Not So Exciting...

[Metroxmix.com Report]

`Being Bobby Brown' not so exciting a story

By Sid Smith
Tribune arts critic

As fodder for nosy celebrity watchers, singer Bobby Brown and wife Whitney Houston would seem perfect picks.

Here are two immensely talented performers -- Houston is arguably a legend -- enmeshed in a troubled and tempestuous marriage. He was arrested for hitting her, but she later stood by his side to help win his freedom. Surely their behind-the-scenes life together will make "The Osbournes" look like "Ozzie and Harriet." Thus we have "Being Bobby Brown" (9 p.m. Thursday on Bravo), the latest peek behind and around the doors of the rich, famous and career challenged.

But judging from the two episodes airing back-to-back Thursday, being Bobby Brown, even in court, is boring, unenlightening and vaguely depressing. The cameras begin rolling after Brown leaves one jail, then record the court proceedings as he manages to avoid another. So we pick up the famous pair after the shouting and angst are -- at least momentarily -- behind them. The mood and substance is thus one of a weary, worn-out couple treading water in an emotional limbo. That means no prolonged arguments, shouting matches or even hints of the badness that gets Brown in trouble and might excite die-hard fans of reality TV. There aren't a whole lot of prolonged discussions of any sort, for that matter.

Filmed with an especially jerky camera and edited down to lean, unrevealing snippets, "Being Bobby Brown" seems an unintentional exploration of the limits of celebrity eavesdropping. We get yet another look at the tedium stars of Houston's magnitude must endure from fans and amateur paparazzi, intent on taking a picture even as the couple try to eat or take a swim at a Bahamian resort. Houston reacts with understandable petulance, but throughout these two episodes her arid, detached, often blank persona is what makes the show so disappointing. She comes off as a numb, indifferent witness to her own life, as if steeped in overwhelming ennui. Poor little rich girl.

Brown isn't any more appealing, nor does he exhibit any of the short-fused temper or difficulty his past might suggest. Picking the lock of a hotel mini-bar is the limit of his misbehavior. He and Whitney's banter is clipped, childish and inane, frequently turning on sex jokes and even occasional scatological discourse.

The couple only seem happy when enjoying the privileges of their fame and finances, luxuriating at a spa or being fawned over in a restaurant in Atlanta, where they make their home. Brown himself is a co-executive producer here, and that may be the problem. At least in part, the series is apparently intended to rehabilitate the noted R&B singer and counteract the bad publicity.

But that doesn't make for compelling television. Wonder of wonders: "Being Bobby Brown" is a persuasive argument that spying on the lives of the famous can actually be a lot less interesting than living your own.
 

NEWSFILE: 30 JUNE 2005