Should You Head Into The Lab For The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition?

What Is This Thing?

Six pairs of mothers and daughters -- one member of each pair having already been on at least one other reality show, which is the source of their titular "celebrity" -- enter a rented mansion to work on their relationships under the guidance of the kind of therapist who would do...this. Between exercises, they get in fights with each other, and with their fellow "patients."

When Is It On?

Tuesdays at 10 PM ET on Lifetime.

Why Was It Made Now?

VH1 is already spinning off its Couples Therapy with Family Therapy, also starring Dr. Jenn Berman. I assume someone at Lifetime saw the press release and decided the network could put its "for women" spin on the same concept by casting daughters and mothers?

What's Its Pedigree?

If anyone working on the show behind the scenes is also responsible for any other TV they can be proud of, Lifetime's not making a big deal of it. So let's focus on who's in front of the camera! TMDE:CE's answer to Dr. Jenn is Dr. Debbie Magids, a psychology PhD with a practice in New York who's previously analyzed Howard Stern on his show. Seeking her very learned counsel are:

• Child bride Courtney Stodden (the one who married Doug Hutchison when she was sixteen) and her mother Krista; Courtney has formerly starred on VH1's Couples Therapy.
• Heidi Montag Pratt and her mother, Darlene Egelhoff; Pratt, who originally came to fame on The Hills, has subsequently appeared on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars and Celebrity Wife Swap.
• Natalie Nunn and her mother, Karen; Natalie is primarily identified as an Instagram model now, but she's also appeared on The Bad Girls Club and on the same season of Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars as Heidi.
• Kim Richards and her daughter Kimberly; a former child star, Kim is also a former star of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills.
• Shar Jackson and her daughter Cassie; Shar starred on Moesha, but is probably better known as the woman Kevin Federline dumped to be with Britney Spears.
• Jessica Canseco and her daughter Josie; Jessica is a former Playboy model, and the ex-wife of baseball star Jose Canseco.

...And?

The "Screaming Bitches" reality sub-genre is, we can all agree, not for everyone. But if that's your jam, there are far worse exemplars than this show. And while there are minuses to casting people whose many problems viewers have already explored in quite a bit of depth -- which we'll get to -- there are benefits too.

Take Heidi, for whom this is, like, her eighteenth rodeo, and who knows by now you've got to come in hot. She tells us this is going to be the first time she's talked to her mother, Darlene, in six months, so to fortify herself before arriving at the therapy house, she "had a few drinks." Bad decision for a person: great decision for a candid reality show! She immediately gets into an alternately screeching/sobbing fight with Natalie and her mom, which is the scene Darlene walks in on, requiring that her first contact with her daughter in half a year is leading her away to their bedroom and listening to her deny that drinks too much. (Heidi claims, to Darlene, that she had "a shot," which just makes me wonder how big her shot glass is.) Heidi goes on to confront Dr. Debbie in front of the group for referring to the "nonsense" that characterized the patients' check-in process, and then flee the dinner table because she has to puke -- and she almost makes it all the way to the toilet! Heidi's a mess, because Heidi's a pro.

When the "therapy" actually starts, its therapeutic efficacy is typically dubious, but in terms of shameful entertainment value to the viewer? Solid. The reason Heidi and Darlene stopped talking was because Heidi basically backed Darlene into a corner asking what she thought of Heidi's infamous cosmetic surgeries, and Darlene was forced to admit that she didn't think they'd left Heidi looking so great. Natalie, without any hesitation, says she's jealous of the attention Karen's been lavishing on Karen's mother lately while Karen's mother was DYING. But that's nothing compared to Krista and Courtney Stodden's story. If you watched Courtney's season of Couples Therapy, you know there was some evidence then that Krista was into Courtney's aged husband, Doug. WELL, apparently, since that time, Krista just hung out waiting for a time when Doug and Courtney were on the rocks and then TOLD DOUG SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. This led to some friction between mother and daughter and, if you can believe it, made Courtney and Doug's relationship even more gross than any of us could have possibly imagined.

I also have to give a special mention to Natalie for being an A+ audience surrogate. Dr. Debbie might let Kim get away with referring vaguely to the "issues" that have required Kimberly to mother her rather than the other way around, but the audience gets to cut right to a Natalie TH in which she marvels that no one's going to talk about Kim's well-documented alcoholism. She also stays above the fray when Heidi attempts to draw her into a catfight and gives great face while the other mothers and daughters talk about their problems. She was never that objectionable in her season of Marriage Boot Camp, but she's gotten even more likable since then.

...But?

The incestuous nature of the reality-industrial complex gets to be a problem when, for instance, Heidi has to say her beef with Natalie is that she talked shit about Heidi on social media, but the show can't mention that the two have already been on another show together -- one remarkably like this -- because it was on another network. But honestly, everyone who's interested in this madness already knows that because they watched it. (That is, if they know there's a channel called WeTV and that they get it.)

You'll notice that I only mentioned a few of the pairs and their problems, and that's because the other three are boring. Jessica and Shar both treat their daughters more like friends, and Kim is a boozehound. That's half the mothers at your local supermarket right now; who cares. (The Cansecos are the snooziest pair in the cast, by the way; every time they weren't on camera, I forgot they existed.)

Other stray negatives: I get that Karen wants to work things out with Natalie, but maybe she could wait for Season 2 rather than come on this show a week after her mother died? Unrelated: if you're not prepared to spend an hour looking at 65% of Courtney Stodden's bare and unsupported breasts, this show is not for you.

...So?

I'll probably watch at least one more despite how dull all the non-Courtney and Heidi people's problems are. But if you're an RHOBH viewer who still misses Kim's sloppy, squinty antics, this is probably unmissable for you.