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The Biggest Loser Almost Jumped the Shark Last Fall With Season 12

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Given that the newest season of The Biggest Loser started last night and there are so many fatties out there (myself included, by the way) who watch this show like it is the best show on television, I thought I’d offer some comments regarding the last season of the show. Season 12 of The Biggest Loser started in September 2011 and ended a few months later in December 2011. It was the first season of the show that I watched and was totally underwhelmed with – on all fronts. Here are some of my quick thoughts on the last season of The Biggest Loser on NBC:

  • Anna Kournikova. Talk about a huge letdown to all the red-blooded men out there. Here is one of the most beautiful female athletes in the world and she didn’t know the first thing about training other people. As one of the many red-blooded men out there who was so put off by Kournikova’s inability to train her contestants that I began to resent her beautiful self being on the show, I’m glad that the folks at NBC learned their lesson and didn’t invite her back for the new season.
  • Dolvett Quince just doesn’t “get it.” It’s hard to explain, but when you watch Bob Harper or Jillian Michaels train their contestants you are actually watching them make a connection with these people. Dolvett didn’t seem to “get” that last season. And it showed, too. You see, the problem with most of the people on the ranch isn’t that they eat too much or don’t workout nearly enough. The problem is that they are hiding from something or running away from something deep down inside that they don’t want to confront. There’s an inner fear there that they don’t want to face – an inner fear that they can’t succeed or they won’t succeed or whatever. Dolvett didn’t “get” that aspect of the show. He just thought his job was to be a typical trainer, but to do that job better than Bob. I can’t believe they brought him back for the new season.
  • John Rhodes hurt The Biggest Loser brand. Most people go on The Biggest Loser because they hope for better things for themselves and their families. Other people go on the show because they want to prove something to themselves or to someone else. Yet there are a small percentage of people who get on the show and want to play the game first and then worry about their health second. John may have won last season and wound up as the biggest loser at the finale, but he was a complete jerk during his time on the ranch. He threw Sunny under the bus and when the only person with any integrity called him on it (Antone Davis), John turned into a big, stupid child and grew bitter towards Antone. This is an asshole who stood on the scale during the penultimate episode of the season and barked at Antone – a former NFL player – that he was going to beat him. The man has no class and few redeeming qualities as a player of this game and he hurt The Biggest Loser brand. In fact, he hurt the brand almost as much as…
  • Bonnie Griffin. Don’t get me wrong – I think that John Rhodes did significant damage to The Biggest Loser brand and whoever cast him on the show should really be held to task. However, there is no question about the fact that Bonnie Griffin is the worst contestant in the history of the show. Period. No questions asked. This is a woman who celebrated losing four pounds after the first week and three pounds after the second week. She was a disgrace. Her presence on the show was a slap in the face to all of the applicants who didn’t make it on the show. There are people out there who need to be on the show for their health and yet Bonnie was given a spot on the show because she’s an old lady. Nothing turned my stomach more last season than watching Bonnie stay on the ranch week after week when she clearly was out of her league and didn’t belong there. The only thing that came nearly as close to turning my stomach as watching Bonnie’s weekly “struggle” was…
  • Johnny Forger. Thank God this guy was eliminated early on. If there is a classic definition of someone who is a “creeper,” then this is the guy. I don’t know what the casting director was going for with Season 12 of The Biggest Loser, but if this guy walked into my casting room the very first thing I would do is hide the women and children. He’s just creepy. And yes – I understand that The Biggest Loser doesn’t have casting calls but, instead, has applicants submit their tapes. I would have taken Johnny’s tape and sent it right to the local authorities. He just creeps the hell out of me and he should never have been on the show.
  • Antone Davis. One of the biggest issues that I had with the last season of the show was that they didn’t focus on Antone nearly enough until later in the season. He was the only contestant that had any integrity and was able to confront his fears and his inner demons and defeat them. He was on the ranch for the right reasons and he made the show worth watching in the last few weeks. But prior to the last few weeks – no one really knew his story because the show was so poorly put together. Just a bad job overall by the team at NBC.
  • No rallying points. Other than Antone’s story, there were really no rallying points for the fans to get behind. In Season 11 you had the mothers who selflessly sacrificed their time on the ranch to make sure that their kids stayed there. I’ve never seen a stronger, more devoted group of people than those mothers – they defined what a parent should be on that show and they were the models of integrity. And what made their sacrifices more touching was that they sacrificed themselves for other people’s kids! Lord knows that John – the selfish, ignorant winner from last season – would have thrown all of those kids under the bus and tried to get them off the ranch. Who wants to watch that?

