In the beginning, there was Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a TLC series that focused on the hijinks of a seven-year-old beauty pageant contestant and her eccentric family.
Thankfully, Alana Thompson grew up to be more well-adjusted than anyone had any reason to expect.
That’s wonderful for her, but maturity and emotional stability are not great for reality TV ratings.
And so, producers and audiences shifted their focus to Alana’s messed up mama June Shannon.
And Mama June provided more than her fair share of drama and dysfunction.
In 2017 Mama June: From Not to Hot debuted on WeTV.
The show found an audience, but as June’s substance abuse issues worsened the series was rebranded as Mama June: Road to Redemption.
Again, what was good for ratings was bad for the family, and Alana and elder sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon started distancing themselves from June.
Now, the sisters are reportedly sending a very strong message about their damaged relationship with their mother.
According to a new report from UK tabloid The Sun, Alana and Lauryn have started filming a spinoff series, and June is not involved with the project.
“Pumpkin and Josh have been filming with the kids and Alana and Dralin are part of the production as well,” one insider tells the outlet.
Josh refers to Lauryn’s husband, Josh Efird.
Dralin, unfortunately, refers to Alana’s boyfriend, Dralin Carswell.
Dralin is 21, and Alana is only 17, which means that their relationship is at best highly inappropriate, and at worse illegal.
“Age gap discourse” is everywhere on social media these days, and there’s a wide array of opinions with regard to what sort of discrepancies are acceptable.
But hopefully, everyone can agree that a high school senior dating a man who’s old enough to be senior in college.
Normally, Alana’s parents would be the ones to intervene in a case like this.
Unfortunately, Mama June pretty much sacrificed all parental authority with her behavior over the past several years.
In addition to the substance abuse issues that nearly claimed her life, June dated Geno Doak, a fellow addict whose presence wreaked havoc on her family.
It’s anyone’s guess what we’ll see what June and Lauryn’s new project premieres.
It’s sad, of course, that then girls have been forced to move on from their relationship with their mother.
But hopefully, they’ll find that their lives are more stable without June’s chaotic presence.