Lindsay on OWN

On July 2013 Oprah managed to strike a deal with Lindsay and her people, to follow her around for a unknown amount of time, without a planned filming routine. The result was to be a one-on-one interview between Oprah and Lindsay, followed by eight episodes following Lindsay after her latest rehabilitation period. The official filming began in august 2013 and the first episode aired the 9th of march 2014 under the name Lindsay

In the first episode we start out by seeing a conversation between Lindsay and Oprah, where they talk about the months of filming to come. Oprah wants to make sure that Lindsay trust´s Oprah and her view on the matter, but also that Lindsay has to be completely honest with her and the camera crew.
Lindsay has just gotten out of her 6th rehabilitation stay, and to make sure that the viewer knows all of the success and downfalls Lindsay has had since the premier of The Parent Trap in 1998, they have listed it in a timeline, shown throughout the episodes.

We also see her struggling with having to pack all her stuff that she has managed to collect over the past 10 to 13 years, in order to move from LA to New York, as part of her healing process.
The following episodes show her struggle with finding an apartment (episode 2), her struggle with the docu-series deal (episode 3), dealing with community service and her work (episode 4), her frustrations with moving the furniture (episode 5), her incapability to keep appointments (episode 6), her wanting to move on with her life in New Yorkher partnership deals, whether that be with the "Just Sing it" app or future movies (episode7) and her partnership deals, whether that be with the "Just Sing it" app or future movies (episode 8).

Throughout all of the episodes we see all of the stuff she is doing in order to get better and back on the right track, but I can´t help to wonder if she is 100% committed. Even though she hires a personal trainer, it does not seem like she want´s to train or even meditate. The only time she is committed to something is when she talks about herself: e.g. in episode 2 she makes fun of the routines her personal trainer wants her to do, but when they sit at a cafe and talk she can´t stop talking. Also in episode 2, when she is sitting at a restaurant with her farther Michael Lohan, she stops him as soon as he starts talking about his "other" family (he has two children, one out of wedlock and one with his new wife).

Even though she try´s to convince us that she hates the paparazzi's and when people stare, it looks as though she is getting some sort of rush, being photograph or trying to escape paparazzi.
I enjoy watching documentaries a lot and especially about celebrities, it´s sort of a guilty pleasure. Watching their downfall gives me a tiny bit relief. And since I heard about this project, being cooked together, I got excited, because even though Lindsay has been in the eye a lot over the past ten or so years, she is sort of an enigma; The person you think you know, but don´t really know after all.

Another tiny issue I have with the series, is their filming technique. I know that documentaries are (often) filmed with a hand held camera and therefore the footage is going to look more rough than a high budget movie, but throughout all of the episodes it seems like the camera is having some focussing issues. Sometimes that issue can be rather minor, but in Lindsay it´s an ongoing problem, which in the end can cause a minor headache, especially when you, like me, watch all of the eight episodes in a row.

Some people mind find this docu-series rather boring, mostly because we follow the crew, the paparazzi and the people surrounding Lindsay more than Lindsay herself. However the times we hear Lindsay speak up, it is clear to see that she is a troubled person, who has people who want to help her, but at the same time treat her like a child and a spoiled brat, surrounding her. It´s as though the people behind the docu-series, Oprah and her company, are more interested in making a good docu-series, than actually helping Lindsay through her troubles, because every time the filming does not turn out as the crew want´s it too, when they don´t have enough footage, or when she has been behaving uninteresting, they want to break it off.
And I believe that the only reason Lindsay has come out with her list of sex partners and her "I-had-a-spontaneous-abortion" news, is a publicity stunt for the series.

All in all, I would recommend it to people who have followed Lindsay in the media and want to get a closer look in to her life and why she does the things she does. It has a lot of good moments, among the bad ones, and all together it manages to be entertaining and perfect time waster to watch.