crazy about the show myself, I took issue with something that I finally noticed about the show.

Much like The Kardashians promote DASH and SMOOCH on the reality show about their family, Living Lohan helps promote Ali’s album, which is fine. Just like on The Hills, the show seems to have some kind of deal going with The Dolce Group, because the girls always go to restaurants and places owned by the company (Ketchup, Les Deux, etc.).

However, I finally noticed today that the Maloof brothers, of Sacramento Kings ownership fame, are the executive producers for the Lohan reality show. And not coincidentally, Ali Lohan is recording her album on the Maloof record label and looks like she’ll be staying at the Palms Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas while recording, also owned by the Maloofs. So not only is there a deal in place professionally, but the Maloofs are in charge of the overall show as well.

Sneaky, but brilliant.

As the season progresses, unless there is some more separation between the Maloofs and Lohans, who are going to be tied together in one way or another due to Ali’s career, some moments on the show might feel like even greater product placement moments than what we see on The Hills everytime a new restaurant shows up. Not only can the Maloofs tell the story they want to tell through the less compelling cast of this reality show, but they can likely promote any of their ventures because of them holding all the power on the program.

Will Living Lohan just become one big commercial? Now that we’ve lost Michael Lohan for an episode at least and don’t have Nana in Vegas next week, I have a feeling we’re in for product placement galore, much to the enjoyment of the Maloofs.

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.

This weekend’s episode of Living Lohan on E! featured what it seemed like the show was going to be about initially – what life is like as a Lohan.

While Ali is working on her music and career, the reality is that because she still goes to school like any other wealthy 14 year old, she gets teased and has to deal with a lot than any other wealthy 14 year old because of her sister Lindsay’s celebrity. Tonight, the show gave an example of how her sister’s celebrity has affected the teenager’s life as some “Mean Girls” from Ali’s high school told Ali to “stop trying to be like your sister” and asked if her if she was “going to rehab” like her older sister and role model.

It was actually very sad to see Ali get teased because she really looks up to her older sister, who has been filling tabloid headlines of late with rumors of her possible romance with best friend Samantha Ronson. Ironically, Mom Dina Lohan kept making references to Mean Girls

, the movie that truly broke Lindsay Lohan into super stardom, when referring to these girls who say malicious things to Ali in school.

Ali handled it all well, but this was definitely the most interesting thing that the show has covered so far, much like when Keeping Up with the Kardashians talked about their relationship with their late father. I think that we’ve all come to grips with the idea that reality TV is more semi-scripted reality TV than anything, but there are some glimpses of reality in there that help us understand these people that fill our DVRs every week.

Although Ali was the only White girl there and looked a little out of place in what looked to be more of an urban program, she found some clarity at a performing arts program called IMPACT – despite being followed by a small gang of paparazzi upon arrival. I don’t think that this will become a regular part of her life, but it would definitely make for good TV to see Ali become a part of the IMPACT community, which looked to be all African-American and much more gospel and hip-hop oriented than you’d think Ali is at first glance.

It was kind of cool that Dina brought Ali there, but unfortunately, I’m almost positive that her involvement with the program for positivity through the arts will be a one time thing on the show.

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Next week, Michael Lohan Jr., Lindsay’s younger brother and Ali’s older brother, comes home with his girlfriend. Michael Lohan was in high school while Lindsay was reaching her peaks of superstardom, so he’s more than familiar with life as a Lohan as we know it.

Seeing as Ali has thrust herself into the paparazzis’ eyes as made obvious by the throngs of paparazzi that followed her around in tonight’s episode, it will be interesting to see how Michael handles being just a guy in college who has one of the most well-known faces on the planet as a sister.

We’re still waiting on a Lindsay sighting on the show, but clearly, her influence on the family is something that will be felt regardless of if there is a cameo this season.

Living Lohan this week was a lesson in celebrity gossip for new producer on the block Jeremy Greene, who is producing a track for Ali’s demo. After misspeaking to the tabloids, Jeremy found himself in the center of a rumor that said that he was dating Lindsay Lohan. This news came as a surprise to the Lohans, who knew that Jeremy had never met the most famous of the Lohan clan.

It was time for a little Gossip 101 for Jeremy, courtesy of mom Dina Lohan

, who admitted that she knew nothing about Hollywood just a few years before.

It appears as though Jeremy will be playing a sizable role on Living Lohan and he’s actually a pretty interesting character to have on the show. It does seem a little weird that he has such a prominent role, despite the fact that he’s technically only producing one song for Ali’s demo so far, but he gives the show a different angle, albeit a weird one.