The reason why I decided to post this entry the day after the first episode of the new season of The Biggest Loser is because while I watched the show last night, I actually turned it off midway through the episode. NBC is bringing this franchise dangerously close to jumping the shark (i.e. becoming totally irrelevant). It’s a damn shame, too.

Crazy Fat People Thoughts – Seeing The Bigger Picture in The Smaller Picture

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Some of you folks might remember a few weeks ago when I wrote the first “Crazy Fat People Thoughts” entry on JerseySmarts.com. The point of that entry was twofold. First, I was commenting about how I have a variety of never-been-worn-before jeans that I can now wear since I’ve been losing weight. Second, I was making a statement that most fat people do weird things or have habits/issues that range from minor quirks to extreme issues. While I’m lucky because I don’t think I have any major issues, I definitely have weird little quirks – like buying jeans that don’t fit me. This entry is about another one of the weird quirks that I’ve become more aware of lately and why I’m becoming aware of it. I think you’ll find it interesting.

What happens when this scene does occur, but you still can't see it?

Whereas the last entry of this type focused on all of these unworn jeans in my closet, this entry is going to focus on what I see when I look at myself in the mirror. First, some history…

I’ve mentioned many, many times on this blog that I once lost 125 pounds before gaining some 105 pounds back. While I’m not going to rehash that story, I do want to comment on my perception of reality during that time. Specifically, even though I lost 125 pounds and I was getting compliments from everyone I knew and everywhere I went, I didn’t see much of a change in the mirror. Now, before you go and think that I have some type of body dysmorphic disorder (look it up), I certainly knew that I looked different and I definitely knew that my body was a different shape at 260 pounds versus at 385 pounds.

However, for better or for worse, whenever I looked in the mirror I just saw… me.

Was my stomach smaller? I guess so. Were my arms and chest more defined because of the intense lifting that I was engaged in? More or less, I guess. Did I see the same changed person that everyone else saw when they looked at me? Nope.

Maybe it was because I’m a pretty strong-minded person and I knew that even though my body changed, I was still “me.” You see, society seems to think that if you lose a lot of weight and your appearance changes dramatically, then you must be a “new” person. This weird cause and effect is played out in the media and in popular television shows (it’s actually the core root of NBC’s The Biggest Loser). Yet, becoming a “new” person was never my motivation to lose weight when I dropped 125 pounds and it’s not my motivation as I lose weight this time around.

That’s probably enough background, but feel free to ask for more if you’re interested. Now some more present day comments on this topic…

I decided to write this entry because yesterday I hit a pretty big milestone in my current weight loss efforts. Yesterday, I weighed in at 314.6 pounds, which is 50.4 pounds less than when I started losing weight at the beginning of the summer. That’s pretty damn good!

Just like when I lost all of that weight last time around, I’m doing the same things this time around – eating less and working out more. That’s the big “secret” to weight loss. It really is the secret!

And, just like last time around, I’m not “seeing” much of a difference in the mirror. However, because I was aware enough at the beginning of the summer to know that my eye-to-mind connection would lie to me again about what I was “seeing,” I took a measure to prevent myself from believing (disbelieving?) what my eyes saw in the mirror.

I took pictures of myself.

No, you’re not going to see those pictures on this website so don’t ask. However, I glance through the pictures every once in a while to get a view of the pre-weight loss version of my body versus the current version of my body. And truth be told, there is a striking, noticeable difference between the picture of me at 354.6 pounds (after already losing 10.4 pounds is when I started taking the pictures) and the picture of me at 335.0 pounds… but that’s about it as far as my eyes can “see.” I’ve also taken pictures of myself at 330.4 pounds and 326.8 pounds; I have yet to take some pictures of myself at my current 314.6 pounds.

However, here’s the thing – I don’t see a difference in the pictures between 335.0 pounds and 326.8 pounds.

