It's Been One Week

I looked at the list of shows I watched this week, and that's when I realized that I haven't written about the last five. And I've only watched the last four. That damn episode with Barbara Walters and the rest of The View ladies is sitting on my TiVo. I don't know when I'll be able to brave it.

This week was full of episodes that weren't exactly fun to get through. Monday, it was Donald Trump and his whole family. I didn't want to watch that one at all, so much so that on Tuesday night when I had the choice between that episode and the one about twin sisters who were raped by their fathers and brothers, I chose the incest episode.

And it was certainly more compelling than Trump's episode, but maybe not quite as disturbing. Yes, yes, those poor twins were raped for years and years, starting at age five, by first their brothers and then their father. And their mother knew all about it, and even walked in on it more than once, and still turned a blind eye.

But, come on. Have you seen Trump's hair?

My biggest problem with the Family Trump is the same problem I've had with many guests this season. I don't need Trump's kids coming on national television to tell me that they were raised just like everyone else in this country, and that life was perfectly normal. Yes, it was. For you. But when you have maids and you live in penthouses and you know all kinds of celebrities, and your father is a celebrity, you're only normal to the other people in your world. The ones you talk to when you head over to the Jolie-Pitt house for a playdate.

A perfect example of this not-at-all-ordinary family: there was big talk about the daughter that Trump had with Marla Maples, Tiffany, and how she hadn't been in the spotlight and was only now, at the age of seventeen, "coming out" (in the debutante sense) on Oprah. But Oprah's people found pictures to show of the daughter before we got to see her in her taped segment, and two of the three that I noticed featured Tiffany and her mother in front of those standard backdrops that you see when celebs walk the red carpet before a party.

Hey, guess what? I lived a pretty "normal" childhood, too. The difference is, the only things that featured as a backdrop for my childhood photos were my grandma's fireplace and my little brother putting up two fingers as bunny ears.

Wednesday, some legendary soap stars reunited. Katie wanted nothing to do with it when we watched the very beginning of the episode and I exclaimed, "Luke and Laura!"

Yeah, I know a thing or two about soaps.

A lot of the episode focused on Susan Lucci. Nothing worth mentioning, except that when Oprah asked Lucci about the kinds of stories they've done on the show, and what she's proud of with regard to her character, the first (and only, I think) thing that Lucci mentioned was when her daughter on the show, Bianca, came out as a lesbian. A certain blogger you know was glued to the television daily for about two years, watching All My Children just to see the storyline with Bianca unfold. I had never watched AMC before that, but it was so important for me to see something as corny as a soap tackling the subject. I was in college, and it meant a lot to me. For that reason, I can't really ever make fun of Susan Lucci, and I was super impressed that she chose to mention the Bianca thing on Oprah.

On Thursday's show, Jennifer Hudson came on to talk about losing a bunch of weight. But she didn't actually want to talk about it in terms of numbers, and her Weight Watchers "leader" (Liz) was in the audience, giving disapproving looks about Hudson revealing the true number of pounds she's lost. It was really strange, and Oprah kept getting on Liz about just letting Hudson say the number. I guess Weight Watchers doesn't want to emphasize the number, and instead wants us to focus on how Hudson was feeling, or some shit, but it was just a totally awkward situation. I don't know why Oprah didn't know beforehand that Hudson wasn't allowed to reveal the number, but I bet somebody got fired.

But after all that, Hudson gave in and announced that she has lost 80 pounds. Great. Not really worth the ten minutes they spent arguing about whether or not she could say it.

I really don't know what took up an entire episode here, since Hudson only spent about 30 seconds talking about the tragic loss of her mother, brother, and nephew. Apparently, "god" is helping her through it. Interesting. Given the choice, I think she'd rather that god had helped her family by not letting them get murdered. But I guess that's just me.

We've made it through something around 83 episodes. Or maybe 81. My count is off somehow. Still, though, over 80 episodes of Oprah? Crazy.

I'll get to The View ladies soon. Maybe tomorrow. I don't know.