Review – Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

Rating: 2. In this spin-off of reality show “Toddlers & Tiaras”, TLC follows Georgia pageant contestant Alana (Honey Boo Boo) and her family into their home.   The critics are not impressed, and frankly, are a little scared.

Variety gave the show, and society a scathing review stating, “one suspects historians will not look fondly on a period that saw children thrust into the media glare in this fashion, but TLC can derive some comfort from knowing its programming continues a long tradition of carnival barkers and sideshow attractions.” 

Entertainment Weekly warns, “you’ll alternate between cooing at 6-year-old pageant queen Honey, gawking at her self- described ”redneck” family and pet pig, laughing so hard you cry and feeling deep shame for not turning it off.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer sums up their opinion by saying, “One theory about why we watch so much reality television is that the marginal and maladjusted characters we see there make us feel better about ourselves.”

The LA Times said the show “takes the (reality) genre to new, unpleasant depths.” 

The Baltimore Sun is excited to see the premiere as Honey Boo Boo is their “Reality TV role model, if we were six and drank go-go juice.”

Medialife Magazine says that “the show may make some viewers feel better by comparison, but if they’re watching it, those viewers have nothing to be proud of.”

The San Francisco Chronicle had less than kind words for the series premiere, stating that with the arrival of the series, “there goes the neighborhood.”  And, they’ve already predicted a spin-off for this spin-off, entitled “Honey Boo Boo in Therapy.”

The Washington Post has mixed feelings, calling the premiere’s two episodes “a horrifying and yet strangely sweet glimpse at American life as it is lived by a particular style of Americans that television finds increasingly irresistible.”  They find the show both “funny and deeply disturbing,” as they describe six-year-old Alana Thompson’s behavior and language that is laced with a “possibly benign display of latent racism that could keep linguistics professors and social scientists busy for decades.”