Lara gets made up for a photo shoot.
For mine the show missed the mark from the opening scene. It should have shown Lara being pitched the idea so that the audience understands that – presumably, and as Lara’s been attesting in media interviews over the past weeks – this show wasn’t her idea. Sure, she could have said no but opted to take the chance and see what could come of it. Let’s face it: living for 6-8 weeks in a Bondi penthouse apartment with your best mate as “work” isn’t too hard a sell. What we instead saw was a woman of some privilege packing up her belongings from her already pretty decent apartment to move to a better one “for the sake of the show”. A reality show. Meant to be about her real life. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot.
BLB inadvertently does nothing to paint the Lara in a strong or sympathetic light. From her being caught by Police driving unlicensed to being snapped by paparazzi in the nude inside her new unit shutting the blinds only reveals her to be an irresponsible ditz. If that’s ‘real life Lara’ then the scolding her Nan (one of the REAL stars of the show) gives her over the phone about the nude photo scandal is dead right that she’s not gonna amount to anything. Appalling judgement is Lara’s number one sin – be it the driving, the shutting the blinds in the nuddy, or making your best friend your manager (Hermione is no longer Lara’s manager at time of publication), Lara needs to listen to her Nan a whole lot more. Perhaps she should be Lara’s manager for a stint.
The biggest difficulty surrounding comment of the entire show (and there is plenty, and most of it is unprintable – check the #BeingLaraBingle Twitter stream while you if you should choose to) is that criticism of the show is being misinterpreted as criticism of Lara herself – which is near impossible to separate as it’s not called “Being A Model In Modern Sydney” or “Being A Stupid Head Featuring A Bunch Of Different People Making Bad Decisions”. By having her name in the title and the focus of the show on her in a distinct reality genre means the ‘Lara the character in BLB’ and ‘Lara the actual person’ are going to be judged as one and the same, and from what is portrayed on the screen it’s not going to be flattering.
Being Lara Bingle as a television show has very few redeeming features. The characters are vapid, vacuous and lacking even the smallest amounts of common sense while the show is bland and reveals that this celebrity’s life is quite dull day-to-day. The premise is faulty in assuming that the Australian television viewing public want to know about the characters and their day to day life. At best it comes across as poor imitation of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and to be frank if that’s what people want to see they’d be better tuning in when the Kardashians are on Foxtel than watch this upper-middle class white girl pretend to be a poor facsimilie therein. At worst… well, there’s so much better television than the utter drivel audiences were subjected to last night. The biggest mistake Lara made wasn’t starring in a show all about her – it was saying “yes” to the idea in the first place. And surely she can blame Hermione for that.
Being Lara Bingle – Tue 8pm (for now), Ch10 (for now).
Ah… BLB’s premise faulty for an Australian audience? Are you kidding? Everything you didn’t like: the vacuousness, lack of common sense, class distinctions, blurred line of reality, are, ah, the elements that make shows like ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Footballers Wives’ so popular, yes, even with Australian audiences.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first ep either, but most of YOUR criticisms were all reasons to watch the show.
You’ve got to be kidding! Jersey Shore, Kardashians and the other crap reality shows aren’t hits in Australia. They are imports on Foxtel.
Oh Sal, come now. DVD sales and downloads. That’s the measurement.They’re popular.
I give it four weeks, tops.
4 weeks? Wow, you’re generous mate… she’ll be gone (hopefully) by next week.
Very good summary Molks. Felt like a sad day for Aussie television.
See I didn’t mind it. I didn’t have any pre judgment going in. I just flicked it on and while she is a ditz and it’s very staged at times, who cares.
There were also some candid moments in there and it’s just easy TV to have a laugh with. I’ll tune in to the next episode for sure.
Well written Molks!!! As reality TV shows go this has to be the worst – and I’m a big fan of reality TV!
Well written article? It’s stolen right off Brisbane times: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/being-exactly-what-we-expected-beinglarabingle-20120613-208y3.html
Thanks for keeping an eye out for me, Kyle! Those Brisbane Times guys just copied it straight off me, even using my name in the byline!
HAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH
Geez you must feel like a bit of a nob Kyle…it’s called syndication
I truly do. Thank you all 🙂
No worries, Kyle – thanks for allowing us all to be smart arses. 😉
“The characters are vapid, vacuous and lacking even the smallest amounts of common sense while the show is bland and reveals that this celebrity’s life is quite dull day-to-day.” – Oh how I applauded this comment! Very well written, sir, kudos!
“Upper middle-class”?
Bank balance only.
It rated 13th behind reruns for the 5 th or 6th time of big bang theory. I long for the days when someone was fameous for actually doing something other than things you pray your own daughters dont do. This absolute waste of space has tried to ruin marriages (yes, two to tango and all that) and basically behave like a slag, with an insatiable appetite for attention. Wont be watching the show and will hope it fails quickly so I am not ambushed by the ridiculous ads for it any more.
I think the show is utterly ridiculous! Has Lara travelled…has she seen the World that so many face: Poverty, Hunger…it is beyond belief that they can let a show like this go to air simply glorifying the life that she leads. Channel 10…get rid of it!!
Jeremy are any of those things important to having a TV show?
No, not really. It is what it is. A bit of fun.
I think she’s a hoot. If you don’t like it JUST DON’T WATCH IT. The more you talk about it the more air it gets 🙂
Chuckles and high fives all round! Well said, everyone! If we do not like it – we do not have to watch it but then again, we do! Why? It is car crash television @ its worst. The only ones I love are Nan and Pop Bingle. They are the true stars of the show. Her mother seems a little indifferent to what is going on and to throw your daughter out on the street is just not done! It does not matter how silly this little girl is being – @ the end of the day – she is her daughter. Josh on the other hand – the golden child – will never grow up. He will be living off his mum and his sister for evermore! Hermoine was wise to dump his scurvy ass as well as Lara’s! Get away from these losers as fast as you can while you still have your bank account and your dignity intact!