By Dean Robbins
Losing weight hurts in ‘Thintervention’
Jackie Warner is a workout guru, shameless self-promoter and reality-series repeat offender. In “Thintervention with Jackie Warner” (Monday, 9 p.m., Bravo), she oversees a group of overweight people interested in losing weight. “Workouts are not painful,” she assures them. “They are pleasure!”
Coming from Jackie, this is a bald-faced lie. She delights in pushing her charges past the breaking point. She shames one poor guy by forcing him to run up and down stairs holding a couple of the cookies he wanted to eat. “You should feel burning right now!” she shouts during workouts. “Are you burning? Are you burning?”
If you think Jackie is hard to like, wait till you meet some of the contestants. “I’m dreading sitting there listening to these fat-asses talking about their problems,” says a man named Joe, who has no basis for condescension, ass-wise.
I hope he’s burning.
‘Sons of Anarchy’
Tuesday, 9 p.m. (FX)
I don’t know how FX does it, but the network is getting me to sympathize with stringy-haired, violent motorcycle thugs in “Sons of Anarchy.” As the new season begins, the leather-jacketed gang and its leader, Clay (Ron Perlman), are in crisis mode after their archenemy kidnaps Jax’s baby. They spend the episode searching for the child, and that leads them to shoot at people and drive their motorcycles really fast. (Well, to be honest, almost everything leads them to do that.)
The sick thing is, you root for them, no matter how foul they get. These creeps have a soulful quality, even when threatening law-enforcement agents. “Anything happens to my grandson,” Clay hisses at an FBI woman, “and I promise you I’m gonna shove a gun up that bony ass of yours, and I’m gonna blow your black heart out!”
God help me, but I responded to this speech by muttering “damn straight.” I’m even starting to think stringy hair looks good. FX, what are you doing to me? CV
