What's surprising and even touching is that Fergie may not be a hot mess, but she's an appealingly human one. [20 Jun 2011, p.47]

The helpers seem compassionate, and Ferguson's story is so fascinating that her "journey" makes for good reality television.

Finding Sarah isn't really all that helpful as an inspirational story or even as a cautionary tale. [...] But the series provides an invaluable lesson in celebrity self-help.

It's the very epitome of Winfrey's pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps," live your best life" motto. For all that, she's a poor object of sympathy--whining about having squandered a privileged and pampered existence few could imagine ever enjoying.

On the triumphant side, Sarah strips her psyche raw and lets us inside the mind, the heart and the life of the broke and broken princess who must find herself or die, she says right off. [...] OK, Fergie has legitimate issues. And now, she's dead broke, as well. So, she brings in "the world's greatest experts" to save her. And who are these experts? Why, Oprah's all-stars, Dr. Phil and Suze Orman, of course! Let the failure portion of the show begin!

The two things Finding Sarah has going for it--Ferguson's undeniable personal appeal and the value of watching a Very British Person attempt to do a Very American Thing--is buried under sanctimony and the absurd vocabulary of self-help.