lidarose9

This would have been so much better without Nathan. The group dynamic would have been sooooo much better. And more interesting.

I have not seen these other shows, but to me there is a HUGE difference between reuniting a normal birth mother and child and this scenario of extreme abuse and neglect. Both these girls were severely traumatized. I don't know why they all agreed to go along with this horrible idea, but I absolutely despise MTV for setting it up and C&T for pretending this was somehow helpful to anyone. It was horrible.

I made it about 40 minutes, and that was excruciating. I had to keep pausing and going to do something else for a few minutes cuz it was so excruciating. Yes to all of the above. ENORMOUSLY boring, with moments of extreme uncomfortableness. I strongly object to this show's premise. Facilitating and documenting moments like this should be done responsibly, safely, sensitively, by professionals -- not by a couple of doofuses from a reality show. This made me think of that movie "Network" and how they started having public executions on TV because people found it entertaining. I do not find it entertaining to watch the *anguish* of these two young women as they confront their mother. I know they signed up to do this voluntarily, but for a lot of people getting free airfare to Hawaii is a really big deal. Maybe this truly is the only way those two girls could have afforded to actually meet. So it's like creating entertainment out of someone else's pain. I really hate it. That's not even getting into the whole galaxy of grossness that was Cate and Tyler posturing and pretending, obviously prompted off camera by someone with a "not-script" about what to say when they say X. These two know nothing about anything, really. Tyler is trying so hard to be earnest and personable. You can just see it in his scrunched up little face, he thinks this might be his big break. He's aiming to have his own talk show. I just don't think I can stomach this show.

In this day and age, with the problems we have in this country right now, this show is totally disgusting.

I don't know why MTV doesn't just cut to the chase and schedule a cage match between Amber and Farrah. Ratings would skyrocket.

Re: the segment with Ryan's tears. Ryan must be such a disappointment to his parents. Larry and Jen are very clear about what they value in life, and he fails at it all: He hasn't gotten married and had kids, can't even manage to sustain a relationship. He is not a good father to Bentley. He is lazy and does nothing productive with his life or time. He is disinterested in everything, disengaged. He is a perpetual 14-year-old. They must wonder what they did wrong. You can see they want so much to be proud of him, but there is nothing to be proud of. So when he screws up something repeatedly, like being careless with the tools that Larry has worked hard all his life so he can afford to buy, probably takes really good care of them -- when the blow-up comes, it's got heaps of disappointment and anger behind it. On the other hand, I got a tiny sliver of sympathy for Ryan when he was talking about how Larry used to always "ride him" about sports when he was a kid. Larry probably had pretty explicit expectations of his son and when Ryan didn't measure up, it must have been painful for them both. Jen would be trapped in the middle. Ryan never went full-on teenage rebel, he just learned how to passive-aggressive his way out of situations; Jen fell into a habit of making excuses for him, and Larry fell into a habit of swallowing his anger. Back in the early days, I remember how Larry and Jen used to believe Ryan's complaints, until they realized Maci was not the problem. What a shock that must have been for them. Families are complicated, even without the TV cameras and money.

Interesting how Farrah described that dinner: they had finished dessert and were ready to leave when Dr. Creeper launched into his tirade. Which helps explain why Farrah didn't go ballistic on his ass: she was three sheets to the wind. That makes sense. Both she and Debra had been knocking back that red wine for an hour or two, so she was probably sleepy and bored out of her mind. As to Debra and the wig. This explains so much. Not just about Dr. Creeper but life in general.

Why was Amber wearing a mic backstage during Farrah's segment? Why did the security guys take so long to get onto the stage? I suspect this was at least semi-staged. I could swear Drew had a stiffy while he was saying his goodbye schtick after the "walkout".

Larry's ramblingly slightly drunken speech about marriage choked me up. Especially considering the rough times with Jen lately. He was being so real. He's a keeper.

I can't take seriously anybody who wears a cravat.

