myerstownherald.com

By SASHA PASULKA
The show is called “Jon & Kate Plus Eight,” but at this point it should probably be called The Kate Gosselin Show featuring Jon and Eight.
Audiences originally tuned in to watch the children – they stayed to watch Kate.There’s a reason the show is TLC’s greatest hit to date, despite the fact that their lineup has featured plenty of other families with adorable kids. That reason is Kate Gosselin, the villain we love to hate. What’s so compelling about Kate – and what has been from the start – is her willingness to be completely herself, along with all her flaws, on camera.
She’s a clean freak.
She’s a control freak.
She’s condescending toward her husband.
She finds fault in everything, and she feels it’s her duty to vocalize every negative thought that crosses through her head.
Kate has never attempted to disguise these qualities – not in the filmed “reality” of her day-to-day life and not in the interviews she gives on the now-famous couch. As the seasons went by, Kate took increasing heat for her behavior from bloggers, columnists and, I’m sure, assorted fans who took the time to e-mail her outlining her many character flaws. (I get these emails daily, and I just write a gossip column; I can only imagine the carnage of Kate’s inbox.)
To her credit (or to her detriment?) she never changed her on-camera persona. If anything, these grating character flaws became even more pronounced.
She continued to put her personality out there, unchanged, for the world to watch and criticize. Is this a decision she made intentionally? I’ve considered that, and I doubt it. Kate’s most prominent character flaw is that she unwaveringly believes she is right.
It’s apparent already in the early fifth-season interviews: She really doesn’t understand why Jon left. She is still totally unwilling to believe that she may be at fault. She does not see the role she played in the demise of this relationship. It’s a lesson we all have to learn at some point in life, and the earlier we learn it, the better off we are: We are not always right. We don’t always know best. We need to step back, look at contrasting opinions from outside observers, and consider their validity.
We need to be willing to make changes in the way we behave, in the things we believe. Life goes much smoother that way. But it makes far less interesting television.
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Sasha Pasulka is the founder and head writer for Evil Beet Gossip (www.EvilBeetGossip.com).