Oh, Lord. Another celebrity got a reality show. Wait, scratch that: Ke$ha got a really long advertisement deal with MTV. “Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life” produces a very carefully crafted image of the pop star known for singing about hangovers and her “Gold Trans Am,” but at least it’s entertaining.
The reality show starts off in 2011 when Ke$ha was just getting underway with her Get Sleazy Tour. Leaving her very cool mom and family in New York City, she departs for Los Angeles to perform but also to reflect on her past, along with her most intimate relationship that inspired much of her music. Along the way, clips of her concerts provide background for her wacky lifestyle with personal commentary during scenes of Ke$ha tackling people dressed in penis costumes.
The stage and performers for her show are drenched in glitter, and it’s not clear whether Ke$ha secretes glitter from glands all over her skin or she just spends way too much money and effort keeping everyone sparkly. Even her fans before the concert are drenched in the stuff. Watching Ke$ha have her makeup wiped off at one point looks like torture, but the shiny bits seem glued into her very being.
The show displays Ke$ha’s everyday life as very normal but fantastic. Viewers see a clearly strong, supportive relationship between Ke$ha and her family and friends, an often lacking trait among other celebrities with reality shows. Ke$ha often has no makeup on, contrasting with her intense image, as if to show her as a blank slate. She definitely parties and several scenes are devoted to showing her at bars after her performances making out with random dudes; alcohol and talk of alcohol flows as smoothly as Ke$ha’s pulls out a Patr?n on the dance floor throughout the pilot episode. Surprisingly enough, she supposedly gets home at 2 a.m. after a night out, making her escapades tamer than some college students’.
Watching Ke$ha interact with her family is often heartwarming, but the show’s 20-minute runtime leaves very little room for flourishing her character. The viewers may see five minutes of intimate time while the rest of the show is filled with fluff and rough transitions.
The cinematography tries to be creative and succeeds to some extent: It doesn’t feel like every other MTV reality show. Clearly, effort has been put into making “Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life” something more than just “Teen Mom” or “Jersey Shore.”
Instead of editing together funny or stupid parts of the pop star’s life for laughs or awkward tension, “Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life” plays out like a press release detailing what makes Ke$ha so great. This isn’t Paris Hilton going on insane adventures for laughs; the show displays Ke$ha in her most flattering moments and real struggles. This pandering to audiences is best seen when a fan gives Ke$ha a scrapbook containing his inspirational story of overcoming bullying. The camera focuses in on where the boy wrote that his favorite Ke$ha song, “Animal,” helps him cope with being tormented at school. After a quick cry session with the kid, Ke$ha is on stage singing “Animal” while the fan is in the front row with tears in his eyes. While the emotions may be real, and Ke$ha explains her own past experiences with bullying in dry narrative voice-over, it seems very dictated to make her stand out as an example of when everything goes “right,” not about where Ke$ha comes from.
Following around any pop artist on tour is bound to be interesting, but the presentation of “Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life” leaves a distinctly empty feeling after watching. Is Ke$ha someone that should be admired for her making it as a star and doing what she wants, or are audiences supposed to sympathize with what little is shown of her past struggles? It’s hard to say, but at least her Warrior fan base will enjoy the show.
