CHRISTOPHER STEVENS review: No sympathy for has-been Alec Baldwin
Share and Follow

The Baldwins (Discovery +)

RATING: ONE STAR

Most childcare guides don’t provide tips on how to raise neurotic children, but now we have Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria to demonstrate it for us.

The Baldwins are featured in a reality show premiering on the Discovery+ channel, showcasing their approach to parenting a group of rowdy kids. The children, ranging from two to ten years old, seem to take after their less-than-ideal role models.

Alec, previously married to Kim Basinger, has been open about his struggles with heavy cocaine use in the early 1980s, admitting to a serious addiction. He once mentioned, ‘I had a white-hot problem… I think I snorted a line of cocaine from here to Saturn.’

But he promises he’s been sober since 1985. I’m glad he told us because I’d hate to misjudge him on his looks alone: he has the cracked skin and glazed eyes of a bottle-of-whisky-a-day man.

He also claims to have post- traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, though he dresses like a slob in a baggy, stained sweatshirt. Oh, and he’s allergic to cats, he says, even though they’ve got four.

His wife is 26 years his junior, though you might guess it was more. She dresses like a teenager in crop tops and denim shorts. With her rigid smile and loving gazes at her husband, she has the air of a bargain-basement Meghan Markle.

Her great burden, she says, is that she’s bilingual but people online think she puts on a Spanish accent. This makes her ‘sad’ and sometimes puts her ‘in dark places’.

The first hour-long episode is filled almost entirely with footage of their children running riot. The camera returns repeatedly to their faces, making sure viewers can identify each of them by name.

Any prospect of a private childhood is gone for ever. All of them are now public property. That alone may guarantee problems ahead in adolescence.

As though their children won’t already be needing years of therapy, Alec and Hilaria discuss their personalities, giving each of them a label. One of them is a ‘horse’. Another is ‘a weird combination’ of both parents.

And of course, they get everything they want.’ These kids, they have nervous breakdowns if they don’t have the right backpack,’ Alec declares proudly. That’s not his responsibility, though, as he employs two nannies.

The Baldwin brood are not only spoilt rotten but encouraged to whinge, bicker, fight, sulk, and insult their parents.

Before a three-hour car journey from New York to their holiday house in the Hamptons, Hilaria draws endless seating plans so the children can argue about who sits where. Inevitably, the ones that don’t get exactly what they demand have meltdowns.

All this must be designed by the Baldwin PR machine as a deliberate distraction from the family’s real problem. Throughout filming, Alec was awaiting trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, after shooting a woman dead on a movie set.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally hit in the chest by a bullet from a prop gun, while filming a Western. 

Baldwin insisted his finger never actually pulled the trigger and that he had no reason to imagine the gun was loaded. Charges were later dropped.

He’s careful to express no remorse on camera, though there’s a lot of self-pity: ‘This past year was just terrible. There was times I’d lay in bed and I’d go, “Wow! I can’t get up.” That’s not like me.’

If this series is meant to make us feel sympathy, it has done the reverse. Last week, Alec Baldwin was just a has-been actor to me. Now I know exactly who he and his wife are. What hideous people.

Share and Follow
You May Also Like
Utah building explodes into the sky after vehicle crashes into business, causes fire

Utah building explodes into the sky after vehicle crashes into business, causes fire

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A building at a…
How my friendship with a serial killer led me to his victims

Discovering the victims through my friendship with a serial killer

Peter Vronsky, a forensic historian, affectionately refers to Richard Cottingham as ‘my…
Dozens dead from Texas floods as campers remain unaccounted for

Multiple fatalities reported in Texas floods with missing campers

IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site…
NYC voters torn over Zohran Mamdani's big plans to hike taxes on wealthy, corporations: poll

Poll shows New York City voters split on Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to increase taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations

The Democratic candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has proposed raising taxes on…
What to drink over coffee... after study finds it may cause blindness

Alternatives to Coffee: Options to Consider After Study Suggests Link to Blindness

If you can’t get through the day without a dose of caffeine…
Newly single Katy Perry shows ex Orlando Bloom on 'family' yacht trip

Katy Perry takes a yacht trip with family, post-breakup with Orlando Bloom

Katy Perry showed off her incredible figure in a black bikini during…
Biden's 'puppet masters' being forced to dish on his presidency

Those who influence Biden are now being required to share information about his time as president.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are set to question several of Joe Biden’s…
Cops reveal new details on Sophia Hutchins' fatal ATV crash

Police share additional information about the ATV accident that resulted in the death of Sophia Hutchins

Heartbreaking details about Caitlyn Jenner’s friend and longtime manager Sophia Hutchins’ shocking…