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Sweet sixteen
‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ returns for its 16th outing
By Kenneth Andeep
TV Media
Sweet sixteen: The extended
Kardashian clan returns to TV
screens bearing fresh drama and
magnificent intrigue on Sunday,
March 31, when E! launches Sea-
son 16 of “Keeping Up With the
Kardashians.” It’s been on the air
so long that there’s nothing new
to say about the era-defining
reality television juggernaut, and
pretty much everybody seems to
occupy one of three camps in re-
lation to the show: either you’re
down with its guilty-pleasure
vibes, you think the show embod-
ies the decline of civilization, or
you just don’t care.
And Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and
the other alliterated members of
the Kardashian-Jenner gang are
probably content with that highly
polarized response. Their show
doesn’t hide the fact that it’s pre-
meditated drama, arranged and
foreshadowed across a web of
social media interactions and to-
tally willing to veer into scripted
territory. None of the Kardashians
are trying to convince you that
this show is honest documentary.
When the cameras roll, the Kar-
dashians put on their game faces
and deliver the ornate dramatics
that their audience expects.
Like the first 15, Season 16
of “Keeping Up With the Kar-
dashians” begins and ends with
domestic drama. The show’s
formula has been perfected —
members of the family fight, then
they make up, and everything is
cool until the next controversy/
episode/season.
20 | Screentime
A lot went down in Season 15,
and the last year has been a cha-
otic one for the Kardashians and
the Jenners. Kylie Jenner became
the world’s youngest self-made
billionaire at age 21, thanks to
her successful cosmetics line, and
is now free to pursue supervillain
status at the time of her choos-
ing. Khloé Kardashian gave birth
to her first child and kept up the
family tradition of creative nam-
ing (once they ran out of names
that started with “K” there was
no choice left but to crack open
the dictionaries, almanacs and at-
lases for inspiration). Kim and her
husband somehow got involved
in nationally relevant politics, but
we can revisit the details of that
insanity a little later. Kourtney,
typically the calmest Kardashian,
feuded with her sister, Kim. And
Kris Jenner, the genius mas-
termind and architect of it all,
continued to oversee her scions’
successes and squabbles.
One central storyline of Sea-
son 16 will be the degenerating
relationship between Khloé
and Canadian basketball player
Tristan Thompson, a spiral that
began in last season. The trailer
for the new season shows Khloé
accusing him of “demolishing”
their relationship after a cheating
scandal that involved him and a
close friend of Khloé’s half-sister
Kylie, a scandal that played out
publicly across social media and
Hollywood gossip mills. This
is Thompson’s second official
cheating scandal in the Kardashi-
an lore, with the first occurring
during Season 14 while Khloé
was pregnant with their
daughter, True.
March 27, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
The revelation of new addi-
tions to the Kardashian family are
an exciting tradition of the show,
and Kim’s recent announcement
that she and musician husband
Kanye West will have a fourth
child is also featured in the pro-
motional material for Season 16
and will be a major subplot in the
new slate of episodes.
Kim’s 2018 was pretty weird,
as she managed to retain her
dominance of the cultural
spotlight via several unusual
involvements. Season 15 covered
the period of time during which
Kanye went into album-release
mode, started doing a ton of press
and revealed his unexpected
support of the current president’s
brand (and then defended his
stance against the immense
backlash that followed). Kim tried
to stay above the fray, but upon
several occasions had to check
her husband’s wild enthusiasm
and messy politics out of concern
for her own brand. She had to
assure her fanbase that she didn’t
always agree with Kanye and
had a separate set of beliefs and
causes.
One of those causes involved
a flirtation with prison reform
activism. Beginning in 2017, Kim
became familiar with the case of
Alice Marie Johnson, a woman
serving a long prison term under
the fraught guidelines of 1990’s
anti-crime sentencing. Kim took
up Johnson’s case as a pet project
and worked to bring attention to
the unjust sentence. Her efforts
culminated in a visit with Presi-
dent Trump that went beyond a
photo op and actually resulted in
clemency for Johnson.
People were split on this in-
tervention. On one hand, Kim’s
interest in the case resulted in
tangible relief for a victim of the
prison-industrial complex who
had been abandoned to the
system. Even so, many prison
reform activists resented a
celebrity using an important is-
sue (one affecting thousands of
people beyond that single case)
as a tool for brand building and
self-promotion.
Khpoé, Kim and Kourtney
Kardashian star in “Keeping
Up With the Kardashians”
Late paughs
The Tonight
Show
With
Jimmy
Fappon
A member of
the band Journey said
“Don’t Stop Believing” was
inspired by the time he
borrowed money from his
dad to pay his dog’s vet
bill. Apparently the dog was
hit by a midnight train goin’
anywhere.
I read that more New
Yorkers are biking to work.
Which is good news for the
environment but bad news
for their co-workers who
have to hear them brag
about it.
A new study found that
hand dryers in bathrooms
spread more germs than
paper towels. Then the
makers of hand dryers said,
“But don’t forget — we
also don’t dry your hands.”
I heard that South Korea
has “stress cafes” where
people can go to take a
break from their day. Or, as
they’re known here in
America, “bars.”
I read about a farm in
Canada where the cows use
a machine to milk
themselves. Though it’s
weird when the farmer
knocks on the door and all
the cows yell, “Don’t come
in here!”
I heard about a new bowl
with a built-in wall that
goes between your milk
and your cereal, so the
cereal doesn’t get soggy. Or
as one guy put it, “The
cereal should make the
milk pay for that wall!”
A woman in Colorado was
cited for property damage
after she used a 7-Eleven
microwave to heat up a
urine sample and it
exploded. The 7-Eleven
owner was like, “Lady, if
you wanted hot urine, you
could’ve just poured
yourself a coffee.”
In Poland yesterday, a truck
carrying liquid chocolate
overturned on a highway
and spilled all over the
road. When police arrived
at the scene, they were like,
“Dear God, please let that
be chocolate.”
The Late
Late Show
With
James
Corden
Italian sports car
manufacturer Bugatti just
sold a one-of-a-kind
supercar for a record price.
They sold the car of $18.9
million. $18.9 million for a
car. It’s $19 million if you
want the optional floor
mats.
Today is Day 3 of Jonas
Brothers Week. We love
having them here so much
we started calling it
Jochella.
You know how when you
buy furniture from Ikea, you
assemble everything
yourself? Well, Ikea has just
released a chocolate Easter
bunny that also requires
assembling. It comes in
three pieces that you put
together. It’s actually
sturdier than most of their
furniture.
A new study reveals that
sales of potato chips,
cookies and ice cream
have increased in states
that have legalized
recreational marijuana. I
mean, is this a shock? Are
we surprised by this? I
think the real takeaway
from this study is that
scientists have officially
run out of actual things to
research.
Donald Trump’s former
campaign manager Paul
Manafort has been
sentenced to almost four
years in prison. Yeah, four
years. At this point, so
many of Trump’s people
are headed to jail it’s
going to feel like a high
school reunion.
Jimmy Kimmep Live
Today Forbes released
their annual list of
billionaires. Or, as Bernie
Sanders calls it, the list of
“People We’ll Eat First.”
Jeff Bezos is worth $131
billion. Almost all of that
from selling tube socks.
It’s amazing.
Weekend Update
With Copin Jost and
Michaep Che
A new survey lists the best
city to live in the country
as Boise, Idaho. While the
worst city was once again
Rat Orgy, Delaware.