Mrs. Eastwood & Company

Despite his firm stance in favor of marriage equality for same sex couples and, more recently, his Superbowl ad for Chrysler which many perceived to be an endorsement of Barack Obama, conservatives have long enjoyed a great love affair with screen giant Clint Eastwood. When their icon Ronald Regan uttered Dirty Harry’s immortal catchphrase “go ahead—make my day” as a threat to veto and planned Congressional tax increase proposals it encapsulated the manner in which his choice of role – tough, rugged, uncompromising – individuals epitomized their core values.

Given that reality television is by and large red state television, then any glimpse inside the hallowed Eastwood home should draw a decent sized crowd. Only, Clint won’t be in attendance, although he does appear in archive footage as wife of sixteen years, Dina, details their courtship and ongoing relationship together. The show is instead set to focus on Dina Eastwood, their fifteen-year-old daughter Morgan, and Dina’s nineteen-year-old stepdaughter Francesca. Oh, and Overtone, an acapella boy band from South Africa that Dina discovered while she and Clint were in country shooting Invictus and who she is now determined to bring to America. Yes, we’re serious.

To be fair to Dina, she never made any attempt to hide the fact that her husband’s only connection to the show is the surname that the two share. “Anyone who is tuning in because they are fans of Clint Eastwood are going to be disappointed” she told the entertainment press. That’s not to say there doesn’t look to be anything about the series worth tuning in for. On the contrary, Dina is a lively engaging personality seemingly unafraid to flip the drama queen switch to wring hysteria out of even the most mundane issue. “The baby wants to get her belly button pierced,” she says, referring to younger daughter Morgan (the horror…the horror).

Elder daughter Francesca is currently in the midst of being courted by famed celebrity photographer Tyler Shields, who is twelve years her senior (which surely makes him a candidate for Bravest Man Alive?). The boy band, too seem to come across like a ripe bunch of insecure wannabes, who, while indistinguishable from one another, will surely fall foul of all manner of culture clash comedy. Being white and from South Africa, one of them referring to Tyler as “uppity” is cringe-worthy by itself.

Finally there is Lisa, an aging Asian housekeeper who reportedly “came with the house” and whose presence seemingly satisfies the obligatory reality TV convention of offering up a racial minority as comic relief (was Ken Jeong busy?). She speaks in broken English and makes thinly veiled innuendo at the most inappropriate of moments, so it’s tough to say who will provide the biggest laughs each week, Lisa or the menagerie of cute and tiny critters, the centerpiece of which is a spectacularly overweight pet piggy.