Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Crazy Obsession (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Michelle.
Why Are We Watching Her? She's showing off her collection of 3,000 Troll dolls.
How Did She Get Here? She started collecting them when she was 10 and never stopped. (Perhaps it's because she's still playing with toys she liked when she was 10 that she still talks and acts like she's 10?)
What's the Grossest Thing We See? In an attempt to manipulate her husband, Dean, into giving up his "man cave" to make more room for her trolls, she offers to do gymnastics wearing her Troll-print string bikini. When he says no, she suggests doing a routine wearing nothing but her adult-size rubber Troll mask. Cut to: Michelle doing sexy pinup poses for the camera, wearing her bikini, with a Troll head.
What Have We Learned? I never thought I'd ever side, on any issue, with a person who has a "man cave," but here we are.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Wife Swap (ABC)
Who Is This Now? Mark.
Why Are We Watching Him? He's being challenged to give up some of his treasured habits, and he's unhappy about it.
How Did He Get Here? His laissez-faire wife, April, has traded places for two weeks with Yelena, a rigid taskmaster.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? Tie: Mark letting one of his pet birds chew on his lips, or Mark walking through his neighborhood wearing nothing but a bath towel around his waist — but don't worry: "There's no perversion about it. I just enjoy being in a towel."
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Crazy Obsession (TLC)
Who Is This Now? The Best family.
Why Are We Watching Them? They claim to be the strongest family in the world.
How Did They Get Here? When father Nick was in high school, he was short and skinny, and apparently the emotional scars remain; he started seriously lifting weights about the same time he went through a huge growth spurt, and the rest is history.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? The Bests have also involved their young children in their weightlifting. Even though "experts" recommend that little children not lift weights heavier than a pound each, the Bests' daughter Jessica, who is 5 and weighs 46 pounds, can lift 100 pounds. Seems healthy.
What Have We Learned? Nick: "You've really got to hate yourself to make yourself want to hurt that bad." If you like yourself, you should have a cookie.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Crazy Obsession (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Chantal.
Why Are We Watching Her? She's telling us about her obsession: her 19 pet rats.
How Did She Get Here? "When you find your purpose in life, you know it," says Chantal, "and that was what happened to me, when I saw that first rat." OK.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Hoarding: Buried Alive (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Louise.
Why Are We Watching Her? She has hoarded so much in her multiple apartments and storage spaces that they're past the point of usefulness.
How Did She Get Here? To hear her describe it, she has an extremely emotional attachment to every item she's collected; multiple times, she notes that she doesn't have children or pets — just her things — and that she takes the responsibility of taking care of them very seriously. Unfortunately, she also came into what a friend describes as "a great deal of money" about 30 years ago, when her parents died, which enabled her compulsive shopping. But now, even though the amount she inherited would have been enough for any normal person to live on for the rest of his or her life, Louise is nearly broke. And if she doesn't clean out her apartments and possibly sell some of her stuff, she will be destitute.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Strange Addiction (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Michelle.
Why Are We Watching Her? Not to put too fine a point on it: She drinks blood.
How Did She Get Here? When she was a teenager, Michelle suffered from depression, and self-mutilated. One day, she happened to taste her own blood, and she's been drinking it ever since.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? We see Michelle shopping for blood, cooking with blood (including mixing a Bloody Mary, which she makes with real blood), and drinking blood straight up, from a glass. But that all seems like kid stuff once we see her "feeding" from a cut on her friend Johnny's arm, particularly once we know how rigorous her screening process isn't: "I usually ask that people be tested before I drink their blood, unless they are a very close friend of mine that I have known for a long time."
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Strange Addiction (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Allison.
Why Are We Watching Her? She's addicted to eating rubber, and her fiancé has started to become concerned about its effect on her health.
How Did She Get Here? When she was a kid, she would chew and eat her Barbie dolls; later, she started eating rubber instead of chewing gum. Normal stuff.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? "Making sure [the rubber tire bits are] clean is kind of a concern for me, because I don't want to get sick from something that might have been on the floor," says Allison, because the prospect of developing a bowel obstruction from her undigested rubber bits, or cancer from the chemicals the rubber is treated with, is less of a worry for her.
What Have We Learned? Gum-chewing is not the most elegant of habits, but some things are even worse.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Hoarding: Buried Alive (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Siblings Jimmy, Cheryl, and Aimee.
Why Are We Watching Them? They have come together after their mother Cynthia's death to clean out the hoarded house she shared with Jimmy.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows. [Editor's note: This week, Tara presented us with four equally colorful characters featured on My Strange Addiction, and asked us to help her choose which one to highlight in her column this week. They were all so good, we decided to use them all! Welcome back, My Strange Addiction!]
My Strange Addiction (TLC)
Case no. 1:
Who Is This Now? Mark.
Why Are We Watching Him? He is "in a relationship with 15 inflatable animals."
How Did He Get Here? His mother wasn't there for him when he was a kid, so he prefers the company of inflatable pool toys.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? Though Mark describes his relationship with all his inflatables as "intimate," Lila the Dragon is first among equals. As Mark puts it, she's "like a wife": "If I could marry Lila, I would." However, the fact that he specifies that he doesn't have sex with Lila — "We keep our relationship clean" — forces the viewer to wonder exactly what he gets up to with the shark, the dolphin, and the rest of the menagerie.
