Although the Oprah Winfrey Network gave Lindsay Lohan the potential to bring back her career, the former starlet’s consistent self-sabotage has ruined her reputation even further.

The eight-part series chronicled Lohan’s struggles with sobriety and seemed to be the perfect platform to re-launch her career. A partnership with the mother of all media seemed like just the life-raft needed to keep Lohan’s career afloat.

But the 60-minute episodes showed more recklessness than rehabilitation; rarely was there ever a calm to her storm. Instead of re-vamping her career and challenging the industry’s perception, the series seemed only to cement the notion that Lohan is unreliable and unemployable.

Notorious for being late to set, “Lindsay” was a prime opportunity for the actress to showcase her newfangled professionalism. But, throughout the series, Lohan cancelled and delayed several scheduled shooting days for the show itself.

During Sunday’s finale she attributed her chronic tardiness to a lost pregnancy. “I had a miscarriage for those two weeks that I took off,” Lohan said. “I couldn’t move. I was sick and mentally that messes with you.”

It’s not my intent to be a mean girl and I understand the karmic weight of implying someone faked a miscarriage, butthe journalistic side of me can’t help but hope for more facts than just the word of an alcoholic.

And I’m not the only one to venture on the side of cynicism. Talk show host Sharon Osbourne, whohas had plenty of experience with addiction, voiced her doubts Monday on “The Talk.” “I don’t believe she had a miscarriage,” Osbourne said. “Everybody uses that as an excuse.”

While a miscarriage can hardly be described as convenient, the reasoning would do wonders to portray her in a viable light with potential studio execs.

Another way to garner employment would be to showcase consistent sobriety, but throughout the series, it quickly became apparent that the actress was not even fully conscious of what environments could impair her progress.

During an emergency trip to the dentist, the director asked Lohan if she was worried about the anesthesia, a cocktail of drugs including Valium. Lohan merely shrugged off the concerns while the anesthesiologist said with certainty that this could deter an addict’s self-restraint.  If one isn’t fully aware of the dangers to one’s sobriety, how can one possibly avoid a relapse?

Lohan also showed poor judgment in choosing the company she kept. Males, she only identified as “Russians”, were shown drinking at the wee hours of the morning in episode six. One even got his ear pierced with a kitchen knife during a game of Truth or Dare. To make matters worse, Lohan had a photoshoot with “Elle Indonesia” later that day — one that she already rescheduled because she no-showed the first shoot. Instead of getting an adequate amount of sleep before a photoshoot and exhibiting rectitude, Lohan seemed to sabotage yet another opportunity.

She also conveyed to studios that she was still a wild card after lying about relapsing in the fifth episode. Though her life coach AJ Johnson confronted her, Lohan denied the accusation and became defensive. It was later revealed Lohan had been drinking, which further reiterated Lohan cannot be trusted.

While she traverses the talk show circuit claiming self-improvement, one can only hope Lohan has truly come light-years from the ending of “Lindsay.” The show she could’ve seized and utilized to promote progress became a series promulgating peril.

Erin Jensen is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism. Her column appears weekly. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @erinrjensen.

Published on April 24, 2014 at 1:00 am