Reviewed by: Cortney O’Brien
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Her race to the White House may be through, but Sarah Palin is meeting more natural adversaries these days on her new show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
The show premiered on TLC Sunday night and gave viewers a lot more than campaign speeches.
The 8-week event follows Palin and her family as they explore parts of the more than 650,000 square miles of the Alaskan outdoors.
With her husband Todd and their five children, Palin reveals why she “loves this state just like she loves her family.”
The program succeeded in keeping Palin’s political life in the background, instead offering revealing looks at her and her family’s hobbies.
The clips of Palin rock climbing and teaching her daughter to shoot revealed that this was no normal housewife.
Her conservative ideals may have been obvious throughout the episode, such as when she uses a baby gate to keep Willow’s male friend from going upstairs, but her over protectiveness seemed to be just one part of her usual demeanor and not meant to emphasize her political views.
Palin may be the butt of many of the media’s jokes for her ideals and accent, but the politician boldly proved she’s not afraid to make fun of herself.
She sarcastically referring to Tina Fey’s impersonation of her on “Saturday Night Live.”
She was also courageous in letting viewers watch her struggle up a peak in Denali National Park. Not many other female politicians would be willing to take on such daring outside challenges.
Another mother, Mother Nature, was a compelling force in the episode. The political climate may be dangerous, but the TLC show proved that it’s nothing compared to Alaska’s unpredictable weather and rough geography.
Throughout the episode, there were so many shots of breathtaking scenery and intriguing animals that the show occasionally resembled an episode of “Planet Earth.”
One such impressive moment came when the self-proclaimed Mama Grizzly was confronted by two actual bears as she and her family watched them fight from a nearby fishing boat. The dueling bears were stunning to watch, but the camera stayed on them for an almost endless 15 minutes, in which the Palins only sat and watched.
It’s hard to believe that other parts of Alaska couldn’t be showcased in this large span of time.
Viewers also didn’t get to know Palin’s family as much as she may have intended. Because of Mama Grizzly’s constant talking, the rest of the Palins were nearly forgotten; Todd said maybe two words at most and the children barely got air time.
But, compared to other shows that have featured famous families, such as “The Osbournes” or “House of Carters,” “Palin’s Alaska” was a nice change. Because of the family’s conservative nature, viewers weren’t subjected to hearing every other word censored or any over-exaggerated drama.
One of the only dramatic scenes occurred when the Palins spotted their new neighbor, a journalist writing a book about Sarah, taking notes on them while they rested in the backyard.
Palin did not try to hide her frustration over her neighbor.
After stating that he probably won’t find much to write about their boring lives, Palin expressed her thoughts about the invasion of privacy.
“It’s none of his flippin’ business!” she exclaimed, adding, “Oh well, we had a good day and he’s stuck in his house.”
It seems that the Palins have been getting a lot of publicity lately.
Between Bristol Palin’s time on “Dancing with the Stars” and Sarah’s endorsing a number of Republican candidates in this month’s midterm elections, this political family may soon become celebrities.
Her political aspirations are still unclear, but Palin did mention her hope to scale “The Last Frontier’s” Mt. Mckinley, an elevation which takes 14 days to climb. The show did fall flat at times, but still revealed many admirable sides of the former governor.
In portraying her tough-as-nails attitude and sincere appreciation for her state, Palin may have gained a number of voters should she decide to set her sights on the highest office in the nation.