To me, Lifetime is a channel full of made-for-TV movies, Dance Moms and Project Runway. There’s always an abundance of over the top drama, usually the kind that melts your brain to the consistency of a grilled cheese sandwich. So what could be worse than some of the things Lifetime already thrusts upon its viewers? A reality series entitled Born in the Wild that promises to deliver (couldn’t resist that pun) a truly innovative take on childbirth.
The show will chronicle, as stated in a network press release, “what happens when the craziest experience of a woman’s life becomes truly wild, and soon-to-be parents decide to take on an unassisted birth in the outdoors.” Okay, but how is that entertainment? What is the purpose of the show? Whether these natural births are successful or not? That’s kind of terrible, and if it’s not that, then I really don’t get it.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the show itself was inspired by a viral video of a woman giving birth in a forest that garnered 20 million views. Let’s make all viral videos into full network series! Wait, what?!
The show addresses (completely warranted) safety concerns by making sure that each mother has already given birth at least once, and Lifetime will have a trained emergency professional on site. Additionally, while the couple picks the birthing spot, the production staff “will remain within a certain radius of a hospital should complications arise”.
Eli Lehrer, Lifetime’s senior VP and head of nonfiction programming, felt the need to differentiate the show from Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid (which I only know about because it happens to be Kristen Bell’s favorite show) saying, “This isn’t Naked and Afraid and we’re dropping people in the woods and saying ‘go have the baby.’ These are all people who have already had babies in hospitals who had unsatisfying experiences and who are choosing to have different experiences. This is something people are doing and we set out to document it.”
Other unscripted shows to join the lineup include, Girlfriend Intervention, Threads, and Kosher Soul. Girlfriend Intervention is a seemingly racial twist on Bravo’s iconic Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, about “four wise, poised and stylish African American women, who, in each episode, help a white sister seeking a complete makeover to restore her confidence and inner glow.” Threads is Project Runway for youngsters and Kosher Soul follows comedian O’Neal McKnigh’s conversion to Judaism to please his wife. The network certainly seems to be going out on a limb with some of this new programming…
What do you think of these new shows? Do you think any are worth your (life)time?
Images courtesy of Entertainment Weekly
