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Quick Review: Smallville Series Finale

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Somebody saaaaave meeee… I’m pretty sure that Remy Zero never would have imagined that their pop hit “Save Me” would wind up being so intrinsically tied to one of the top shows in recent television history. Yet, for ten years fans listened to that cry for help as each new episode of Smallville showed us a little bit more of Kal-El’s journey from a young Clark Kent to Superman.

Smallville: A great show with one of the most powerful series finales in recent television history

That journey ended earlier tonight on The CW in one of the most powerful series finales that I’ve seen in recent television history. In fact, I absolutely did not want to write a recap blog post talking about my thoughts on the Smallville season finale. However, the final episode of this show – and really the final half an hour or so – was so powerful that I felt compelled to jump on the blog and at least give a few brief kudos to the entire team at Warner Brothers as well as the team at The CW for producing such a masterpiece.

But, of course, you can’t put together a television masterpiece without the right cast and Smallville has always had the right cast for this show. For my money, Tom Welling has got to be the best Superman in the character’s television history. No offense to Dean Cain, George Reeves, or even the movie-Superman actors (Brandon Routh and Christopher Reeve), but Welling recreated and gave definition to the psychological base that Superman operates from as a superhero. Welling’s performance over the last ten years was absolutely amazing; though I guess if you have ten years to perfect a role, you’re probably going to get it right!

But Welling was only the leader of an ensemble cast that came together tonight to highlight the entire ten year history of the show. From the persistent presence of both Annette O’Toole and John Schneider throughout the final episode as they reprised their roles as Martha and Jonathan Kent to Cassidy Freeman‘s demise as the ill-fated Tess Mercer to the return of Superman’s greatest enemy – Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor – tonight’s cast gave excellent performances.

And there are still so many more players in the game that made tonight’s final episode great. The freeing of Justin Hartley‘s Green Arrow from the grip of Darkseid, the emotional struggle of Erica Durance‘s Lois Lane, the quiet knowledge and knowing look of Allison Mack‘s Chloe Sullivan, the innately evil portrayal of Lionel Luthor by John Glover – it was all done to perfection. Even the scene where Clark Kent realizes that he has powers beyond his knowledge while watching a flashback of the show’s history was well done. On the topic of artfully performed flashbacks, I also liked the very well done scene where a dying Tess Mercer condemned her brother, Lex Luthor, to a future with no knowledge of his horribly troubled past. So much “happened” in the story of Superman during those two scenes and I think that the folks behind Smallville chose the right paths to bring those critical changes in each character’s history to the television audience.

I haven’t heard about or read any reports of a Smallville movie and, frankly, I can’t imagine that this absolutely brilliant series finale left room for a Smallville movie, per se. Sure, there is a seven year gap presented to the audience at the end of the show, but those seven years aren’t really focused on the story of Smallville. Instead, those are the seven years between the end of Clark Kent’s ascent to truly becoming Superman and his marriage to Lois Lane as well as Lex Luthor’s presidential victory. Is there a story to tell in that seven year period? Of course! Would Smallville fans eat up that movie? Yeah! But to revisit any portion of the Smallville universe (i.e. to go back and add additional information to any of the existing series canon) would do a disservice to the power in tonight’s finale.

Anyway, those are my quick thoughts. And a quick final thought on the Smallville series finale for my fellow long-time fans: how absolutely amazing was it to watch Tom Welling‘s Superman run in slow motion on the roof of The Daily Planet as he tore his Clark Kent outfit off and revealed the Superman suit… with the classic Superman theme playing?! It was awesome! That was an absolutely phenomenal payoff for this Smallville fan!

Well done, Smallville!

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!

TV Review: The Series Finale of 24

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Last night we saw the end of the television phenomenon known as LOST and tonight we were treated to the end of FOX’s smash hit 24. Both of these shows were incredible in their ability to draw in a sustained, rabid fan base and both will be missed incredibly by their faithful fans. And, thankfully, both of these shows were wrapped up the right way. Tonight, at the end of the 24 series, we witnessed the set up that we knew was coming – for the coming 24 movie.

