There’s something strange happening to the Kardashians. When I check in on America’s First Family every few months—often timed to the release of the latest season of their eponymous Hulu reality show The Kardashians, whose fifth season premieres May 23—I am left generally ambivalent. Aside from one or two scenes per 45-minute episode, there isn’t much spontaneous personality to draw from their structure-oriented, workaholic lives, and certainly not enough for an entire multi-season reality show.
While I enjoyed a Season 3 scene where Kylie Jenner almost plowed over someone while trying to drive stick, and the Season 4 scene where Khloé Kardashian reveals her secret fear of whales, those microdoses of mirth quickly wane. What’s left is a season that spends most of its time rehashing old interfamily drama or trailing Kris, Kim, Khloé, Kourtney, Kendall, and Kylie as they jet around the world, wanting for nothing. Simply put: It’s not very interesting at all.
Or, at least, not to the untrained eye.
If you look a little harder, there is entertainment to be found in The Kardashians. In Season 5, this is partly thanks to new on-the-fly confessionals filmed in real-time. This method of shooting testimonials has become largely outmoded now that reality television is more polished and produced, but some brilliant minds knew that the Kardashian family had the wits to revive it. Seeing the most image-conscious celebrities in the world be pulled aside by a cameraperson, babbling into the lens like they’re on an early season of Real Housewives of Orange County, is the most inspired production move this show has made to date.
But the fun also comes from a new, sinister aura that has enveloped the entire show. Confused prayers are recited on-camera, multiple times, conjuring some untold force. Kris appears noticeably inebriated in half of the scenes that she’s in. Dark stories about illegal, underage driving and........