I was horrified by all the various kinds of inappropriate at that dinner with Debra's new man. Farrah's tits are always slightly alarming to me generally, but putting them on display in a family restaurant might cause patrons to lose their appetites. Deb's outfit makes me wonder if she's into BDSM and that dude is her Dom. But HE broke all the records for inappropriate dinner convo with your gf's adult daughter. Immediately apparent he too is a fame whore and wanted to make sure the scene was included in the final cut for the episode. Simon called it 100% on target afterwards: he "negs" Farrah to make her cry and then brings her in for unwilling fake bonding. I have no great love for Farrah but I sense this scene has been played out before. Farrah's face when she came in following her tits, you could tell she was practically gritting her teeth trying to make conversation with this guy. She was at least going to TRY to have a nice dinner with them. This is when we are getting acquainted, making first impressions, but he goes on the attack, below the belt, right away. OK, he may be 100% right about everything he said to her, but as a total stranger, 1) it's not his place to say, and 2) this is absolutely not the time for this kind of convo. And that extremely inappropriate and lengthy hug -- ugh! How she managed to stand there and allow it without puking on his shoulder, I do not know. But what was strangest about this strange scene to me was the way Farrah reacted -- or I should say didn't react. As he went on attack, she limply backhanded him some rebukes, but seemed caught off guard, and you know Farrah is NEVER caught off guard. I was waiting for her other head to come out and blast him, but she remained strangely human, like she really didn't have the energy to defend herself. And then when she finally decided she'd had enough of this asshole and got up to make a dramatic exit, he leaps up and blocks her way by grabbing her and hugging her. PERSONAL SPACE INVASION on a magnitude 9.9. And she stood there and took it! I would have pushed that fucker away and said: "Take your hands off me please now," and if he didn't, I would have kneed him in the fucking groin. She stood there and allowed that insulting inappropriate asshole to handle her. Simon is right: he insults her, attacks her, breaks her down and makes her cry with "negs" -- and then forces her to hug him -- classic abuser behavior. I doubt if Farrah or Debra realize this, but I suspect this is not the first time this dynamic has been played out.

That one shot made me much more open to the possibility of traumatic brain injury.

Matt's phone says: "Cousin Michael" -- who puts a name in their phone like that? It's just one of the crew's phone number they put in there for the shot, so they could save the price of the "rent-a-cousin" service.

I'm only a few minutes in, but I can't wait. I must post... -- Is that new house of Maci's a pre-fab or mobile home? Every time we get a long shot, I think how much that looks like a trailer. But this was their ultimate perfect house, so it must be regular. Right? -- Matt was a half-inch away from smacking Amber, and then they all laughed it up to cover it over. Irony is Matt claiming he never gets the spotlight. Why do people sit in their garage in yard chairs like that? I thought mostly it was for smokers who can't smoke indoors. Do they smoke? Leah asking why they can't live closer and Amber's hilarious speech about how most people are just dying to live in their neighborhood -- Leah's face: "Huh?" -- Cate and Tyler's house is nice but it is on a busy street. I think that might be why they want a new house. -- WTF is Debra wearing to dinner with her new bf? This woman is seriously style-impaired. Farrah looks comical enough with her ginormous titties entering the room well ahead of the rest of her. And Simon glowering behind -- is he supposed to have a Kanye look? Is that what that is?

Thank you!

Blundering in here much later -- I am watching reruns in the States. Does anybody remember the woman who was eliminated in this episode, her name was Lucy -- what was her accent? One of the many reasons I love this show is how we get to hear all these wonderful regional accents from all around the UK. Hers really struck me as unusual. The website says she's from Lincolnshire, so is that a Lincolnshire accent? Thanks so much to anybody who can tell me. In case you need a reminder, here's a link to a clip from the show featuring her:

I actually started turning these off and deleting them unwatched - for the first time in Real World history. I have absolutely no interest in keeping these idiots straight in my head.

Another week of blah. This entire season is blah to me, with the exception of Laurence. Again, the "good" outfits are merely OK, the rest are just crap. I mean last week's and this week's winning looks both seemed like something from J.C. Penneys to me. Regardless of theme. Theme? What theme? They're supposed to 1. take inspiration from NYC skyline, 2. make it "editorial", and 3. design for a "powerful" (working) woman. This is nearly as silly as some of the "challenges" on ANTM. I have trouble believing the judge's praise is real. I know I don't have the best read on what's high fashion, but I know what would sell in Walmart, and most of these outfits would fit right in. All of these designers seems to be faking it. They really don't have a creative voice or vision or design aesthetic; they are just pretending to, for a reality show. I wonder why. Are the producers selecting designers based more on the drama they'll provide and less for their actual talent? Is that why these people are all so ordinary?

