Caitlyn’s Cruel Summer

Anyone who has seen a couple of episodes of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” (guilty as charged!) knows that the patriarch, Bruce Jenner, was never a very profitable character for that reality TV show on the E! network.

Grumpy Bruce would often slip away to play golf or have fun with his miniature helicopters, alone in a corner. He was, in a way, the punching bag of the Kardashian clan, always complaining that none of his children were interested in his adolescent pastimes. Honestly, Bruce was almost pathetic.

It’s crazy how dramatically things have changed in so short a time. Under the giant media microscope, 65-year-old Bruce Jenner has become Caitlyn Jenner and landed her own reality TV show, “I Am Cait,” which has been broadcast on E! since the end of July. Beyond the physical transformation, of course, Bruce and Caitlyn are nothing alike.

Caitlyn never lets go of her iPhone — Bruce hated social media. Caitlyn pays obsessive attention to her outfits, all designer — Bruce only walked around in shapeless clothes. And Caitlyn, much more empathetic than Bruce, is driven by a hyper-noble mission, that of raising awareness of the difficult reality of transgender people.

The first very moving episode of “I Am Cait” perfectly balanced the more comical moments — playing tennis with breasts isn’t so easy! — and the more touching ones, like the visit Caitlyn pays to the parents of a trans teenager who committed suicide in May.

For a product derived from the Kardashian empire, which is built, let’s remember, on a pornographic video featuring the brunette Kim, this depth and sensitivity is a little surprising.

Then the following episodes of “I Am Cait” — scheduled this winter on MusiquePlus — became repetitive, predictable and safe. As if she’s reading from a teleprompter, Caitlyn relentlessly repeats her speech on acceptance and openness for the trans community. It’s here that you notice Bruce’s logical and rigid personality coming out from under the flawless makeup of the great Caitlyn.

Let me be totally clear: No one is against the admirable values that are guiding Caitlyn — on the contrary. For once, a celebrity is using her notoriety for a marginalized and vulnerable population, and we’re not going to criticize her for that. But it remains [true] that the reality TV vehicle chosen by Caitlyn to get her message out unfortunately isn’t the right one. NPR even described “I Am Cait” as “brave, tasteful — and kind of boring.”

Once the curiosity factor has dissipated, there are very few riveting dramatic stakes. The ratings for “I Am Cait” quickly went down, and rumors of cancellation are buzzing on industry sites now.

Which is why tearful clips with Kris Jenner, to whom Bruce Jenner was married for almost 25 years, have been circulating all over the web this week. The majestic Caitlyn Jenner, isolated in her palace in Malibu with her laudable intentions, isn’t attracting crowds. There needs to be drama! Epic crises! A juicy scandal! And what is better than the first “explosive” confrontation between the two exes to make tomorrow night’s episode more exciting?

The superficial and seductive technique of the Kardashians, which Caitlyn didn’t want to use in her own show, is probably what will save “I Am Cait” from drowning. What a cruel twist of fate.

Speaking of the Jenner-Kardashians, the youngest of the clan, Kylie, made (silicon-injected) waves at the Beachclub at Pointe-Calument last Sunday. You won’t, however, see images of Kylie Jenner’s flashy party in the first episode of the documentary series “Beachclub,” which Zee TV is launching this Thursday at 6 p.m.

Instead, you’ll meet the two new owners of the place, Olivier and Julien Primeau, whose father Dominique handed over the necessary millions to buy and renovate this outdoor dance club.

Even though it was put on the jet set map in 2015, the Beachclub at Pointe-Calumet has been around since 1995. In my time, ravers ended up there Sunday afternoons after a night passed — ahem! — dancing at Stereo or Sona.

You won’t see degrading images of drunk people full of Grey Goose in the Zee production. The first half hour lingers over the long preparations leading up to the grand opening of the beach club, now managed by the young Primeau brothers, who have been working in the family grocery stores since they finished high school.

With refreshing honesty, Olivier Primeau, 30, admits to the camera that he is crazy about bling-bling and stars. His younger brother Julien is more the “Joe Cool” type, not too stressed out by the arrival of international DJs like Tiesto.

Is “Beachclub” good television? It’s missing the Kardashian technique to spice everything up. We want to see exploding bottles of Moet or tipsy partygoers who fall in the Y-shaped pool. For the moment, it’s a show that’s too smooth, like an over-trained pectoral muscle.