Another watered down episode, put together using crumbs from footage. TLC has a good program here but it's letting it turn into crap with their poor editing, poor choice of participants and extremely disorganized producing. Here are some things they must improve:
1 - Stop picking losers. Of this season, the only couple who may have a chance is Matt and Alla if Matt stops running his mouth and letting other asshole "friends" tell him what to do. If I was Alla, I would have pulled him aside and said "enough" with the inquisitions and interventions of your friends and family. By the way, those people need to be more subtle with the questions or more direct. I love Jorge's sister approach, how she presented her questions, so decently crafted that poor dumb Anfisa didn't even realize it. By the way, meeting the parents and nuclear family is always unnerving, but Jorge should see the red flags with Anfisa a mile away. Something tells me Jorge has never had a freak like that, and will fall for it, only to be divorced a year later. Anfisa is not pretty, but for someone like Jorge, overweight and not very smart, to run into a girl like that with those Facebook pictures. The only place Anfisa can model in Florida is at the Pink Pony.
2 - Along the same lines, please pick people with actual lives and futures. This season not only are the imported people a bunch of zeros, but the locals are also bland and plain. Chantel, obviously from a good family who resents her upbringing and wants to be wild, the typical American party girl looking for attention. I think Chantel wants the attention of the camera more than she wants poor clueless Pedro. Pedro wants to be a man and show that he has cojones, but he's boxed in by his inability to communicate. They are both clueless in the their mid-20s who instead of worrying about their future and planning for it, care more about camera angles. Nicole's parents knew about her lying 30 seconds after she started with the poorly crafted story. I will not be surprised if Chantel uses this exposure to attempt to get into TV. In terms of looks, Jorge is a 4 and Anfisa is a 6, but Jorge is not using his strengths (employed, some what business savvy, good family) to his advantage and instead is spending his money like it's going out of style. Please sell that horrendous car and buy yourself a small apartment or a house in Florida. Enough has been said about Nicole and Azan so I'm only going to add one thing. Azan is conflicted (almost pained) by Nicole's cluelessness. Also, how the hell do you get engaged over email without ever meeting the person? Hey Nicole, stop calling that guy your fiance!!! He's not even your friend. Again in terms of looks, Nicole is a 2 and Azan is a 7. Note to show producers: Please pay attention to this disparity and stop picking couples that you know will not work. Please pick up couples that could work also.
3 - Give more time to their background and life story. How do the characters get to where they are. Alla strikes me as a good woman (lying about her age but a good woman nonetheless) What did she do in Russia? How about Pedro? Did he ever have a job? How is he spending his days now, What is he doing now in Chantel's city to pass the days? Does he have any work skills that he can actually use here in the US. The show ridicules and makes fun of people by putting them in situations where they are bound to fail. Remember the guy with the hideous hair from Guatemala or Nicaragua or other poor Spanish speaking country. The guy comes to some hicktown and then goes to a larger city where a producer tells him that if he wants to move his music career he needs to move to a large city. Without missing a bit or considering his relationship, he says he wants to do it. Mind you the guy didn't speak English. Try to make it in Japan and NOT knowing the language. Again, this is a recipe for failure. Azan and Nicole are another formula for failure. Same for Azan and Nicole. The producers of the show are doing that on purpose because these situations elicit pity, laughter, derision, shame, etc. In summary, feelings and reactions that are just NOT good. In TV, and in life, people eventually get tired of that and turn away. People want hope, we want the couples to succeed, we want the love story to actually have a happy ending and if a happy ending is not for them, let them be respectful to each other. I'd love it if Azan tells Nicole that things could never work for them. To have an actual adult conversation with Nicole being all over him. If Nicole was a guy and Azan was the girl, people would be calling Nicole a rapist trying to push herself into Azan. Again, treat these stories, treat the characters and most importantly, treat your audience, with RESPECT.
4 - Please add some instructional and educational tips about the process. Lacking other options, many couples actually watch the show for ideas about how does the process work. I know a friend who went through it and there are so many interesting layers the show can be using. Please work on content and please stop the busllshit at the final rounds and have sincere discussions. Every one see through BS and lies and the audience wants real content with real topics.
Again, this is a good show, but someone is not minding the store.
There is little or NO social mobility in these underdeveloped poor countries. If you are born poor, you will live your entire life poor and will die poor. You will go to poor schools with no resources, you will wear poor clothing, you'll eat poor food and will never know about other choices. Your will work a job that will keep you living in the same neighborhood as your parents and often live in the same house as your parents.
.
Now envision the US where construction workers, delivery boys, cleaning ladies and babysitters get to actually experience life with options. This country is about opportunity and anyone hungry and savvy enough is bound to find something to change his life, whether it's work or education or a combination of the two. Look at Michael Jackson, where else can a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white man. I live in a large city in the US and can tell you of cleaning ladies sending their kids to good schools and even better colleges on merit scholarships. In poor countries, those opportunities don't exist.
.
If Azan needs to marry that hideous person to create a life for him in the US and then work to bring some of his relatives, then he sees a 2-3 year sacrifice as worthy. I hope this answers your question (if you were serious)
She probably knows she can't get a visa. The United States assumes that everyone who comes to visit wants to stay (especially those from countries where many of the people there want to leave - like Ukraine) - it is up to the visa applicant to prove otherwise. Recall that Aziza's parents were denied visas to attend her wedding in season one. I don't know Alla's sister's circumstances (but I do know the procedures for issuing tourist visas), and it (seriously) may be that the only way that she could get a visa is if she has a young child whom she leaves behind in Ukraine while attending the wedding (the child would presumably be enough encouragement for Alla's sister to return to Ukraine at the expiration of her visa).
Matt has the means to write a formal letter inviting Alla's sister to the wedding. He needs to hire an attorney and present the visa request for Alla's sister through said formal way. The show can do so much in terms of educating people about processes and instead chooses to ridicule the characters.