It's overwhelming how many different things are going on with Farrah, your mind just boggles watching her. It's like she lives in her own world, her own reality. This is how her world looks: 1. She has severe body dysmorphia. She looks like a cartoon character. She has some twisted sick idea of how she is supposed to look, and she is annoyed at her mother for having given birth to her with such inferior features. It has cost her a lot to correct those errors. 2. Her aggressive defensiveness. Farrah believes that everyone is trying to attack her all.the.time. If she doesn't keep a sharp eye on them, people will just run right over her. She believes everybody wants to take advantage of her. And this belief is coupled with... 3. Her paranoid self-pity. 4. Her utter, total, complete self absorption. Farrah literally spends not one moment of her day ever considering anybody other than herself. Ever. Like a form of inner blindness. And so because of that.... 5. She has zero empathy, no understanding whatever of other people, whether that's her mother or the check-out guy at the Safeway. Why should she waste her time worrying about people who don't matter? 6. She believes there is one right way to be for everybody, all the time, and she knows what it is. Anything other than that is just shit. 7. She appears to have nobody in her life that she has any kind of real relationship with. Her parents just kow-tow for the cameras; both of them are fame whores, so there is nothing real going on there. Simon is a prop. Who else does she have? I can't believe how lonely she must be, but it's totally covered over by anger. She is the angriest person. Being angry is her JOB. She isn't lonely cuz she has her anger. 8. Farrah thinks she needs to be able to tell people off at that drop of a hat, cut off her opponent with a caustic rebuke, this clumsy verbal jousting, she has the idea this makes her seem smart. Formidable. Nobody's fool. She tells it like it is. In her reality. In actual reality, she sounds like a brain-damaged banshee. 9. Farrah seems to have no interests or desires other than the fame, money, status thing. She has absolutely no curiosity or interest in anything outside of her little celebrity drama. Total tunnel vision. Nothing else matters. The only way she'd give a shit about an earthquake in Turkey is if it somehow raised the price of her favorite mascara. I think Farrah was always this way, but getting tons of money from MTV made it possible for her to "actualize" her "potential" in ways that really unveil all those screwed-up mental processes. She really believed that "sex tape" would make her Kim K-level famous, and it fucking pisses her off to no end that it didn't. WHY NOT? She really believes she has the ultimate body men find desirable, and that is the first and most important thing about a woman, period, and it fucking pisses her off that she doesn't have A-list top quality unbearded men lined up outside her front door next to the port-a-potty waiting to ask for her hand like fucking Prince Charming. Not fair! She really believes Debra is constantly trying to undermine her, second guess her, criticize her. I mean, I do give her credit for hard work and ambition; she is never lolling on a couch chewing her nails or playing solitaire. But, well, to put it mildly, she's one messed up person.

DONUT on the FLOOR.

C&T are paid to have drama about Carly. They are rewarded for causing trouble for Brandon & Teresa. They would have minimal storyline material without it.

I thought Mah-Jing's outfit was really weird and ugly, the dress looked shapeless and the coat looked like a bathrobe. I hated Roberi's look, and if I'd been judging, I would have sent him home. It looked like he used safety pins to pin that fabric on the front, and the skirt looked like scraps tacked together. Erin's coat was yawn, the outside pockets were ugh. Jenni's top looked like it was covered with giant dandruff flakes. Laurence's was OK. I liked Natalia's jacket best of all, but her pants were nothing special. I liked Rik's outfit and think he should have won.

I hated all the looks, including Laurence's. Some were worse than others, but none of them were good. The oversized jacket looked like it came from the local thrift shop. Somebody made a pair of pajamas. Someone tacked half-sewn sleeves to a tunic and tried to pass it off as fashion. HOOP EARRINGS with the Mickey Mouse club shoulders! The braids! The heels! So STREET! It seemed to be about choosing the least offensive of the bunch, rather than winning. The whole runway show felt like student work desperately trying to pass itself off as having some kind of vision. All of the contestants stand there on the runway shivering with terror that they'll be called out on this crap. What is wrong with these people? Do they just suck? Is it because they only have one day? Or are they all just freaked out to be on PR? Everybody went literal for the whole urban jungle theme. Most of this looked very J.C. Penneys trying to be NYC. There might be some adequate sew-ers here, but so far the only actual designer is Laurence (despite this week's horrid pants), and she might be a one-trick pony. When Nina calls something sad, this runway show is what will come to my mind. The only one I liked at all was Brik's because it had some life to it.

Dexter's styling was horrific.

Far be it from me to defend Cate, but I think that was a very hot, muggy day and the grass in the shade feels so cool when you lay down. Until it starts to itch. I imagine that's why Nova shed her shirt too. Everybody looked hot at that barbecue. I agree about Tyler's head. Reminds me of one of those Zika babies. He is looking swollen and beefy, like he has water weight retention. And that hair! Someone who loves him really needs to have a heart-to-heart with him about his hair. I was struck by his attitude in the episode, admitting he's not a nice person and has no clue how to interact with someone with kindness and patience and love. So I guess he needs a wife with no feelings and needs. Cate sure picked herself a winner.