Wednesday, September 23, 2009

And in other TV news

I decided over the summer that I would try to watch The Biggest Loser this year. People keep mentioning how inspiring it is, how it led them to change their lives, and so on, so I thought I'd better find out what it's all about.

I have given it two weeks, and I hate it. I think it's dangerous and irresponsible (morbidly obese people running a mile down the beach on their very first day on the program? I could have told them ahead of time that AT LEAST two people would end up transported to the hospital.) I think the trainers are abusive and the exercise regimes are outrageously unreasonable. Four, six hours a day for people who weigh over 300 pounds? I hate the humiliation of the shirtless men and crop-topped women at the weigh-in. And I hate the manufactured interpersonal dramas and the overdramatic background music. But most of all, I hate that the ignorant people watching may believe that this is what you must do to lose weight--a process so heinous that few would even want to try it.

5 comments:

Jilly said...

i've never seen it verb, but i wonder if the past contestants have kept the weight off that they lost while on the show? also, it isn't overly healthy to lose a lot of weight fast, so the idea of the show seems off to begin with based on that principle. i wonder if the dieticians and trainers are actually who they say they are? then again, the world of weight loss is often one big scam after another, so actually being a trainer doesn't mean much, does it? my best friend loves the show Ruby, about a woman who weighed 500 lbs who has lost something like 150 lbs and documented it for tv over the past year-2 years. My friend doesn't have style, so she comes to my house to watch it. i can't even imagine how someone doesn't hit rock-bottom before the 500 lbs mark.

jilly

Bert Bananas said...

It's all about 'eyes on the screen' so that advertisers will buy time. It's all about finding an audience. If you can recall, what businesses advertised on the show, Verb?

Jilly said...

probably food, bert. television advertising is like politics with the strange bewfellows principle

jilly

vq said...

Bert, I don't have a clue. We DVRed it and zipped through the commercials. Take THAT, advertisers!

Sonya said...

Verb, I saw a couple of episodes a few years ago and found it so demoralizing.