Is there a difference? Well, there would have to be, right? I mean you don’t weigh 8.2 pounds less than you did a week or two prior and not look different. Yet, I don’t see it in the pictures. Sure, maybe I’ll see the difference in the 314.6 pound pictures, but I don’t see the change now.

And that’s the root of this entry because I’m finding it pretty hard to get as excited as I should be about losing the 50 pounds so far. Most folks would be jumping up and down for joy after losing that much weight and while I’m glad about it, I’m not ecstatic about the 50 pound drop. Part of me believes that I’m not excited because, frankly, I’ve been here before. In fact, I’ve gone another 54.6 pounds down this road and will likely retrace those very same steps in the next 6 months. But I’m just not overly elated at what I’m seeing in the mirror.

The analyst in me thinks that I need to heed the title of this entry and see the bigger picture in the physically smaller pictures of my body. In other words, I think that part of my problem is that I need to realize and begin to achieve the bigger picture items that come along with losing weight before my mind will allow me to see the physical benefit of losing the weight. What does that mean? Here’s an example: I go to the doctor again next Friday (second day of September). At that appointment, I will have hopefully lost a total of 55 pounds since I last saw the doctor. That’s an astounding amount of weight to lose. I think, however, in order for me to realize and achieve the bigger picture items that come from losing this weight, I’m going to need my doctor to lower the amount of my medications (currently at 10 pills and 1 shot each day).

I’m pretty confident that a development like that would begin to wrench open my mind’s eye so that it can see the smaller figure standing in the mirror.

__________

The paragraph above is the end of this entry. Though, since this is a weight loss-themed entry, I thought I would add a few comments on my next goal and the longer-term goals that I have for losing weight. If you’re interested, read on…

The next goal is to drop below 300 pounds. As any big guy can tell you, when you’re losing weight that 300 pound figure looms above your efforts like a storm cloud waiting to burst. Once I break through that level and begin weighing something in the 290s, I’ll be content that this weight loss effort may actually have some longer-term legs. And on those longer-term legs, I’d like to carry myself to 275 pounds by the middle of October – in time for my older brother’s wedding. Again, as any big guy losing weight can tell you – once you breakthrough beneath the 300 pound level, 275 pounds doesn’t seem that far away (and it’s not in the grand scheme of things).

That’s about it in terms of my weight loss goals. Sure, one day I’d like to weigh around 230 pounds (I don’t know about going much lower than that weight, actually), but I’m in no great rush to get there. I could be very happy sitting at 275 pounds for a while just like I’m content taking small steps to get to that weight. If you’re interested in following this weight loss effort, stick around on JerseySmarts.com because I plan to chronicle as much of my thoughts and experiences as I can during this journey. It should be interesting. 🙂

The Biggest Loser’s “White Team” Makes a Phenomenal Statement

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A few weeks ago on the biggest loser, Allison introduced us to the White Team. The White Team is the team that – as Allison said on the show – was picked as team number 12. Why is that significant? Simple. Only 11 teams make it on to the show. During the March 29, 2011 broadcast, they showed a video of Allison going to speak with the White Team before the season started. She told them that they were team number 12 and not going to be on this season of The Biggest Loser.

Then, as The Biggest Loser loves to do, Allison told the White Team that they could earn their way on to campus by losing the weight at home. Well, the March 29th broadcast was the due date for the White Team to meet their weight loss goals. You can watch the entire episode that I’m referring to by watching the video at home. If you want to see the White Team’s story, then fast forward to about the 8:30 mark. I suggest fast forwarding to the 8:30 mark and watching the show through the story of the White Team, which only lasts about 7 minutes or so.

Now, if you watched the video above, you know that neither Vance nor his mother Leann lost the amount of weight necessary to make their way on to the ranch. But, what I liked most about this little segment, was what the White Team had to say – something that I really feel needs to be repeated over and over again on The Biggest Loser. What both Vance and Leann said was that they don’t get to spend their entire day at home losing weight; they don’t get to make weight loss their “job” each day.

I applaud Vance and Leann for their great weight loss successes thus far in their journey. However, their message of their story is one that absolutely must be shown side-by-side with The Biggest Loser. And that message is that you can’t sit at home and watch The Biggest Loser and think, “I can do that. I can lose 100 pounds in 6 weeks!”