The series finale of 24 had a lot of good points. Here are some my thoughts, in bullet point format:

  • How great is Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor? That woman can show emotion and the pains of being a national and global leader better than any other President that they’ve had on 24 to date. If they make a movie, I hope that she makes the cut to play the President.
  • The confrontation between President Taylor and Dalia Hassan (played expertly, brilliantly even by Necar Zadegan) was one of the most emotion-packed, skillfully performed scenes on television during the entire spring season on any channel. This was the scene where President Taylor threatened to bomb the IRK into the stone age if Hassan didn’t sign the peace treaty later in the afternoon. Amazing, amazing work by these two extremely talented actresses. Brilliant.
  • Oh, by the way, can anyone play the hateful, scorned woman better than Zadegan? Absolutely amazing performance. When she snapped at President Taylor that there was nothing else to say after the Russian President arrived, you could almost feel the thought of, “You filthy bitch,” ingrained in her words. That’s hatred right there!
  • And what can you say about Kiefer Sutherland’s performance as Jack Bauer? Not only was be great on tonight’s series finale, but he played the most convincing anti-terrorist, patriotic American that I’ve ever seen on television. Sutherland should rest easy knowing that he has single-handedly created and dominated the anti-terrorist character that all future anti-terrorist characters will be measured up against.
  • How surreal was the end of the first hour of the finale when Jack put a sleeper hold on Chloe O’Brian (performed by Mary Lynn Rajskub) and knocked her out? Of course, Chloe got her revenge by blasting Bauer in the upper chest before the CTU team came in.
  • And I don’t know about you, but how great is Gregory Itzin at playing the weasel of the show, former President Charles Logan? That’s some good, scumbag acting right there!
  • If I had to choose one person that made tonight’s series finale better than could have been expected, it has to be Cherry Jones. She slightly beats out the great performances put on by Necar Zadegan and Gregory Itzin. Absolutely wonderful job tonight. The way that you could see every emotion on President Taylor’s face throughout the show was a marvelous job.

Talk about a powerful final half hour of television. Between President Taylor’s withdrawal from the peace agreement, Charles Logan killing his assistant and then popping himself in the head, and Jack Bauer getting ambushed and kidnapped and then ultimately set free by President Taylor and Chloe – what more could you have asked for in an action-packed finale?! In fact, this finale was so packed full of storyline arcs and action that the two hours seemed to fly by in no time whatsoever.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that FOX deserves kudos for not piling on billions of commercials during tonight’s finale like ABC Television did with the LOST finale last night. Putting aside any differences that I have with the FOX Broadcasting Company (like the fact that they cancel shows too quickly – Family Guy or Arrested Development, anyone?), they do know how to create a good and proper send off for their shows once they’ve reached the end of their road. And part of that proper send off is not insulting the fans of the show with an inordinate amount of commercials.

Good job, FOX.

One of the last things that I want to say about this, the final season of 24, is how great of an impact the secondary characters had on this season’s show. Not only were regulars like Itzen and Rajskub excellent at their roles, but the introduction of Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame and Freddie Prinze, Jr. of preteen movies fame made great additions to the regular cast. And so did John Boyd as Arlo Glass. The one thing that you can always say about the folks at FOX is that when they’re looking for a computer nerd to fill in a seat at CTU, they know how to find the people with the right look for the job!

Another parting thought – as I said after last night’s LOST finale, I’m glad that this show is over because now I get an hour back in my life each week! Amen! Finally, any coincidence that 24 ended on May…twenty-fourth?! Ah, maybe that’s just the leftovers of last night’s LOST series finale! Anyway, what did you think of tonight’s series finale of 24? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Feel free to post your comments on the show!

TV Review: The Series Finale of LOST

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Last night, we watched as the six year story of LOST came to a close. And, just as Dorothy might have said after waking up, everyone was there, too. Last night’s show brought the return of nearly every major character from the series’ history including the much-missed Juliet and Charlie. However, as I sit back and think about the show (which ended about an hour ago – I’m writing this early in the morning), I’m not entirely sure that I “get” everything that happened there at the end.

This is what I think happened – let me know what you think…

Desmond uncorked the cork where the light was at the center of the island, thus allowing an opening for The Man in Black (Smoke Monster, Fake Locke, Evil, etc) to escape the island. Oh, and uncorking the cork also brought about the self-destruction of the island. Go figure. I think, however, that the uncorking of that cork also allowed for The Man in Black’s powers to go away and thus Kate was able to kill him and Jack was able to kick him down the side of the cliff and…splat.

Jack, Hurley, and Ben decide that they’re staying on the island while Lapidus (he’s not dead!), Sawyer, Claire, Miles, Kate, and Richard (who no longer has the gift of invincibility thanks to the uncorking) get out of Dodge on the Ajira plane, so to speak. Jack struggles to get back to the center of the island, is lowered down the hole by Hurley and Ben, hitches Desmond back to the rope to be lifted out of the hole, and recorks the island’s light hole. How weird does that sound, huh? Jack recorked the island’s light hole? It sounds like it’s a weird type of insult almost, like, “Shut up you light hole!”

