dramaturgy | (no subject)

So I watch The Biggest Loser because I get addicted. Hopelessly addicted. Also because I like to watch Jillian go totally batshit crazy and emotionally damage the contestants. But last week my eyebrows had to raise. They lined up the contestants and told them they had a choice: they could cross the line and get a two pound advantage at the weigh in, BUT they would have to spend the week exercising without the trainers. And if nobody took it, the stakes were going to go up. And the lady who took it eventually took it at two pounds because she said that she didn't want another team to have it, or have it at four pounds, or six pounds, or eight. Which seems perfectly reasonable to me. It's risky but a smart way to play.

So then they meet with the trainers and of course they go CRAZY. So, wait. The trainers didn't know that the show was going to do this? They had no way of knowing that? Is this system so completely weird and corrupted that the contestants are going to be punished for playing a smart game? Choices is one thing, but putting them all in the high pressure situation and then having their choices be lose-lose like that and then having them looked down on for that choice.

Seriously. I get what they're trying to do but it doesn't seem like a good system.

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See, I think it was a stupid decision because she didn't discuss it with Coach Mo beforehand, and that's just. No.

Well, yes. Admittedly that was not a kosher way to do it.

... and I just lost my entire comment um.

I think it was also that she was more focused on winning the game, then, than she was on losing weight? (11-pound loss notwithstanding, obviously, because -- again -- she screwed Coach Mo over, and he only lost one and I wanted to hug him D:.) And I feel like Bob was right in that people who are more concerned with winning than losing probably won't end up keeping it off, in the end.

(I also just don't like her, anymore, because the thing with the cupcakes was pretty lame, but that's just me.)

D'oh. I'm watching it on Hulu right now because that's how I roll, but man this is intense. Tracey is a total snake, they would be smart to watch their backs with her.

Not Coach Mo. :(

And Jillian still needs to stuff a sock in it. The language she just uses is, jeez. I get that's her whole thing, but I would honestly probably take a free weight to the back of her skull. Motvation does not give her the right to be verbally abusive. And it can't be good for her blood pressure either.

I think Bob is right too, but at the same time it IS a game and it's kind of stupid to put it in any other way. So when the trainers bitch about playing the game... that's the show, period. It just seems kind of like the sort of formula calculated for maximum drama. Which is fine, it's TV, I understand. But let's just call it what it is.