Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Biggest Loser Review, 2009/01/13

Y'know, I've been thinking about it, and I think I know what Joelle's problem is: she's not a grown-up. The only way she does something is if there's a parental figure standing there making her do it - yelling, if necessary. I mean, seriously, the way Bob was freaking out on her reminded me completely of the place I'm in when I'm angry at my older daughter. (Not that I behave towards my kid like that, of course, but the fury and loss of control is the same kind of headspace.) She lives with her mom. She has such a non-career that twenty-five thousand dollars represents a few YEARS worth of salary to her. She is so completely childlike in so much of her behaviour, such as during the votes in week 1 when Carla said, "This is a test of our friendship" and Joelle agreed - Joelle was so meeky and "yes, mummy" at that point it was quite sad to see. And the whole talking-and-talking-and-talking-instead-of-DOING thing is exactly what kids do a lot of.

I don't know why she's still in a child role/headspace, but she is. If she's going to succeed in ANY kind of way on this show (or life in general), she has to snap out of that. And OMG, cut it out with the trying to be deep chatter! "Yes sir, you want perfection, I know that"; "If I can beat myself, I will win"; blah blah blah blah bleepin'-BLAH!

It's really quite sad. When you think about it from that angle, she's one of the contestants who most needs to be on the ranch; at least until she grows the bleep up.

But aside from the Joelle fiasco, there were sooo many wonderful moments in last night's show. First off, Dan and his running on the treadmill? I totally got chills there. Tara handing off her phone call to Filipe. Blaine's phone conversation with his wife. And Ron's passionate plea for Dan to stay - he's so the house dad, I love it. I got more vorklempt in five minutes watching this show than I did all last season. That is the way to play Biggest Loser, people! Love. It.

Some downsides, though...watching David at home broke my heart. He really has NO idea how to make it happen (hot dogs and fries? are you freakin' KIDDING me?!?), and even worse, he has zero support from his family. LESS than zero support, actually. They're all huge, they all eat crap. No wonder he's huge. He needs to get back on the ranch ASAP.

One thing I am wondering is whether Tara did a teensy bit of water loading since she knew she had immunity? Just a thought there. It'd certainly be good strategy, since it'd parlay into a huge loss next week.

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