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"We all know that Lindsay Lohan has lived the majority of her life in the public eye. Now 27, the actress bagged her first major film role - The Parent Trap - at just 11. We all know the rest - the drugs, the drink, the rehab, the prison, the driving offences, the parties, and now the attempt to turn things around... with the help of Oprah. Lindsay was billed as an all-access look at Lindsay&amp;#039;s path to recovery, but it wasn&amp;#039;t afraid of looking at her past, either, with clips from the various news bulletins and flashes of her evolution on the red carpet and even unnecessary vox pops from members of the public discussing their personal takes on Lindsay. Everyone has an opinion on Miss Lohan, whether it&amp;#039;s thinking that she&amp;#039;s had her shot or wishing her a recovery with fond memories of Mean Girls (for what it&amp;#039;s worth, we&amp;#039;re in the latter camp).  But those wishing for new insight into Lindsay&amp;#039;s life in this docuseries would be left feeling faintly disappointed. Lindsay - terrified of ruining what everyone keeps telling her is her last chance - speaks mostly in platitudes in her pieces to camera, speaking of her new &amp;quot;inner peace&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;integrity&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;keeping calm amid chaos&amp;quot; and similar pre-rehearsed phrases.  Otherwise, we track her attempt to move out of a hotel into an apartment, where she&amp;#039;s hoping for a new stability. So there are lots of shots of Lindsay sorting through her belongings - girl is a big hoarder - with the highlight obviously her discovery of a &amp;#039;Fetch&amp;#039; shirt at her mother&amp;#039;s house. That&amp;#039;s not to say there aren&amp;#039;t flashes of insight. At one point, trapped in her hotel by paparazzi, Lindsay sits on her floor, sorting meticulously through her jewellery. &amp;quot;Do you ever feel like a prisoner?&amp;quot; she&amp;#039;s asked. Laughing, as if it&amp;#039;s an idiotic question, she replies: &amp;quot;Yes, all the time.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s hard not to feel for her, as clearly it&amp;#039;s going to be much harder for Lindsay to get her life back on track than for anyone else.  Sure, she might have a sober coach with her at all times, but she&amp;#039;s unable to go to her AA meeting without a trail of paps (and that&amp;#039;s hardly fair on the other attendees, she points out). Even searching for an apartment becomes a million times more difficult - which board is going to want Lindsay Lohan in their building?  But generally, it&amp;#039;s hard to figure out what story Lindsay is trying to tell. When she doesn&amp;#039;t go to Venice for The Canyons promo, is she ducking out of her commitments or doing what&amp;#039;s best for her sobriety?  Is Lindsay Lohan a diva who causes problems on sets, derails a search for an apartment with a trip to a clothes shop, berates her realtor for not trying hard enough, and forces her assistant to move her belongings from one hotel room to another before she gets back? Or is she a troubled woman trying to get her life back on track as people change things around on her, mess her about, use her and put her in situations that are dangerous for her health?  Even Lindsay is confused. At one point, she says she&amp;#039;s used to living amid the paparazzi and in the media spotlight - so much so that it doesn&amp;#039;t affect her. At other times, it&amp;#039;s clear that as she dodges the photographers or ends up stuck in her hotel room. It&amp;#039;s not as simple as she made out.  Yes, the real picture is always more complicated than black and white, but the show makes it too easy to have two conflicting opinions about Lindsay at one time - for example, when she agrees to take part in a lingerie shoot for a friend, only to quit when they change the concept to something she&amp;#039;s not comfortable with. While her running out in tears doesn&amp;#039;t exactly scream &amp;#039;ready to be back at work&amp;#039;, it&amp;#039;s also clear that she&amp;#039;s being mucked about. But instead of painting a complex picture of Lindsay, the show just feels muddled. Understandably, Lindsay seems to be trying to paint a picture of happiness - when she speaks about her family, for example, it&amp;#039;s in glowing terms, despite their well-documented history of issues. She does nod to this only slightly - &amp;quot;It really will be nice when that day comes when there&amp;#039;s no more talking and there&amp;#039;s only positive things being said&amp;quot; - and she does later hint at her problems with her father.  There&amp;#039;s always the sense that things aren&amp;#039;t as great as she&amp;#039;s making out. Instead of exploring this or helping her talk through what&amp;#039;s going on, Lindsay seems content to accept her statements at face value. This isn&amp;#039;t insightful for the viewer or, indeed, helpful to Lindsay.  The end of the episode comes with a preview for the rest of the season, complete with Lindsay cancelling filming, arguing with her father and being told to fix up by Oprah. But should we really be making drama out of this woman&amp;#039;s struggles and difficult road back to health?  While I&amp;#039;ve complained about the lack of real insight into her life in the first episode, when the preview comes along it&amp;#039;s hard not to feel uncomfortable. Lindsay&amp;#039;s lived everything in front of the media&amp;#039;s glare and it hasn&amp;#039;t turned out so well for her. Is sticking her in front of a camera crew at one of her most vulnerable moments really a good idea? Lindsay is very glossy and shiny and well-filmed and shot by an Emmy-nominated director in Amy Rice, but that doesn&amp;#039;t make it any more of a docuseries and any less of a reality show. Unfortunately, it never scratches much further than the surface, making it hard to justify.  I&amp;#039;m hoping for the best for Lindsay - and have for some time now been banking on a comeback - but this show just seems like a potentially dangerous waste of her time. What did you think of Lindsay? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a556466/lindsay-review-docuseries-gives-little-fresh-insight-into-lohans-life/>