Why I Am Cait Is Worth Watching -- Even If You're Not a Kardashian Fan

When I Am Cait, the new series documenting Caitlyn Jenner's journey to live life openly as a transgender woman, premieres on E! this Sunday at 8/7c, there will undoubtedly be a significant number of people who refuse to watch it for a variety of reasons (some of them more troubling than others).

[...] while I won't be seeking out back episodes of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami any time soon, I have to admit that I Am Cait (or at least the premiere episode) won me over.

The marketing executives at E! have insisted that I Am Cait be positioned as a "docuseries" - the implication being that this is not just another reality show, aka television's version of junk food.

The opening scene features Caitlyn, unable to sleep at 4:30 a.m., wrestling with "spinning thoughts" about the number of trans people who are murdered or commit suicide every year.

Ominous music plays as Esther's walk to the front door is dragged out to an excruciating length (as a result of editing, not her age).

Jenner has been criticized by some for entering the trans rights movement from a position of (extreme) privilege, a fact that she addresses head-on within the first five minutes of the premiere.

Esther's initial discomfort with Caitlyn clearly doesn't come from a place of bigotry or intolerance, but rather from a mother's realization that the reality of her child's life doesn't match up with her expectations of what it would be.

The end of the episode sees her going to visit the parents of a 14-year-old trans boy who committed suicide (switching cars twice along the way to evade the ever-present paparazzi), to see what she can do to help the movement.