But I digress…

Over in the sideways world, each of the castaways has a realization that they had an entirely different life on the island. As they each figure this out, they know that they have to go to the Church that was featured a few seasons ago when Jack was trying to go back to the island (remember the big swinging pendulum thing with Eloise Hawking?).

As everyone gathers, Jack is among the last to realize that there is a sideways world (more on that in a minute) and has to be convinced first by Kate and then, eventually, by his dead father. At this point, Jack realizes that he can see and talk to his Dad because he, too, is dead. Christian goes on to confirm to Jack that the reason why everyone was there in the Church was because they’re all dead, too. When Jack starts to talk about the timing of all of this death, Christian tells him that where they are there is no “time.” Silly thought on Jack’s part, I guess. Christian suggests that they’re all there because they all needed each other and that Jack needed them. Jack asks his father where they are going and he says that they should go into the Church and find out…so they do. Then there’s lots of hugging and remembering (albeit in a montage type of cut, so all you get to hear is music) and Christian walks to the back of the Church after everyone sits down. He opens the doors and a bright white light comes filling the room, engulfing everyone as they all begin to smile. And so we’re left with the thought that Jack and the gang must have been in some type of purgatory because they were engulfed by the white light and are now in heaven (or will eventually go to heaven when they die).

Does that make sense?

This idea is furthered by the final scenes of the series where Jack stumbles back to the place among the bamboo shoots where he woke up after Oceanic flight 815 crashed. In fact, the dog even comes back over and licks him a bit before laying down as Jack smiles and tries to force out a laugh. Then, right before he closes his eyes for the last time and dies, he sees a plane flying overhead. Is this the Ajira plane or the Oceanic 815 plane making it successfully across the island? Who the hell knows, but I have to assume that it’s the Ajira plane. Then, as the credits roll through the bottom of the screen, we see images of the Oceanic 815 flight all torn up on the beach. I’m assuming that the production people just wanted to create a nostalgia effect and sort of tip their hats to the diehard fans of the series that all began when that plane hit that beach.

I’m not entirely sure…

Other random thoughts about last night’s LOST series finale:

  • Could they have put any more commercials in these two hours? Good grief! Thank God I had a book I was reading so I could mute during the commercial breaks.
  • Though I was glad to see that Lapidus was still alive, I’m not satisfied with the resolution of the Charles Widmore storyline. Frankly, it was unacceptable to have him shot in the penultimate episode.
  • What, exactly, did Ben have to finish up in purgatory before he went to the other side?
  • I believe that the key to understanding all of this is understanding the timing of everything. The timing is everything…
  • No resolution on Walt’s supposed magical powers? Anyone remember that stuff from the first season?
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live was awesome. Jimmy did a great job with his interpretation of the series finale and I agree with his idea that when the sideways Jack felt the turbulence on the plane, that was when he died on the island and passed over into purgatory (to the plane). And I also agree with his idea that this series – LOST – was the story of Jack’s life, his trials and tribulations, and his eventual redemption and acceptance into heaven.
  • How funny were the Target commercials that advertised smoke detectors by using the Smoke Monster? Made me laugh out loud when I saw it the first time.

A final note on the timing before I ask you guys for your impressions of the finale, if you have any. Remember that Hurley became the new protector of the island and that Ben was his second in command. Then, as Locke goes into the Church, Hurley pops out and tells Ben (who is sitting outside on a bench) that everyone is inside and he should come in. Ben declines and then says that Hurley was a great number one. Hurley thanks him and says that Ben was a great number two. There is a mutual appreciation and affection there that was not played out during this series. I think that this is the key to understanding Christian’s statement that there is no “now” and that everyone who was present at the Church was there because Jack needed them and they needed Jack.

Two final subnotes on this issue and then I’m done, really. First, Hurley and Ben clearly had a long-time together on the island for them to appreciate each other’s contributions as a number one and number two. So, while the story of LOST has come to an end, there is clearly more that goes on without us realizing it in what we saw in the last six seasons. Second, I think that Christian’s statement that everyone who was in the Church was also dead is, on its face, misleading. He could have just said that these people are here because Jack needed them and they needed Jack and that some are already dead and some have yet to die. In other words, if someone was in that Church then they’re going to be dead at some point if they’re not already (which is a bit of an annoying part of the story since, technically, anyone in the world could have been in that room if you believe that logic).