Sure, you can lose all of that weight in a short period of time if you are a contestant on The Biggest Loser or if you don’t have a stifling daily routine. For example, I lost 125 pounds when I was in graduate school because I was working a part-time job and going to school part-time which gave me a lot of free time. But if you have a job (or two… or three), a family, a commute, bills that absolutely must be paid, etc. – then I strongly urge you to watch the weight loss success on The Biggest Loser with measured eyes.

Yes, you should be inspired by the people who are transforming their lives on The Biggest Loser (I certainly am). But remember this: for the vast majority of people who watch the show, even at your best your successes will be akin to the White Team’s experience in the video above. Are those successes something to be celebrated? Yes! But will the weight fall off of you as quickly as though if you were on the ranch? No.

Just trying to bring a little bit of reality to reality television.

Congratulations Mike – The Biggest Loser for Spring 2010!

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Not much to say in this post other than a major congratulations goes out to Mike, the winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser Spring 2010 season! Talk about a great story, here is a guy who lost 264 pounds after starting at 526 pounds. That is unbelievable – absolutely amazing. And, in truth, he looks like a completely different person. The picture that I posted below doesn’t even do the man justice – he was even skinnier and in better shape during tonight’s finale. I’ll try to get a picture from tonight’s finale uploaded to replace the image below. I’m just baffled at how much weight this man lost. It’s really awe-inspiring.

Even though Mike won (and, of course, he was the odds on favorite to win because he was the biggest contestant in show history), Daris has to have undergone the biggest overall transformation. Here’s a guy who looked horrible with his ultra curly hair and big fat man boobs, but wound up shedding 168 pounds, running a 26.2 mile marathon in 4 hours, and actually has significant muscle definition in his arms and shoulders. Daris should be extremely proud of himself – he literally transformed his body and his life. Great job!

The same goes for Ashley, who went from a massive girl weighing 374 pounds to a hottie weighing 191 pounds! Amazing! Ashley lost 183 pounds and no one even gave her a chance of winning when the season began. Ashley looked great at the finale, she really did. And you can tell by her attitude and demeanor that she has the drive and spirit to lose another 50 or even 60 pounds. Once again, The Biggest Loser has taken a girl that most guys would walk by without a second look and made her into a stunning woman that will definitely make guys turn their heads. What a transformation.

Tonight’s finale should be an inspirational wake up call to everyone who thinks that they can’t do it; that they can’t lose weight. Just look at O’Neal (lost 153 pounds) and Sunshine (lost 114 pounds) – those two may not have won the big bucks, but they looked absolutely awesome! Side note – I’m a big fan of O’Neal and Sunshine, but O’Neal’s sons (Sunshine’s brothers) have got to be the biggest fans of their Dad and sister than anyone on the planet! I love when those two guys go crazy whenever they’re around their father and sister. It’s fun to watch!

But, back to people looking good during the finale – the same goes for Darrell (lost 189 pounds). That man lost a ton of weight as did Sherry from the pink team. Awesome, awesome transformations. Cheryl looked great, too, but I think that Sam might have been a little bit too cocky for his own good. Same for Koli. But in the end, the two of them looked great after their weight loss transformations – good for them!

And congratulations (again) to Koli for being the at-home winner of The Biggest Loser competition! Not only does he look great and did he rid himself of all of that excess weight, but he takes home $100,000, too. Not so bad!

If I had any issues with tonight’s season finale of The Biggest Loser, it was that NBC (and all television networks, really), draw these finale shows out way too long. Thankfully, I started watching the show at 8:30pm and rewound my DVR back the extra half an hour so I could fast forward through the commercials and the extra parts of the show that I’ve already seen (look, if you’ve watched the whole season then you’ve already been through each of the contestants’ ups and downs so you don’t need to be reminded of them before each weigh-in). Unfortunately, though, I caught up to the real time version of the show relatively quickly – by 9:20pm. So…for the last 40 minutes of the show I had to suffer through the ridiculous commercial breaks. Blech.