After dodging a potential disaster from an electrical fire in the house while Dina was out at an event, Ali and Jeremy discussed which track she’d be recording with him in Vegas after it appeared as though all hard feelings were gone from the LiLo rumor. Jeremy was back in the inner circle, though Ali continued to say that she doesn’t trust anyone other than her family, a little cynical for a 14 year old, isn’t it? However, most girls her age didn’t grow up with an older sister filling the tabloids.

Two episodes in, Living Lohan is really an interesting paradox in so many ways. You have the maturity and business sense of Dina Lohan going up against up with the teenage behavior and natural immaturity of Ali Lohan as she tries to shape her career and really, her life.

Mom Dina believes in Ali and helps guide her career, but she says that she’s more concerned with giving Ali the opportunity to have a regular life. Ali says that she wants to be just like older sister Lindsay, but we haven’t seen or heard from the older Lohan daughter so far that shows the bond between the two, which I’d love to see.

Ali is a little abrasive, but it’s just because she’s very opinionated. It doesn’t seem like there’s too much where Ali is middle of the road and it wouldn’t make sense for her to have her own reality show otherwise.

In next week’s episode, it looks like we’re going to see some of what “regular life” is like for Ali – school, friends, and what comes with the territory of being a Lohan. Something tells me that this part of the story will be more interesting than watching Ali listen to random tracks in the house.

Tonight, the much talked about premiere of Living Lohan, a Maloof/Lohan venture, finally aired on E!. Along with Ryan Seacrest’s new show Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, E! has a whole new lineup of reality based shows to fill the spots normally taken by Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Pop Fiction (is this still on?) during the offseason.

Instead of showing reruns, E! gets to keep showing Super New shows year round. Brilliant!

Despite my love for anything pop culture, I actually had very little idea about what Living would be about. Since she’s clearly out of my target demo, Ali Lohan, a 14 year old girl, was largely unknown to me. I knew that Dina Lohan played mom and manager to the girls, but I really didn’t know much about Ali and her singing/acting career.

Was this another Kardashians ? Or would this simply be hype for all of the upcoming Lohan projects?

What I got was something that was very different. It was a little intense at times, but it felt very real watching Mama Lohan try to manage one of Hollywood’s most sought after and hunted families. From checking the tabloids for the newest stories on Lindsay to trying to keep up with her daughter Ali’s next album release, the show looks like it will focus heavily on Dina Lohan trying to keep up with her daughters’ careers more than it will look at the family members’ relationships with one another (like Keeping).

While Chris Kardashian, Kim’s mother, plays a much calmer, nice manager/mom, Dina Lohan is all about business. Since Lindsay has been “in the biz” for so many years now, Dina is clearly media savvy and unafraid of anything that the paparazzi and tabloids will throw at her and her family. She has a sharp tongue, but I don’t think that it’s overdone at all. If you’ve ever worked in a talent management office, you have an understanding of how intense some of these conversations can get. When your daughter and biggest client is Lindsay Lohan, one of Hollywood’s biggest names, it just gets that much bigger.

This week’s episode focused on Ali’s singing career and pending second full album, which is also being produced by the Maloof brothers. While Ali is only 14 years old, she’s no doubt grown up quicker, but seems to lack some of the more smiley, innocent niceness that Lindsay had at a comparable age. It will definitely be interesting to see Ali at school to see what her “regular life” is like. Ali, like her mom, is very direct and speaks with a noticeable New York accent that hasn’t yet been tamed by the Hollywood scene.

While picking out tracks for her new album from producer and trusted new family friend Jeremy Greene, the family stumbled upon a blog rumor that Jeremy was dating sister Lindsay. Judging from the dates of the rumor, the show was shot in late January, early February, which is actually fairly recently for a reality show.

One Google search later, Jeremy went from the family’s favorite producer to a potential liar that could be piggybacking off the family’s notoriety and fame.

Living Lohan has the potential to be a decent show. While I don’t think that I necessarily am as interested in Ali’s life as I am the Kardashians’, it’s definitely interesting to watch Dina Lohan try and shape her daughter’s career having already been through one family superstar. As Ali’s 14 year old career grows, so will the rumor mill and challenges that await the family.

Living Lohan is a nice change of pace and actually feels fairly real because you can feel all the stresses that come with being part of the family, but really, people are just wondering if Lindsay is going to make a cameo at some point in the season.