I Am Cait

A clean, clear, and often compelling slice of TV, documenting the day-to-day unreal reality of Caitlyn Jenner, fresh from her public debut as herself.

The series opens with an episode so nuanced and thoughtful, so quietly moving and genuine, it's almost impossible to believe it is made by many of the same people who helped build a family empire off the infamy of a young woman's sex tape.

I Am Cait is as moving as you hoped it would be, and as serious and educational as it needs to be--featuring a very controlled message about what it means to be transgender in the year 2015 and what Caitlyn Jenner’s journey does and, more importantly, does not have in common with that reality.

It veers, sometimes swerves, between a public service tone and made-for-primetime spectacle. That can be disorienting, too. But, for the moment, all viewers can do is take I Am Cait at its word, or the words of its star.... I Am Cait now has no choice BUT to get this right.

Clearly striving to impart serious messages about tolerance of the transgender community while throwing in a few Kardashians for comic relief, I Am Cait emerges as a surprisingly thoughtful if undeniably self-serving effort.

Touching, funny and smart.

The premiere episode is emotional but controlled.... But at its most affecting it’s about something that can’t be massaged and mediated: a woman trying to live an honest life with her family, trying to close the decades-long distance between her self-image and her self presentation.

It is honest, funny, heartfelt and compelling. And necessary.

The results are uneven....it's that fierce, maternal determination [of Esther Jenner] that makes this first episode, at least, worth watching.

In many ways it achieves these aspirations [focusing on advocacy and opening up frank discussions on transition and transgenderism], especially early in the first episode shown to critics.... but in the context of I Am Cait this desire to do good feels shoe-horned in. Even if she wants to be a voice for a marginalized group, and there's nothing to say she does not, it still feels like a producer is pulling the strings, even with the best intentions.

While Jenner’s interactions with her extended family are clearly part of the narrative, there’s a pandering quality to shoehorning the couple [Kim Kardashian and Kanye West] and daughter Kylie into the premiere, as if E! and the producers needed a security blanket to make sure they catered to that audience too.

I Am Cait is both trailblazing and bland, a triangulation of the inauthenticity of "unscripted" programming, the inherent performative aspects of celebrity, and the unmeetable standards we have for marginalized people. The show is bland for the right reasons, and perhaps that's for the best.

I Am Cait is, on some level, the most respectful melding of television’s notion of cinema verite and Hollywood’s highest form of top-notch, controlled publicity. Rarely could a show be so completely about the management of reactions.

While I Am Cait appears determined to be a noble endeavor, its producers shouldn’t feel obligated to teach every time out.

It accomplishes its inspirational, educational and motivational goals. It doesn’t totally succeed as dramatic reality television, but perhaps that’s to be expected given how high the stakes are, both for the transgender cause and for Ms. Jenner’s personal brand. Not a whole lot happens in the first hour of I Am Cait, and there’s not much to be learned for anyone who has watched the ABC interview.