“I don’t think I have ever been as excited about life as I am right now … I’m hoping to make a difference in the world.”
And with those words, Caitlyn Jenner arrives, Sunday on E! at 8 p.m., in what is surely the most anticipated series in the network’s history — possibly among the most anticipated docuseries in cable history.
The first episode of “I Am Cait” quickly and emphatically settled at least one outstanding question, or entirely reasonable concern: Would this be yet another spinoff of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”? The answer: Not even remotely.
What viewers will instead see Sunday is something entirely new — also bracing, emotional, and even touching. At least in the first episode, Jenner keeps her promise: She very well could make a difference, and an important one.
The premiere, filmed last spring from Jenner’s Malibu home high above a surging Pacific, also introduces someone most people have never even met before. Dressed in pink, or (in another scene) a white pantsuit, her hair in long tresses, her nails flaming red, the Cait viewers see here is not Bruce, or no longer. Jenner’s 89-year-old mother, Esther Jenner, arrives. That specific reality begins to settle in for her as well.
Many people come and go during this opening episode, as Jenner, 65, essentially reintroduces to them a new person they already once thought they knew — famous people too, including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and Jenner’s daughters Kylie and Kendall. (Jenner’s children from her first two marriages have refused to participate — possibly fearing another Kardashian circus).
But it is Esther Jenner, almost as much as her new daughter, who commands the opener: “I thought I could never be more proud of him,” she says, referring to Jenner’s gold medal victory at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. “I was wrong. I am more proud of him for the courage he has shown” here.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