Actually, I guess it’s not that bad since I was able to write the bulk of this post during the dead time in the last 40 minutes of the show. 🙂 Another complaint – the show ends too quickly in the last few minutes. Why not show 2 – 3 minutes of the post-weigh-in celebration and maybe even had a brief interview with the winner? Why cut straight to a promo for a new show or an upcoming show? Bad move.

Oh, and I hated seeing Melissa and Lance again. Talk about two wretched people. I’m not a fan of that Melissa woman – I just don’t like her no matter what she does or says. She’s a sneak who thinks that she’s getting something over on everyone each time she speaks. Dirty snake. She’s the reason why lawyers have bad reputations.

But, once again, a major congratulations goes out to Mike for being this season’s The Biggest Loser champion, $250,000 winner, and an amazing inspirational story! Great job!

Some Notes on Winter/Spring 2010 Television Season… Thus Far

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While I was fast forwarding through the commercials as I cleaned out my DVR the other day, I remembered that it had been quite some time since I wrote an entry on the blog with some of my random thoughts on television shows. So, without further adieu (since I know you’re all waiting to read my opinions), here are my thoughts on the winter/spring 2010 television season… thus far!

Smallville
I’m a big Smallville fan, but I’m not a fan of how they break up the seasons each year. This year they went from January to the end of February, took off for March, and then started up again in April. What’s the point in doing that? It doesn’t make any sense? Anyway, I like the way that Smallville is trying to focus more on the actual comic book relationship to the series and less on the stupid, cheesy storylines. The more that they move in that direction, then the better and brighter this show’s ratings future becomes. Speaking of ratings, Smallville is one of those shows that gets a big bump each week thanks to people who DVR the show and watch within 7 days of the recording. Just goes to show you how new technology helps to keep good shows on the air!

Lost
I was talking to my Mom the other day and I said that the first season of Lost will probably go down as the best single season of a show in the history of television. That show had people riveted to its every move and plot twist – watching the show was actually fun! These days, though, while I like that we’re only a few episodes away from the grand finale, I’m annoyed that there is no possible way for the writers to address every single storyline and loose end before the show goes off the air.

So, while the first season of this show will probably go down in history as the best season of television ever, the last few seasons have to go down in history as a major disappointment. And how do you kill off Sun, Jin, and Sayeed? Good grief…

Fringe
I love it. This show is amazing. The idea that there is another universe that parallels our own should be enough to make any science fiction nerd happy. But showing that alternate universe and the relationship that it has with our own is what Fringe does best. Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble are out of this world (pardon the pun) in terms of their performances. A better cast couldn’t have been assembled for this show. My only concern about the future of this show is that it was created by and is currently executive produced by J.J. Abrams. Why might this be a problem? Well, Abrams created Lost and, well, see my review above…

24
On the one hand, it’s sad to see Jack Bauer and Chloe Sullivan canceled after this season, but on the other hand I think that this is the best thing for the show. In reality, there is only so much that you can do in terms of terror plots that have to cover 24 separate episodes. If I’m not mistaken it has already been confirmed that there is a 24 movie in the works, so that’s good news.

This season, I was shocked that they showed the aftermath of the assassination of Omar Hassan (played by the guy who was the game show host in Slumdog Millionaire). That made for some shocking entertainment television. I was also surprised that they killed off Renee Walker right after she and Bauer began a romantic relationship – I didn’t see that coming. However, I was glad to see good old Kara Thrace (the character’s name in Battlestar Galactica) a.k.a. Dana Walsh (real name Katee Sackhoff) added as a member of the cast. Okay, sure, she winds up being a bad guy and a mole for the Russians, but she’s one hell of an actress.

TNA iMPACT!
Well, if you know me then you know that I’m a wrestling fan. Sure, I’m not as big of a fan as I used to be and I don’t regularly watch the shows (thank God for DVRs), but I still get some enjoyment out of the “male soap operas” that are professional wrestling shows. For a variety of reasons, I’m not really interested in watching WWE any more. Not only has the show fallen to a PG rating (and thus puts out a product a bit below my age group), but I’m sick and tired of seeing some of the same people over and over again (Triple H comes to mind).

