“When Mommy cries, it makes me happy.” – Sydney
You seriously cannot make up what these kids end up saying.
Toddlers and Tiara switches things up in this episode with its new pageant toddler Brock Ritter, who thinks of himself as a diva. In addition to Brock, there is toddler pageant veteran, Savannah, and newcomer, Sydney. All three of these children are vying for the high titles in this episode’s competition, the Southern Celebrity Mini Nationals. Expect the usual emphasis on the parents’ freakouts and creepy doll-like performances.
Toddlers & Tiaras continues to show the stress (and horror) families go through when preparing their children for pageants. The episode begins with Sydney bumping her head while practicing her routine. Her mother argues with her for a second before going to retrieve an ice pack. “Welcome to insecurity city, where self-esteem is our currency,” I thought to myself.
I knew then that this was going to be a ride straight to an insane asylum and I buckled myself up in anticipation of more tears. To be fair, Sydney’s mom doesn’t come off as insane as Savannah’s, who literally becomes She-hulk when her daughter cries before going on stage. It’s moments like these that transform reality shows from mindless entertainment to frightening character studies.
What really makes this episode stand out is Brock. Brock is a young boy already making a name for himself in male pageants. Now he’s stepping it up and going up against the girls. He loves to dance, and took pride in dressing up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz for Halloween. Though the boy will have ego problems when he is older, his situation is much more stable versus the two girls.
Brock performs because he loves it and his mother wholly supports him. So much so in fact that she spray tans him. What’s interesting about this is that he enjoys being spray tanned. He giggles about how it’s cold, but doesn’t complain. He looks healthy compared to Savannah, who looked like a deer ready to be hit by a Ford truck during her spray tan session.
The addition of Brock causes a new gender dynamic to form on the show. You begin to see the different standards placed on the two sexes. With Brock, everything seems simpler, partly because he loves pageants, but also because he has a more stable mother.
On the other hand, Sydney’s father comes to support her. Brock’s mom establishes that his father supports him, but do you see the father anywhere? Nope. It’s a sad irony, especially because how the mother establishes how Brock is picked on. At the very least, his mother is supportive and not demanding (at least not on the surface.) Savannah and Sydney seem enslaved to their respective moms in comparison to Brock, who actually talks to his mother.
There could be more said about this episode, but that’s for another article. At the end of the episode, Sydney wins a higher title than Savannah and Brock wins all the boys’ awards and the high title for personality. It’s somewhat anti-climatic considering that he was the only boy competing. It makes all that practice we see in the first act seem worthless.
But then again, why am I analyzing a show where a girl takes pleasure in her mother’s tears?
Some stats and info about Toddlers & Tiaras, “Southern Celebrity Mini Nationals “
TV SHOW – Toddlers & Tiaras
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 4
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – TLC
GENRE – Reality TV, Trashtastic TV, Docuseries
This review was originally published on TV Geek Army.