Anyway, what do you think? Did I miss anything crucial to the story? Hey, who else is excited that they get this hour of their lives back every week?! 🙂

Thoughts on the Lost Season Finale

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Alright, I know that this review is weeks late (and trust me, I have more late reviews coming up, so be prepared), but I wanted to get some comments out there about the season finale of ABC’s Lost. While the two hour show was interesting and fun to watch, at the end of the episode I found myself wondering whether or not this is the direction that J. J. Abrams (the show’s creator who left a few seasons ago) would be taking the story.

Some of the bigger events of the night…

It appears that John Locke isn’t, in fact, John Locke. Instead, he’s the counterpart to the infamous Jacob. And Jacob, apparently, is some omniscient do-gooder who tries to heal people and give them reassurance that they have free will. On the flip side, some entertainment websites claim that Jacob could be the evil one between he and Locke and that he is a type of puppet master. I’m not sure, though I think that Jacob falls more along the lines of the good being between he and Locke. My only sincere hope, though, is that the writers don’t blow the entire storyline to smithereens in the first episode of the next season. With the way television writers are today, you can never be sure.

We also saw Ben break out of his killingless-streak as he exacted some degree of revenge on Jacob for never allowing him a face-to-face meeting. There could be some legs to this particular part of the story because of the action of Jacob’s death. You’ll notice that he fell forward onto Ben as he was dying which showed one of the major themes that we see with Jacob throughout the episode – namely that he makes it a point to touch the Oceanic folks that he meets both before and after they are on the island.

I’m not sure what the touching means, but I do believe that it has something to do with his magic (or whatever you want to call it) being transferred to the touchee. The entertaining EW.com review of the episode compared Jacob’s touch to the horcruxes that represent Voldemort’s essence in the Harry Potter series. That’s an interesting concept. For those of you that don’t read Potter out there, in short this means that if all of the people that Jacob touched were to come together, they could recreate him. Interesting concept…

We also saw the probable demise of Juliet on the final episode of the season. I’m hoping that this isn’t true because I think she’s a sympathetic character and one that still has a lot of story left in her. However, she may have set off a chain of events that could possibly bring her back to life. I really don’t have much to say about the whole time warp thing and Faraday’s postulation that human are the inconstant variable that could change the course of history.

Whatever – I guess we’ll see what happens with that in the next season.

One more word on the season finale. I got the distinct impression that it’s going to be very hard for the writers to tie up all of the loose ends in the final season, which is set to begin airing next January.

Thoughts on the 24 Season Finale

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The season finale of FOX’s 24 gave us more of what we have come to expect from this show: drama, suspense, Jack Bauer kicking the snot out of the evil doers, etc. As a fan of the show, two things bugged me this season. The first was the presence of a radical extremist as a cast member on the show. Sure, Janeane Garofalo did an amazing job as a systems analyst for the FBI; truthfully, I was extraordinarily impressed with her performance. Yet, when I was watching her on the show I couldn’t get over the unbelievably ignorant statements that she made in real life during the tea party protests. Shameful words.

The second annoyance that I had with 24 this season was the story. It started out like something new – the modern-day African tribal wars where innocents are being murdered on a daily basis looked like it was going to be the basis of the new season. Then the story changed to domestic terrorism. The unifying theme, I guess, was that all terrorism is linked in one form or another.

Whatever.

A third, somewhat not-as-major annoyance with this season was the death of Bill Buchanan. In the grand scheme of things it was completely unnecessary. Poor writing.

It was fun, however, to watch Chloe O’Brian go head-to-head in random nerd-offs with Garofalo’s Janis Gold. That provided for some good television (or at least I thought so).

The whole kidnapping of Jack Bauer’s daughter, though – ehhh, I didn’t like how it played out on TV. Not sure why, but I just didn’t like it all that much. Sure, it was cool to see Bauer’s daughter bringing back some of her CTU training in the season finale, but it felt sort of crammed in there. The same goes for the Olivia Taylor storyline. Blech. Just boring television if you ask me. Well, the Olivia storyline wasn’t so much boring as it was repetitive. I mean how many times can a President’s daughter go through hell and high water to break the law and put her Mother’s administration in jeopardy in one 24 hour period, right?

I also have to comment on the Tony Almeida story which was only brought to full light in the last “hour” of the season. The idea that Tony was working all along to get a face-to-face meeting with the head of the underground crime syndicate which had caused so much havoc over the last few seasons just doesn’t hold up for this viewer. On top of that, having such a mediocre and convoluted plot for Tony’s character seemed, to me at least, to magnify the other holes in this season.

