‘I Am Cait’ Review: Caitlyn Jenner & E! Deserve Gold Medal For Reality Series

In many ways, Kanye West nails it best when he praises the Olympian with “you’re a celebrity, your daughter is a supermodel, and you’re saying this is who I am.” As my video review of the E! series premiering July 26 says, “this is who I really am” is the heart of Caitlyn Jenner’s I Am Cait – and who the former Bruce Jenner is turns out to be a potentially very powerful voice for the LGBT community.

Possibly the most important thing that either Jenner or E! ever has done, the highly hyped and teased Bunim/Murray-produced eight-episode series is really two shows in one. Yes, one of those is a fairly standard reality show with lots of staged spontaneous segments that is very much a slightly more low-key spinoff of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. And yes, there are appearances by Kim Kardashian, Kanye, Kylie Jenner and more of the clan. That’s one of the shows in I Am Cait, but the other show is much more compelling

In a very nonpreachy way, I Am Cait seeks to be a voice of advocacy for the LGBT community. It’s easy to be cynical, but the reality of this piece of reality TV is that it is touching and it is raw. It is also sometimes quite remarkable as it focuses on transgender youth, who far too frequently are alienated, attacked, bullied and often end up attempting or committing suicide.

From that Diane Sawyer interview in April, the Vanity Fair cover and her remarks at the ESPYs this month, Caitlyn Jenner has challenged a number of assumptions in American life in the past year. Now she and E! are challenging what a new burst of life and fame can be and mean – and that’s an endurance race of its own, one with a noble goal.

So check out my review of I Am Cait and tell us what you think. Will you be watching on July 26?

This video originally posted on July 23.