"Three Fat Brides, One Thin Dress" (2007) TV series

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Creators:

Linda Brusasco
Kelly Field
Martha Housden

Release Date:

26 June 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

In each episode Gillian McKeith challenges three brides-to-be to loose weight on her diet plan for their respective approaching weddings. However, only the woman that makes the most progress will win the wedding dress of her dream.

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Wedding Dress | Diet | Bride | Food

Cast

Gillian McKeith

...

Herself

Runtime:

48 min (approx.)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Celador Productions

Voyeuristic ridicule dressed up as a self-help competition presided over by a tiny and entirely humourless camel

When we started getting more and more of these "experts helping the public" reality shows such as How Clean is Your House? or What Not to Wear, I did note the rather unpleasant air of smug condescension that generally pervades them. There is a reason for this because it ups the appeal to the viewer as we all love to be nosey and in other peoples business. If the title of this show doesn't suggest that this will be more of the same then I suggest you watch it with a handful of people who like this sort of thing, which is what I did.

What you won't hear anyone saying is "oh, that's a good point and I can see how it applies to me"; what you're more likely to hear is "oh my God – look at her", "that's disgusting" etc etc. This is because the show is not about raising awareness of health and wellbeing but yet another piece of voyeurism masquerading as some sort of educational reality television. At its very core, there is help for our three fat brides and some of them really get a handle on their health however this by itself is not going to make for viewing figures, so piled high on top of this core we have a constant air of mocking.

In essence it is no different to You Are What You Eat in approach but the three subjects and element of competition just means that it is worse than that. So we have the exposing camera crawling all over these fat people, their week's food consumption presented in a variety of stunts and the part I could always do without, the excrement being literally picked through and examined. A weakness of this series though, is perhaps a strength for me – which is that the subjects are not easily embarrassed. For example in episode one they generally just laugh along and the director resorts to having zooming cameras and a po-faced McKeith reacting with mock shock to try and up the drama. Meanwhile one of the brides-to-be gets her fiancé to do "the deed" on her behalf – McKeith's shock and the laughter of the three brides is great but does rather suggest that the central tenant of the McKeith approach has worn thin.

As presenter, McKeith continues to be a tiresomely serious presence who does rather come over like a camel eating a lemon. This series reinforces her self-created caricature and it is not gone to the point where she is a pastiche of herself; the educational side is almost nonexistent and the relevance to the majority audience becomes less and less as the subjects are increasingly extreme in an attempt to get hold of the voyeuristic viewing public.

Overall then, more of the same but just dressed up in a bit of a competition guise but really it is the usual voyeurism where fat people are held up for ridicule in return for the sort of advice that they could just as easily have gotten from NHS direct or anyone they ask in the street.