Interesting take on the (I don’t really care about it) saga of Jon and Kate Plus 8.

The show, which is being rebranded Kate Plus 8, to leave Jon out in the cold, is currently on hiatus, I think, but that’s mostly because Jon and Kate are in the middle of a horrendous divorce, and the legal wrangling is tough for TLC to sort out.

Throughout, though, the tabloid story is of poor, struggling Kate, trying her best to raise eight (!) kids while Jon goes out gallivanting and philandering.

A post on Slate’s XX site (which is feminism-oriented, interestingly) offers a different interpretation: Kate is a shrill harpy and Jon is the one we should sympathize with. Writes Hanna Rosin:

I have come to see Jon Gosselin as a sort of mad prophet, the only sane voice in a sea of people who think it’s perfectly reasonable to raise eight children on a reality show, even in the middle of a horrendous divorce. I know, I know. Arguing with the hive tabloid mind is like screaming at the ocean. But I feel I must take this one on. Since before the marriage was obviously on the rocks, he has been going slowly insane on the air, looking beet red and drunk, saying weird things about barbecued rabbits, throwing darts at the “endless holiday post card” that is their life. And yes, this is possibly because he has been chained to a succubus of a wife all his adult life and lives in the hell she’s created. But it’s also because, like all mad prophets, he has an important message to share with the nation, which he recently posted on their front gate: “No film crew or production staff from TLC is permitted on this property under penelty (sic) of trespass.” (OK, so not all prophets can spell.)

When asked about Jon’s request to stop filming during the divorce, Kate claimed she ran it by the children and “there was eight times wailing and sobbing. They love the crew! They love all the events! They love the interaction! They got very angry about that thought.” As any reasonable parent knows, you do not ask the children whether they want the horrible thing. You set it up to trick them into believing that the right thing to do is what they actually want. And if that fails, you disappoint them.

Of course, I happen to think that Jon is a gigantic spoiled man-child who loved being the show so long as it was an endless stream of fun things for him. And Kate treated him like her ninth child partly because she was that type of wife, but also because he kind of needed it.

And yet, as Rosin points out, he’s the one looking out for the kids, now — at least in a “normal” non-reality-TV way. Perhaps away from Kate he’s finally grown up.

I’ll stick with my assertion that I think the show should include Jon’s new squeeze and they can call it Jon and Kate Plus Eight Plus One. And if Jon doesn’t think it should be about the kids, maybe they can treat it like Everybody Loves Raymond — there were kids on that show, but it wasn’t really about them. The tabloids aren’t focusing on the kids, anyway, Jon and Kate and the Endless Drama (with some tots running around in the background) would at least let them drive the storyline.