What Have We Learned? I never thought there could be a kind of fetishist that even a RealDoll owner could look down on. I was wrong.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Best Funeral Ever (TLC)
Who Is This Now? John Beckwith Jr.
Why Are We Watching Him? He operates a well-known funeral home in Dallas.
How Did He Get Here? Beckwith's funeral parlor, Golden Gate, has become well-known for the flamboyant, rigorously themed funerals it produces. For instance, this sneak peek features a Christmas-themed funeral, and a smokehouse funeral (with barbecue-sauce fountain) for one of the singers of the Chili's baby-back ribs jingle.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? Because some bereaved funeral attendees are not demonstrative, Golden Gate provides professional mourners. Seriously: We actually see Beckwith conducting a training session for paid mourners, during which he instructs them on how to make a huge show of grieving for decedents they don't know.
What Have We Learned? If grace and good taste are important to you, do not die in Dallas.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Extreme Couponing (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Jess.
Why Are We Watching Her? She's heavy into coupons.
How Did She Get Here? She used to be addicted to clothes shopping, spending $1,000 a month on clothing, until her husband Josh told her that they couldn't afford it. "I had to trade addictions," she says.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? Jess's stockpile has now taken over not just the family's living room — Jess says she wants it to be the first thing guests see when they enter her house — but the rest of the home, to the point that her son says he no longer has anywhere to do his homework. So while Josh doesn't want to deny Jess the pleasure of coupon shopping, he suggests that, since they no longer have any space to put more stuff, she should donate her next haul to charity. Jess agrees … kind of. As they shop, she keeps trying to wheedle Josh into letting her bring home particular items they buy rather than give them away. And when she arrives at the cleaning products and sees that a brand of wipes for which she'd cut 120 coupons is sold out, she cries.
What Have We Learned? In Jess's case, instead of trading addictions, maybe she should have attempted some kind of treatment.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
My Crazy Obsession: Christmas Collection (TLC)
Who Is This Now? Christy and Steven.
Why Are We Watching Them? They have amassed a collection of 5,000 inflatable Christmas lawn decorations.
How Did They Get Here? Many years ago, Christy bought a Grinch inflatable, and noticed that strangers started driving by the house to see it; inspired, Steven declared that their collection would be even bigger the next year. And then it kind of ... snowballed. PUN INTENDED.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? I know you can't spend people's money for them, but even if each one of these inflatables was $65 — which the narrator says is the low end of the price range — that means Steven and Christy have spent $325,000 on inflatable lawn ornaments they display for only one month out of the year. Wouldn't it be more Christmasy to have given that amount to a toy drive? (Also gross is the inflatable in the form of a crucified Jesus — bad taste, but also, perhaps more fit for an Easter display?)
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
Taboo (NatGeo)
Who Is This Now? Doug.
Why Are We Watching Him? He has collected 5 million photos, 3,000 VHS videos, and 3,500 DVDs of men's feet.
How Did He Get Here? Doug, who is gay, says he's fetishized feet since before he was 4 years old.
What's the Grossest Thing We See? It's not the greatest to see Doug welcoming two male foot models to his house so that he can bring them to his makeshift foot-porn studio and film them — Guy No. 1 sitting in a chair, his legs wrapped around Guy No. 2's shoulders, as Guy No. 2 rubs, smells, and kisses Guy No. 1's feet. It's also kind of off-putting to meet Roberto, a straight man Doug has enlisted to participate in Doug's foot play for several years — while Roberto sits in a chair reading a magazine, Doug goes down on all fours to be Roberto's human footstool; Doug lies on the floor and rolls back and forth as Roberto rests his feet on Doug's face; Doug brings out a basin to wash and orally pleasure Roberto's feet. But then we learn that Doug saves other men's used socks in Ziploc bags, because he likes to put them in the microwave to reactivate their odors and have a nice long sniffing party.
What Have We Learned? As a straight man who is not into foot play himself, Roberto may be the world's most charitable living person.
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, with so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That's where I come in! Here's an unflinching look back at TV's Week in Freak Shows.
I Was Impaled (Discovery Fit & Health)
Who Is This Now? Michelle.
Why Are We Watching Her? Against all odds, she's survived a unique injury to her neck.
How Did She Get Here? Driving along a remote forest road with her husband, Michelle got impaled by a two-foot spruce tree branch that caught her throat through the truck window.
After the first two episodes of TLC's breakout show Breaking Amish, I could barely contain my excitement when talking and writing about the show. Even with the full understanding that all reality shows had some staged aspects and scenarios (except for T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle), this show about five twentysomethings leaving their Amish and Mennonite villages for life in New York City seemed so genuine. They seemed adorably shocked by technology, appalled by some of the ways of the "English" (the term for non-Amish), and nervously excited to break out of their restrictive upbringings and carve out new lives for themselves.
Upon turning in my recap for the second episode last Monday, I took a deep breath and then began counting down the days until Episode 3. Would Abe muster up the courage to ask out his newfound crush, Rebecca? Would Rebecca's fake teeth be explained? Will Sabrina and Kate's entry into red-wine alcoholism lead them down the path to AA and lifelong friendship? These were the questions I couldn't stop thinking about last Monday afternoon.
And then, the next morning, some interesting news began trickling in.
