I decided I’m going to post Biggest Loser updates every Wednesday. I know the season ends next week, but a new one starts in January so I can just resume then. If you don’t watch Biggest Loser, you MUST start in January. My gym has TVs on the ellipticals, so I usually head down there to watch for a while, and then when I get tired, I go back up to my room and lift weights while I watch. It’s pretty inspiring: I find that I do a lot more (distance, speed, reps, time exercised) on my Biggest Loser nights than on other nights, especially when I see everyone dragging themselves around and getting yelled at by the trainers. If they can do treadmill sprints, I think I can handle some nice steady elliptical action!
(Spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched last night’s ep yet)
I am utterly THRILLED to see Neil gone. I hated him as soon as he pulled that stupid water-loading routine a few weeks back. He acted like he was doing it for his team, but it was pretty clear to me that he just wanted to win. He was such a jerk about it at the time too, laughing as he said “I didn’t think it would be that obvious.” WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, NEIL? I absolutely loved that Isabeau got her little dig in there about how her vote was in honor of Jez. All I can say is, it’s about time.
However, I found this episode so utterly predictable. The only suspense was seeing who would be below the yellow line, but once we knew Neil was down there, it was pretty clear who was going home. Hollie is a black team member AND less of a threat, so it was obvious that she was going to stay. I thought it was funny how the editors didn’t even try to do the fake-out that they usually pull, where they cut to commercial right before the crucial vote. They usually treat us like we’re exceptionally dumb viewers, but apparently they finally figured we’d pick up on how this vote would go.
Related to editing – it was finally only an hour tonight! Unfortunately, as much as I complain about all the commercials and recapping what happened two whole minutes ago before the commercial break (and let’s face it, the whole thing is kind of one big commercial for Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal, Subway, Jennie-O Turkey, and all the other sponsors), I was planning on working out for the whole two hours, so it threw me off a bit. The weigh-in and voting were the perfect length though – finally not dragged out ridiculously. In an ideal world, I’d love a two hour program where we actually got to see more of the workouts, more of the behind-the-scenes banter of the contestants, etc. Basically a REAL two hour program, not a forty minute program they stretch into two hours.
Okay, I’ll end this post by saying if you want real recaps (that are pretty damn funny, too), check out Television Without Pity. After all, what’s a reality TV show without making fun of everyone and everything on it? On my own snarky note… how tiny was Neil’s girlfriend?! I couldn’t even tell he’d lost weight because he just looked like such a giant next to her. And on a dirty note… how the hell did that work before he lost the weight? I can barely comprehend it now.