In the first episode of Alec Baldwin’s new reality series, “The Baldwins,” — which premiered on TLC Sunday night — Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria, waste almost no time before addressing controversy revolving around their family.
Following an introduction to the couple’s seven children, eight dogs and cats and two homes (one in Manhattan, one in the Hamptons), Alec and Hilaria Baldwin reflect on the “Rust” tragedy.
The pilot episode of “The Baldwins” was filmed early Summer 2024, ahead of Alec Baldwin’s trail in New Mexico.
In 2021, Alec Baldwin was handling a prop gun on set of the indie film “Rust” when it fired a live bullet, landing a fatal hit on the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
The involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin were dismissed in July 2024, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
“This has been just surreal. I can’t believe we’re going through this,” Alec Baldwin said during the first episode, while reflecting on the charges. “The past year was just terrible. There are times I’d lay in bed. I can’t get up. That’s not like me.”
“Halyna lost her life in the most unthinkable tragedy,” Hilaria Baldwin said in the show. “We are going to feel and carry that pain forever.”
The series' premiere had a rocky landing with critics, who criticized the show as a form of public relations crisis control.
The Daily Beast said the series is “almost like a crisis consultant’s PowerPoint presentation come to life on TV.”
Alec Baldwin “could really use some good publicity these days,” according to Variety. The outlet continued, “Which is probably why a man with three Emmys is now reinventing himself as a reality-TV star.”
Here is what critics are saying about Alec Baldwin’s new TLC reality show, “The Baldwins.”
Critic reviews of ‘The Baldwins’
Reviews of “The Baldwins” are bleak and unforgiving toward what has been widely considered a desperate career move from Alec Baldwin.
A review from The Telegraph panned Baldwin as an actor who “is now reduced to starring in a humiliating Kardashians-style reality show.”
In the most positive commentary on the series, a reviewer from The Daily Beast claimed to have “found the couple and the whole family to be so endearing.”
Here are critic reviews of the TLC reality show, “The Baldwins.”
- The Telegraph called the series a “low-point” in Baldwin’s career, adding, “The picture painted is of a typical family living a life of relatable chaos” and “Baldwin is the clueless dad, Hilaria the glamorous mum, while the kids good-naturedly running riot.”
- “If there’s one thing ‘The Baldwins' want to impress upon us, it’s that there is nothing weird or privileged or otherwise suspect about the Baldwins," wrote Time Magazine, adding that it is another of TLC’s “many shows that gawk at big families.”
- “Oh, how the once-mighty Jack Donaghy hath fallen,” wrote Vogue. Baldwin played Jack Donaghy on the sitcom “30 Rock.”
- Vulture said the series is “grimmer than you imagined,” and “one of the darkest and most bizarre hours of television to appear in recent memory.”
- “This disinterested viewer won’t be alone in wondering why people with so many advantages and so much baggage want to make themselves the objects of so much cheesy attention and inevitable derision,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in a review.
- The Guardian called the series “a new low for TV,” adding, “‘The Baldwins’ is dreadful, and makes the couple look likewise.”
- “One feels a little queasy watching the premiere. That said, once it was done, my viewing companion turned to me and said, ‘Well, I’ll be watching every episode of that.' Maybe that’s the only review you need,” wrote Vanity Fair.
What audiences are saying about ‘The Baldwins’
Audiences gave some favorable reviews of “The Baldwins,” but most said they are not interesting in watching the series.
Here is how audiences are reacting to the reality series, “The Baldwins.”