Have you ever heard of the band Tokio Hotel? Neither do we until we start watching the new Netflix reality show Kaultiz and Kaulitz. But that’s the point: Twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz have been able to build a private life in Los Angeles because they were so popular in Europe that any kind of private life was impossible. But now they star in a reality show that allows viewers a glimpse into a year of their lives. Will they be able to remain anonymous in the United States after this?
KAULITZ AND KAULITZ: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: Bill and Tom Kaulitz sit down for their side-by-side interviews as we see scenes from their very active lives in the first season of Kaultiz and Kaulitz.
The essence: Bill and Tom are identical twins and have performed in the band Tokio Hotel since 2001, when they were 12 years old. Yes, they have been stars for 2/3 of their lives, and we see them in the queue. End of a five-month European tour.
The brothers are very close (they lived together until Tom married Heidi Klum five years ago), but Tom is rarely on the road anymore, and we see Tom’s unadorned bad mood against the positive attitude of his more outspoken companions. There brother Bill.
Bill has learned to accept many things about how different he is, including his sexuality. And while he enjoys his alone time and uses work to avoid loneliness, he’s always been the one who wanted a relationship. Now Tom, more of the antisocial type, is married with stepchildren, barbecues on weekends when the twins are home in Los Angeles, and Bill surfs the apps looking for guys he knows are bad for him.
Back home at the end of his tour (we see Bill’s house but not Tom’s), Bill is looking to make some last-minute arrangements for his partner’s 34th birthday party. He wants an alien theme and wants the location to be the “Invisible House” in Joshua Tree, which has a completely mirrored exterior. Bill’s assistant Lea calls to see if the people booking the house can be paid to vacate that day, and he goes shopping with his best friend Sara to find the outfit that best fits the alien theme. He uses his “secret” AMEX card, which Tom finds out about when the producers tell him during a confessional interview.
Meanwhile, Tom meets up with Devon, who lived with the twins when they moved to Los Angeles and is one of their closest friends. Friends like Devon keep Tom grounded and feeling like he’s living what Bill calls “a middle-class life, but bigger.” What also keeps him grounded is picking up the poop left around the house by the puppies Heidi gave him for her birthday.
Bill gets the Invisible House for his party, and after suggesting that he and Tom go on a skyping adventure together (which he knows Tom won’t accept), he tells his twin that they’ll rent an RV and go on their way. a road trip together. The two argued more on this tour than ever before, with some very intense arguments back and forth, and Bill feels that time together without work getting in the way will help them reconnect.
What shows will it remind you of? Kaultiz and Kaultiz It’s a pretty standard celebrity reality show, especially in the kardashian category than anything else.
Our opinion: In America we generally know that Tom Kaultiz is married to Heidi Klum, but that’s about it. To be honest, we had completely forgotten about that fact until we saw Klum introduce herself as Tom’s wife. That relative anonymity is why the Kaulitz twins live in Los Angeles instead of their native Germany; The popularity of Tokio Hotel caused safety issues for the twins when they were in their early 20s, and they moved to Los Angeles because the band was not well known there and they could live relatively anonymous lives.
We wonder if this series will blow all that up. Even though much of the show is in German, there’s more than enough English to keep reality fans watching, and the style of the show is very stylish and in tune with what reality fans love.
Another thing that may lead to the show becoming an unexpected hit is that it is quite entertaining, mainly due to Bill Kaultiz’s effervescent personality and his willingness to let the cameras into his home and his life. It’s fun, more modest than you think, and offers a great contrast to its more discreet twin.
In fact, the show may be much more about Bill’s life than Tom’s. Bill tells us that Tom won’t allow cameras in his house. Heidi Klum is interviewed and we see her at her birthday party, but any glimpse of her and Tom’s life is fleeting. If it weren’t for Bill’s willingness to be open to the cameras, the show would be terribly boring.
Yes, the two have that “twin thing” when they’re together, and despite the recent tension, they’re incredibly close. That’s likely going to drive most of what we’ll see during this first season, including the RV road trip they’ll take. But it’s a little disappointing that one of the twins decided not to even give viewers even a cursory look at her family life, as justifiable as that decision may be.
Sex and skin: Other than Bill spending a lot of time shirtless, there’s nothing.
Parting Shot: During the birthday party, Sara tells the twins that she gave them a gift and that they must walk through the dark desert landscape to reach it. They give her the light poles they were carrying and hug her. But don’t worry, it’s nothing scary.
Sleeping star: Lea is a very patient and accommodating assistant with Bill. Then we’ll give you this.
Most pilot line: It could be because the show is aimed at an audience that already knows the Kaulitz brothers, but some detailed explanation about their long careers and how they essentially started out as child rock stars would have been helpful.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Although we only see some information about the private life of one of the Kaulitz brothers, Kaulitz and Kaultiz It still works because Bill is so funny and the brothers’ closeness is evident when they’re on screen together.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.