After watching the premiere episode of Losing it with Jillian, I found it to tbe the same routine that we see on The Biggest Loser. The differences are that Jillian spends a week in the home of the family she’s tormenting… I mean visiting, and her focus is on the entire family.
The premise is inspiring because if you watch it, you learn things. If you hear what Jillian Michaels has to say, there are some nuggets of wisdom that anyone can glean from her perspectives on what better foods there are to eat and how to approach eating.
With that said:
To me the show had an odd pace to it. Jillian first showed up in their town and called the family and told them to meet her at the gym. The introductions came in the form of Jillian telling everyone to git to work on the treadmill or bicycle.
The yelling at the exercising family commenced almost immediately. One thing that stood out for me, (Not in a great way) was when mom and dad started to immediately say they couldn’t take the exercise pace any more. They wanted to quit after 15 minutes and Jillian stormed out. Suddenly the son and daughter were surrogate Jillian’s yelling at their parents about wanting to live. It seemed contrived to me.
After the gym, they went home and Jillian watched them cook the first dinner. In this case, the color green was not even an option in this household, unless it was mold on the food. The standard was fried. If you’re health conscious, you cringed watching what they created.
In a different scene, the family got the usual treatment, being told what percentage of their weight was fat and what not.
The timing of Jillian’s visit coincided with the daughter getting married. Everyone had a goal to meet by the time the wedding came around. 6 weeks later, Jillian shows up at the wedding. For the record, Jillian being dressed up for a wedding confused me. I was not used to seeing Jillian Michaels look “hot.”
Everyone in the family took pretty quickly to eating better and exercising and they did lose a good amount of weight in time for the wedding. Dad especially looked the most improved and everyone manged to get their health issues under control.
Overall, Losing it with Jillian is a Fine Show
It’s hard to become invested in the participants of Losing it with Jillian. It happens pretty fast and they condense a full week into 1 televised TV hour. (Or 42 to 44 minutes of TV show) So the emotional connect is lacking for this viewer in the beginning. By the end of the show, you do feel good for the folks that Jillian showed up to help as they achieve their dietary and weight goals.
I’m glad it’s a short summer TV series because I’m not sure it would last a full season. But that’s me. The pace feels fake with the same old routines from The Biggest Loser starting up instantly. But regardless of the show, the families that Jillian helps will all come away realizing that eating does not make one truly feel better and there are better ways to address that which torments one’s mind.
TV ratings for Losing it with Jillian showed that they pulled in 6 million viewers on its premiere night and won it’s time slot in various key demographics. [TV By The numbers] But will it repeat now that everyone has a taste of what the show is about? (Ug, that wasn’t a pun!)
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