It's been a while since I’ve said “ew!” so many times while watching a TV show. My face kept cringing every time I saw the Haigwoods eating raw chicken or raw meat. When I think of raw diets, I think more along the lines of consuming raw vegetables. But raw chicken and other meat? Do people really eat that? It just doesn’t seem safe to me. The raw eggs didn’t bother me so much, although I was surprised that the son, Lee Haigwood, ate 12 raw eggs a day. I guess it’s just something I don’t understand, but I know I would’ve had the same reaction as Kim Hess-Webb's response. I wouldn’t have eaten the raw meat. I wouldn’t have tried to tell them and their kids that the way they were living was wrong. I don’t think she was OK in doing that. It’s one thing to disagree with a lifestyle, but telling the kids that their parents were trying to harm them was kind of out of line. Maybe if they were against the raw food diet completely a...
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Is it me, or is this show seeming to follow a pattern of throwing together faith followers and non-faith followers? Every week, there’s been some kind of spirituality divide, and it’s usually been a really wide divide, not just minor differences driving a wedge between them. It usually causes a big blow-up, loads of drama and some moaning about preaching and morality. I always get the feeling that nothing really changed, but why should it when it’s about something as intrinsic as spirituality? That can’t be changed in the course of two weeks. But tonight there was something different about it, at least with Tony Meeks and Kristin Hoover. Tony used to be a pastor. I liked when Kristin asked how he went from pastor to punk, and Tony replied that it wasn’t a large jump. It’s interesting that both Tish and Tony Meeks had religious upbringings and wound up on the other end of the rebellious spectrum. There has to be some middle ground where they can come tog...
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I’ll be the first to say it: I don’t know much at all about nature worship. I try to keep an open mind about things. If someone wants to worship a tree, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I’ll try to figure it out, yes, but sometimes you just have to give up and let people be. The Sweaney-Ernst family is one of those families I could easily roll my eyes at for their oddness. I could react like Stephanie Starling did to the idea of a fairy tree and talking to vegetables — she burst out laughing and started instantly mocking them. But I’d rather just look at them as people who have a strange devotion to nature. I wouldn’t call it a hobby because it means more to them than just a hobby. I wouldn’t say that I’d join them in their rituals, but I think it’s an interesting way to bring a family together. I don’t agree with what seemed like Carol and Laura’s push to have their kids just as devoted to nature as they are. What re...
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When I first saw Nicole Bimonte, I didn’t think she was 12 years old. She looked a lot older. And she acted like a complete brat. She didn’t have any rules, so, of course, she was raising hell, being immature and throwing fits. She jumped up and down on her floor, causing the chandelier in the kitchen to shake. She was monstrous - and I’m sure this was the point of showing the various scenes of her. I don’t know what it’d be like to be around her 24/7. I wouldn’t have been able to stay around her for very long; I would’ve walked away from her, probably off to some quiet place where I could recover. But her parents weren’t stopping her behavior. They were letting it happen. Lori Bimonte doesn’t like structure or rules. She keeps clothes in the kitchen, which befuddled me. I get that it was supposed to be weird, but didn’t the kids have bureaus or storage containers of some kind where they could put their socks and shoes? It seemed bar...
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ABC has granted early pickups to not one or two but three reality series: America's Funniest Home Videos, which will return for an 18th season of dogs sniffing crotches, and Supernanny and Wife Swap, both of which are currently in their third cycles.
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So, I have to say that for a second I really did think that Dani Koopman was going to walk out on Stephen at the table meeting. I was kind of expecting it. The previews kept alluding to this, and I honestly thought that it would happen. I didn’t understand why, of course, because it seemed to escalate without warning. Dani’s personality seemed erratic, as if she could just walk out on her husband. In the beginning, she did make the announcement to the audience that she was done making sacrifices. She said she was done being a mother and that she wanted to focus on herself and her modeling career. She seemed like she had the potential to just walk out on her husband with the cameras rolling, if only to make a point. But she came back, continued the table meeting and everything was revolved. Now, I don’t want marriages to end on national television. But it was exciting for a moment because nothing like that has happened on the show, to my knowledge. There have been scuf...
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I’m always fascinated by the real-life struggles of little people. I’m not little myself, but at 5 feet, I’m not exactly tall. I have a hard time reaching things on the top shelves in my kitchen and in grocery stores. I always have to stand around and wait until someone tall comes around to help me. That’s absolutely nothing compared to what the Allemon family in tonight’s episode deals with on a daily basis. It’s a challenge for them to do ordinary things like flip light switches, reach cupboards and countertops and drive a car. They have to adapt to an “average-sized world” and make adjustments so that they can function normally. Diane Allemon has helped her kids adjust to their challenges. On the flip side, she and husband Bernie haven’t given their kids much discipline or responsibilities; but she had to raise her kids in an environment where small things were difficult and where they got looked at funny on a regular basis. So I under...
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When I started watching this episode, I cringed. I knew what was coming. The evangelical Lawrences wouldn’t take to the tattooed, bald-headed, free-thinking, Bible-hating Jinxi. And the proud atheist Caddels wouldn’t take to the Jesus-loving, Bible-toting, overly controlling Karen, otherwise known as Big Mama. Big Mama, it seemed, went into the situation to “save” the Caddels. When she was investigating their house, Big Mama saw a photo album and called the Caddel kids “offspring of the devil.” I didn’t think that was respectful or understanding. She saw the stripper pole and all the racy artwork and was immediately judging them. That was what happened with these families. They immediately started judging each other and putting up a defensive wall. Right off the bat, I knew this wasn’t going to work out well. Religion is a personal thing, and these families are from two sides of the extreme. I didn’t see how they would be able, in two wee...
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I’m a big fan of happy hours and having fun, but Frankie Roy needs to figure out some kind of balance, because her house is a mess. I would’ve reacted the same way Angel did when she walked around the Roy house and saw: dog poop with mold on it, mold in juice glasses, a dead rat on the carpet. Any one of the above would be gross, but all three of them spell a whole lot of filth that no family should be living in. Dead rats and dog poop are not good to have around the house, and I’m not surprised that J.P. doesn’t want to bring girls home. Frankie is proud of having a fun house where her kids don’t have any rules except to go to bed at 10 o’clock, but she has to step up a little bit more and at least pick up dead rats from the floor. And she lets J.P. play computer games for six or seven hours a day, which is so not healthy for him. J.P. said he wanted his mom to be harder on him about his schoolwork. He just wants to be pushed a little, and Angel did th...
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OK, so I don’t want to judge or criticize the Yonts family for putting their daughter in beauty pageants, but I just don’t get the whole child-beauty-pageant thing. I understand the competitive side of it, but when you’re putting your daughter on a runway dressed like a doll and trained to wink and charm the judges, I’m not sure how much of a choice that is. She’s too young to know what else is out there, what else there is to do. How can she know what she wants when she’s 5 years old and has been competing in beauty pageants since she was 3 months? Ramona Jan said it best when she said: “Hannah’s not being forced to be in the pageant, but it’s the only life she’s ever known.” She’s basically been put into costumes and told to strut her stuff since she was an infant. She’s 5 years old and she’s being taught that she should think about what people are thinking about her. The Jans put $8,000 a year into her pageant ...
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