TNA, on the other hand, is showcasing some pretty great talent in Abyss and A.J. Styles. They’re also bringing us Desmond Wolfe, D’Angelo Dinero, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and any other number of great performers that are getting to rub elbows with wrestling legends Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in on-camera appearances. For that reason alone I enjoy watching TNA’s flagship show iMPACT! However, if you actually sit down and watch the show for what it is – as a fan of sports entertainment – you really see how entertaining the overall product can be. TNA recently decided to retreat to Thursday nights after trying to take on WWE’s Monday Night RAW head-to-head. TNA is really still pretty young and the move to Monday nights was pretty ill-conceived, but I’m glad that they listened to their fans and moved the show back where they wanted it – on Thursday nights on Spike TV!

V
I like this show. In fact, sitting through Lost is made more palatable because I know that after the show is over I get to see the actress who played Juliet as one of the main characters on V. The concept behind this show is interesting – aliens that look and talk like humans have come to earth in these spaceships and they are offering all of these great technological advances in the name of peace. Sounds great, right? Meanwhile, the aliens are really these reptile creatures that have the sole intent of invading the earth and destroy its people. In fact, a fleet of enemy ships are on their way to earth and no one knows about it!

There is a certain overall feeling of hopelessness with sporadic glimmers of hope throughout this show that reminds me a lot of the Battlestar Galactica series. All of the actors on this show put out great performances and it really is a good show to watch if you’re into the science fiction stuff.

Caprica
This is another show that was stopped mid-season by the SyFy Channel for a break. Why do these channels do this to upstart shows? What’s the purpose? Caprica aired its mid-season finale on March 23rd and the word going around is that there won’t be any more new episodes until the fall. The fall?! Really? What’s the point in that?!

Other than the dumb break in the season, this show is actually pretty good. I think that it needed some time to find itself after the first few episodes and it did. The only carryover character (not counting the Cylons) from the Battlestar Galactica series is Admiral William Adama, though Adama is a young boy in Caprica. At one point, Battlestar Galactica was the best show on television, bar none. I think that if Caprica is given the right room to grow into itself, it can easily become one of the top shows on cable television and probably compete with the network stations for audience.

The story thus far is pretty compelling. A genius scientist and a rugged attorney each lose their daughters in a train explosion set off by a religious separatist group claiming that there is only one God and not many Gods as most people believe. As the first half of the season progresses, we find out that not only are one of the daughters actually involved in the separatist group, but that she (being a genius herself) created an avatar of herself and has it stored in an online world that her father created for entertainment purposes. In fact, once her father finds this out he is able to create an avatar of the other girl that died in the bombing and he shares that avatar with her father – the lawyer – who then becomes obsessed with finding his daughter in this online world.

That’s a trivial explanation of what’s going on and I’m obviously leaving out major plot points, but this is a good show and I hope SyFy gives it a chance.

The Biggest Loser
This is one of the best reality shows on television, if not the best reality show, period. What makes this show so great is that not only do you learn the back stories of each of the contestants, but you actually get to watch them transform themselves into a new person. Anyone who is watching this season has to be impressed with Sam and Koli’s transformations. The same for Michael.

Actually, Michael is an interesting case. He’s the biggest contestant in Biggest Loser history starting the show weighing in at 526 pounds. And here he is a full 16 weeks into the show and he’s lost 192 pounds and is weighing in at 334 pounds. Yet, that’s the weight that most people start at on the show! Quite frankly, Michael can still lose another 130 – 150 pounds before his weight loss journey is over. Imagine that for a moment. Here’s this guy on this weight loss show and he’s lost nearly 200 pounds and yet he’s only a little past the halfway point in his transformation.

Amazing.

For this reason alone, Michael is my pick to win the whole thing this season, although I think his stiffest competition may come from Ashley.

House
You want to talk about great shows? House is the best medical drama on television. Hugh Laurie plays the best crazy doctor that anyone could ask for and he really makes the show complete. Whenever I flip over to my DVR and see what I have stored up to watch, I’m always glad when there is an episode or two of House waiting for me. This is one of those shows that you can watch one time and wind up getting hooked. In fact, I even began watching some of the first season episodes online so I can catch up with all of the storylines.

This season has been good and I think I find myself enjoying the individual episodes and the individual patient storylines more than the overarching stories behind all of the main characters. Maybe I like medical dramas, I guess.

Anyway, there’s my report on what I think of this season’s television shows and how they’re progressing. What do you think about these shows?