"The Houstons: On Our Own" is the television equivalent of a "snuff film": Watch an unbalanced, desperately lost 19-year old stumbling toward her own suicide! One wonders what in the name of God these people were thinking--the year after Whitney Houston's death, her "loving family" put a camera on Bobbi Kristina Brown and her fiancé/brother...and a largely uninteresting menagerie of hangers- on, leeches and shirttail relatives. Now that both Whitney and Bobbi Kristina are both dead, this absolutely atrocious "show" acts as a perfect companion piece to "Being Bobby Brown"--which is commonly considered to be the very worst "reality" show in television history. Poor, lost little Bobbi Kris is clearly either drunk or stoned throughout the episodes--but never mind letting the girl grieve in peace or getting her to a rehab! Let's fire up the cameras and watch as she begins her inexorable spin toward the grave. Nearly three years to the date of her mother, Whitney's own death, Bobbi Kristina was found face down in her own bathtub, surviving in a coma for seven more months before being taken off life support, dead at just 22 years old.
Whose idea WAS this? Who is responsible for this horrific train-wreck? HOW could this have seemed a good idea, especially in light of how "Being Bobby Brown" pretty much signaled the end of Whitney's own dignity (and, by extension, her career...and life)? In what possible way could this have been a positive thing for this clearly unstable young woman? Presumably--the fault lays at the feet of "Executive Producer" (and executor of Whitney's estate), Patricia Houston--the wife of Whitney's charm-free brother, Gary (who admitted, after Whitney's death, that he was the one who introduced her to cocaine). Watching this mercifully brief series (a pilot and 12 episodes)in its entirety, this shameless woman, "Auntie Pat," constantly talks about how her entire life is about "protecting Bobbi Kris" and how nothing bad will happen to BKB "on my watch". Her words seem even emptier, now that her niece has essentially killed herself.
There are a few, brief moments that are truly touching...such as in Episode 4, when BKB breaks down and tearfully admits how painful it is to deal with her mother's legacy. And hearing the 80-year old Cissy Houston positively wailing out a from-the-gut rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at a rehearsal for a Whitney Houston tribute--one wishes these producers had taken their money and their energies and just did a tribute show to this remarkable woman, whose life is most certainly worthy of a full-fledged appraisal. Not these idiotic, vain, uninteresting fools, preening for the camera, while Bobbi Kristina is teetering on the edge of her grave.
This show should be packaged with "Being Bobby Brown" and marketed as a different kind of "reality show": Shows that actually contribute to the death of their subject! SNUFF TV! What a world we live in....
