‘The Kardashians’ Series Premiere: Kim’s Sex Tape Déjà Vu (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Kardashians Season 1 Episode 1, “Burn Them All to the F***ing Ground”]
Well, it’s here. The Kardashians officially debuted on Hulu on Thursday, April 14. And if you were expecting a different feel from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, adjust your expectations.
For all intents and purposes, The Kardashians feels and looks almost exactly the same as the series that launched the family into the upper echelon of fame. And as Khloé Kardashian notes in the series premiere, everything comes full circle when Kim Kardashian has to address her sex tape once again 20 years later. If you’ve been a fan of the family since the beginning, you’ll know the sex tape was the subject of Keeping Up With the Kardashian‘s pilot episode. The legal debacle in the new pilot is the inspiration behind The Kardashians Season 1 Episode 1 title, “Burn Them All to the F***ing Ground.”
The episode opens with a long, continuous drone shot popping through the family’s houses and the Kylie Cosmetics office. It doubles as the opening sequence and establishing scene, with short comments from each of the family members teasing what’s to come in the episode.
The whole family comes together for a small barbecue at Kim’s house early in the episode. Khloé and Tristan Thompson (now just best friends) are there with their daughter, True. A pregnant Kylie Jenner is there, along with Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker, and Kourtney’s children she shares with Scott Disick, who wasn’t invited. Rob Kardashian doesn’t make any appearances.
Kris Jenner arrives with her boyfriend, Corey Gamble. And Kendall Jenner stayed home with flu-like symptoms, which — uh oh — turned out to be COVID-19. Kendall’s absent from the rest of the episode.
Here, check out each of the family member’s main plots from The Kardashians series premiere:
Kourtney Kardashian
The episode’s opening sequence kicks off with Kourtney and Travis, who got married in Las Vegas after the 2022 Grammy Awards on April 3. They’re not married or even engaged yet in The Kardashians series premiere, but viewers learn how they fell in love. Turns out, they were best friends for years and people always encouraged them to get together. Kourtney finally made a move. The rest is history.
Kim Kardashian
During the barbecue, Kim and Kanye West‘s son, Saint, runs up to Kim giggling because a picture of her showed up on his iPad via Roblox. It’s a good thing Saint can’t read yet, because the caption on the photo of Kim’s crying face claimed there was new footage of her sex tape soon to be released. Naturally, Kim started to worry. Kanye wasn’t seen in the episode, but Kim did call him and he was mentioned many times throughout.
Later on in the barbecue, Kim reveals she’s hosting Saturday Night Live. The first mention of Pete Davidson is made here as well. Kim and Kanye are still working through their divorce in the pilot and she has not yet started dating the comedian. But Kim mentions that she ran into Davidson at the Met Gala and asked if she should be nervous about hosting, and he apparently boosted her confidence about it.
As she packs for New York, Kim bounces between phone calls with her legal team and conversation with Kris, Kourtney, and Khloé in her closet, which is literally a huge room, as fans have seen on Instagram. The Roblox ad claimed there was never-before-seen footage of the sex tape that made Kim infamous. But she’s “99.9 percent sure” there’s nothing that hasn’t already been seen.
This time around, she has the money and resources to make sure the tape doesn’t impact her life again. She shares a tearful call with Kanye where he settles her fears.
Khloé Kardashian
Khloé is friendly with her ex-boyfriend, Tristan. In fact, she says they’re closer than ever and friendship and co-parenting is working out great. Tristan wants to get back together, but Khloé isn’t ready for that after all of their relationship scandals. She sometimes is invited to attend Tristan’s therapy sessions, which apparently happen several times a week.
Khloé catches up with Scott and gauges where he stands emotionally in response to Kourtney and Travis’s relationship. He fears being excluded from the family because of it, but Khloé assures him that won’t happen. It’s just a balancing act now.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie’s appearance in the episode is brief. At the barbecue, she reveals why she’s keeping the sex of her and Travis Scott‘s baby secret. Fans already know it’s a boy, but Kylie’s reasoning for keeping it secret was that it’s the only thing the couple could keep between themselves in an otherwise public pregnancy. Scott didn’t appear in the episode.
Overall, there are a few things that set this new series apart from the original. The episodes are longer at around 50 minutes, leaving more room for details. Kim opens up and shows her lighthearted side a lot more in the solo interviews than she let herself in the OG show. That was likely because of the short episode length. But in general, everyone has more time to be carefree in this new series.
The next episode of The Kardashians drops Thursday, April 21 on Hulu. Be sure to tune in to TV Insider’s future recaps of The Kardashians Season 1.
The Kardashians, New Episodes, Thursdays, Hulu
