I like Denise Richards. Drop Dead Gorgeous is one of my favorite comedies, so my disinterest in her reality show has less to do with my opinions of her as an actress as it does my boredom at watching a show about how stressful celebrity life can be. My knowledge of Denise Richards: It’s Complicated prior to screening the first two episodes of the second season was limited to the few clips that might have been featured at one point of another on The Soup. So going into this screening, I didn’t really know what to expect.
In the first episode of It’s Complicated, Richards is preparing to co-host a New Year’s Eve event alongside Lance Bass and goes through the stress of trying to find a new dress just hours before she has to be ready for the big show. Cut to shots of people snapping pictures of her outside the dress shop. The most amusing bit of the episode involves a guy who tries to hit on Richards at a club and ends up getting thrown out after he gets all creepy and rude on her. Episode two follows Richards as she heads off to Park City, Utah for the Slamdance Film Festival to promote Finding Bliss, a film she did with Jamie Kennedy. While Denise fears she’s be inundated by questions about her divorce and custody issues during the press conference, the press is more interested in talking about Kennedy’s penis. Cut to shots of Denise and her pals getting free loot at the gifting suites and complaining about how they don’t need all this stuff. There are also some goofy scenes involving Richards attempting to snowboard. Over all, the most entertaining aspect of this episode is a very staged-feeling conversation between Richards and Kennedy, wherein Kennedy as Richards if his pickle looks like a Gerkin or a dill in the film.
For me, the quality of a celebreality show relies almost entirely on the celeb’s willingness to really be themselves. This is one of the reasons I got sucked into watching Tori & Dean on Oxygen. Tori keeps it real. She and Dean act goofy, bicker occasionally and aren’t afraid to have personal conversations with each other in front of the camera. I’m talking about the kinds of conversations that married couples have when they’re alone. It’s moments like these that make the celeb(s) on screen more relatable and in a sense, more entertaining. And it gives viewers a chance to see what they're really all about. Isn’t that the point of the show? I mean, why else invite (more) cameras and prying eyes into your life if not to show people who you really are? In that sense, I don’t really think It’s Complicated succeeds. It’s hard to say whether the falseness of the show is entirely Richards’ fault. It’s possible that the producers are leaning heavily on the more glamorous aspects of Richards’ life because that’s what they think viewers want to say and maybe they’re right. It’s just not for me. I don’t get the impression that Richards ever fully lets her guard down in front of the camera and even the more candid moments don’t feel all that candid. This is not to say that she’s unlikable as a celebrity, just that the show feels a bit too stage-y for my taste.
Denise Richards: It’s Complicated - Season 2 Premiere
Starring: Denise Richards
Premieres: Sunday, June 7 at 10/9c on E!
