(NewsNation) — Alec Baldwin may have hoped that his new reality show, “The Baldwins,” premiering on TLC this Sunday, would have helped his flagging reputation and his dwindling bank account — but, alas, it’s not to be.
The show has been widely panned by critics who only received one episode to review, a highly unusual move in an industry that likes to send out several episodes so reviewers can see the arc of a storyline.
Most publications, which call out the show for its insensitive, almost deletion of Baldwin’s eldest daughter Ireland (with his first wife, Kim Basinger) from the couple’s lives, are astounded that the famed actor would even do a “grubby” reality show in the wake of “Rust” videographer Halyna Hutchins’ death.
(Hutchins was a cinematographer killed by a prop gun discharged by Alec Baldwin on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed with prejudice three days into trial. The show takes place in the run-up to the trial.)
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Time magazine said, “Call it ‘Alec & Hilaria Plus 7.’ And lament that the show—which also counts the couple as executive producers—is so obsessive in its quest to make the Baldwins seem like normal human beings, it forgets to be even a little bit interesting.”
Entertainment bible Variety said, “The Baldwins’ Is Alec and Hilaria Baldwin’s Strange Response to the ‘Rust’ Tragedy,” while Vogue’s reviewer noted, “This feels…like weird fodder for a self-produced reality show…Alec talking about how his concern is ‘letting seven children know that I love them’… king, you have eight kids! Maybe shoot Ireland a text!”
At the end of the review, Vogue scathingly notes, “Oh, how the once-mighty Jack Donaghy hath fallen.”
A sentiment pretty much echoed by the Wall Street Journal, which wondered: “This disinterested viewer won’t be alone in wondering why people with so many advantages and so much baggage want to make themselves the objects of so much cheesy attention and inevitable derision… You look for motives, because the content is so otherwise static, and even disturbing—because this kind of ‘intrusive’ ersatz reality has become so painfully pedestrian… it is not a particularly circumspect show.” Ouch.
Baldwin may have been absolved of any crime in Halyna Hutchins’ death, but it seems he’s being held accountable for this mess of a reality show. “The Baldwins” premieres Sunday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC, with new episodes airing weekly. Episodes are available to stream on Max.