The season finale delivered on all of the fronts that 24 needs to deliver on, but when looking back at the entire season I can’t say that I’m overly pleased. Entertained? Sure, somewhat, I guess. If the next season carries on like this one did, I’ll be sure to save myself some time and stop watching midway through the show.

Random Thoughts on NBC’s Kings

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Everyone is watching as network television has its parade of season finales. For the next few days I’m going to post up some thoughts on some of my favorite television shows and their season finales. And to start off the discussion I turn to Kings on NBC. I’ll admit up front that I’m wedging coverage of Kings on to the blog even though it doesn’t quite fit. You see, Kings hasn’t had a season finale yet because it was yanked off of NBC after its fourth episode was aired. But wedging Kings on to the blog will allow me a chance to blast NBC some more…

I can’t stand watching shows on NBC. In fact, most of the NBC shows that I do enjoy watching (Biggest Loser, for example) I only watch on DVR now. The biggest problem that I have with NBC – which I bitch about all of the time, by the way – is that they interrupt the flow of their shows way too much. Sure, the highly paid executives all “know” that you have to enter each commercial break with a cliffhanger because that’ll make the viewers stick around, but there is a time when enough is enough. If you’re wondering when that time has come – watch any of the four episodes of Kings.

Horrible, horrible usage of commercial breaks. In fact, the usage of commercial breaks was so bad that watching the show on DVR was even tough to do because the flow of the story is interrupted too much. So that’s my first comment about Kings – NBC sucks with commercial breaks and almost forces their viewers to use DVRs instead.

The next comment is that the Kings story never really got enough air time. How many people out there really knew that the television show was based on a Biblical story and, in fact, it was the story of King David? Right. I thought not.

The other problem, that I’ve had with this show is that the characters are all too pristine. In other words, the society doesn’t look like it is made of real people. Instead, the people who put this show together focused too much on getting model-esque characters. For me, that made the show somewhat hard to watch.

The final problem that I had with NBC and this show is that it was moved in the schedule. The show was promoted as a Sunday night show and then it was almost immediately shuffled to Saturday night. Alright, I get it that the show wasn’t doing well in the ratings and that the suits wanted to move it, but give it a chance!

I heard that there was a chance that there will be more Kings episodes coming out in June. Let’s hope that NBC can fix some of the problems listed above and give this series a chance!

Congratulations Helen – The Biggest Loser for Spring 2009!

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Last night was the live finale of The Biggest Loser on NBC and the show’s content did not disappoint. Jerry, the oldest ever contestant on the show, won $100,000 for the “at home” prize and Helen, a 48 year old mother, won the $250,000 prize for being this season’s biggest loser. Helen had a remarkable transformation from a big 257 pounds down to a skinny 117 pounds. It was amazing. Look at Helen’s before and after pictures:

Last night’s live finale gave hope and inspiration to all of those people who feel that they have been “categorized” into not losing weight. In other words, those people who feel that they cannot lose weight because they are too old or are within a certain age range for a certain gender see now that it can be done. Jerry is 64 years old for goodness sake!

My only gripe with the finale was that it was too long. A three hour finale is completely unnecessary. The entire show could fit into a 90 minute show, which would be nice since there could either be a 30 minute pre-show or a 30 minute post-show. But NBC relies so strictly on the results it gets from audience testing that it completely misses how to put on a television production that makes viewers comfortable while watching the show. Sure, people tuned into the finale to see who was going to win, but the truth is that watching any NBC show is horrible because of the crappy timing and pacing of their shows.

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Anyway, congratulations to Helen and Jerry as well as everyone who lost a ton of weight. Mike’s (the 18-year-old kid) transformation is also an amazing story. I’m happy for him and I hope that he sticks to a good diet and workout regime because he can now be healthy for the rest of his life.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry Wins $100,000!

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The Biggest Loser live finale is on tonight and even though I’ll probably fall asleep before it’s all over I had to come online and say how excited I was to see Jerry win the $100,000 “at home” Biggest Loser prize. Good for him! Here is a 64 year old man that lost 47% of his body weight. The man lost 47% of his body weight at an age where most people are either retired or a few months away from retirement!

That’s an amazing feat and one for which Jerry should be immensely proud of himself. And let this serve as a lesson to everyone else out there who is trying to get themselves into shape or begin living a healthier lifestyle. A man in his mid 60’s lost about half of his body weight. If he can do that, then the rest of us can suck it up and lose weight and/or begin living a healthier lifestyle.

Congratulations, Jerry!