Let me preface this by saying. Yes, I’m a geek and I love my geeky shows. But I am also prone to dropping in on Lifetime from time to time, likely because it offers me TV I can watch and avoid thinking during.
Still, Lifetime and I have been having a love/hate relationship recently. I hate them for making me love Dance Moms and I hate them for making me hate even the concept of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (please, don’t ask). So it was with a mixture of skepticism, intrigue and a groan that I decided to watch The Week The Women Went.
I got about halfway through the show last night. I was tired and hit a commercial break and so off to bed I toddled. I have thoughts and reactions so far, but I wanted to wait until I was done watching to see where I ended up. Sometimes my brain likes to toss things into background processing.
However, I had a feeling I was going to see some reaction today and I was right. ::grin::
There was this from The Jane Dough, and the NYT review. There were Facebook comments from my feminist friends (Hi Mac!) and the comments across the board seem to already be defensive or angry or dismissive of this show based on either the trailer, the voiceover work by Jeff Foxworthy, the fact that it’s on Lifetime or the subject itself.
But let me share my thought here and, as someone who totally flipped out about something on Twitter last night based on little to no information and then had to revoke both my anger and my tweets*, offer a thought.
Instead of reading reviews based on reviews, or deciding based on comments, or even deciding based on the topic, watch some of the show and decide for yourself.
Even if you watch 10 minutes and decide you’re not into it, take the time to watch it and then decide.
The folks in Yemasee actually did this experiment. They took this week out of their lives and it wasn’t easy for them. Not the men or the women. The 30 minutes I watched let me amused, intrigued, a bit sad, overwhelming disgusted at one mom, proud of 3 dads, and in tears over a 14 year old girl taking over her mom’s business so she can participate in the experiment.
I saw a 24 year old Marine who’s never had to deal with kids take on his girlfriend’s 3 kids for the week and have to deal with it. It wasn’t hijinks. It wasn’t funny. It was pretty real.
The dad in the trailer who says “I want your mommy too” to his wailing daughter is a working dad. Mom stays home. They have 2 kids. One with severe ADHD and the daughter you see who is a handful to say the least.