I watch a fair amount more TV now than before I met hubby. Not that I sit on the couch to do so, I can't sit still for that long, but I never had a TV subscription before we moved in together.
There. Good to get That out of the way. Also, be careful whilst reading. This could get fucking Epic. or reaally bitchy...
I like Watching the Biggest Loser. I like it because it's the only reality game show where the contestants, while competing for a big money prize, are really there for their health and their families, and that they build a network of friendships while in there, that has surprisingly spiderwebbed out to all the contestants over the years. A-maz-ing. They even have developed a program that donates food to the needy, and lets people lose weight at the same time. It's become a Power brand in itself.
I also really liked the fact that when two seasons ago there was a red shirted contestant who really wanted the competition, and tried to turn her stay into something surviver-y, and she got promptly kicked out for her bad attitude. Even when the network brought her back as a 'wildcard' player, the contestants promptly threw her out again, and it wasn't in a ganged up on kind of way, she just hadn't changed her thought process away from scheming when she was gone, so she lost the challenges that would have kept her in the house.
I also really admire the trainers, Bob and Jillian. They Are the show, they Are what makes it real. They are there everyday to push these people to success, they actually deal with the underlying issues, the causes for their weight gain, they show them how to fix their diet and make it fun, or painful, as they choose, they help them regain confidence and self-esteem, and basically all around kick-assed-ness. Without them, there would just be a bunch of big people trying to work out in a gym.
This year the Network(NBC) has brought on two new trainers. which normally wouldn't really have been a big deal, just like when you're seeing more of the doctor in these new seasons. A new add in. But. They didn't tell anyone about these new trainers. Not even bob and jill. They don't let you know anything about them other than they are a man and woman, the man with a degree in I think sports med, and a woman who was in the golden gloves league of boxing. They let the contestants pick whether they wanted to stay at the ranch with Bob And Jillian, or go to a 'secret location' with these two new trainers they know nothing about. The extra bait? If they go to the new trainers, they get 4 weeks of immunity, which is not getting kicked off the show. So all the sudden, these contestants who were all wary and unsure of these training nobodies, were like, 4 free weeks of training? yes. I'll try out the newbies.
I dislike this. They haven't shown many clips of the secret location, but what they do show is a lot of yelling, not really a lot of working on people's heads right from the start, and a lot of trash talk to the ranch team. I also learned that they are going to reveal the mystery trainers next Tuesday. I'm not sure I want them to. I foresee a lot of the contestants who worked with them having a big gain-back when the 4 week free-for all is over, or their success in the long run minimized or reversed because they haven't had the full package that bob and jill give. Plus, I don't know if they've seen the doctor yet, which is usually a big turning start point in a lot of contestants health changes. I think they should keep the mystery trainers a mystery so that if it doesn't bank well, they can forget about it and move on. Not once in this show, even when the teams are Bob vs. Jillian, has there ever been trash talk and beat downs. It's not permitted. It's negative. Last night the host, Ali something(from days of our lives) repeated a word from the mystery team's trash talk, and Bob lost it on her. It was very re-affirming for the original trainers not to cop into this bullshit.
This last week the home team had a challenge that if they lost more weight as a whole percentage than the mystery team, then No one would get booted off for the week.They also had a mid-week challenge against the mystery team for a three pound advantage. Even though they lost the mid week challenge, horribly, they banded together to do their best to Keep them together. And you know what? They won the weight challenge. By 11 pounds. And I was proud.
But I'm keeping my eye on you, NBPeacock station. I dislike this bullshit 'competition'. It was that before, and more. Don't reduce the show's value by this stupidity. I'm all for changing things up every once in a while, but this is not the way to do it.
p.s. Sorry for the rant, but this really bugs me. TV has taken the only reality show of any redeeming value, and is trying to crush that value out with degradation and stupidity. not cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment