I guess a check for a half million dollars heals all wounds.
I thought it was probably unnecessary to have Steve pretend to chicken out at the alter. they should have just finished the “I do’s,” let Randi think she’s won, and then revealed everything and given out the checks. The final twist wasn’t funny, added nothing, and just forced the producers to have to go round up the family and bring them back.
I think the dad came off best over all. He really seemed like he was trying his damndest to be accepting and supportive even though he was seething inside. The older brother still seems like a selfish, sullen drunk. It really annoyed me when he whined about Randi “only thinking of herself, and not us,” as though her choice of husband is not her decision to make. What a jerk.
Even he sucked it up and sat there, though. He didn’t stand up and object like I thought he would.
Steve’s speech sounded desparate and contrived but the Coys just ate it right up. Their change in demeanor at seeing the checks was miraculous.
I felt kind of sorry for Steve as well. It seemed really uncomfortable to him that he had to push on with a prank that was now bombing badly. He really should have just said “I do,” and ended it for everyone.
I don’t know - I think this episode was the Triumph of the Editors. They picked out lots of shots where they all looked happy and relieved, but I think they were still seriously pissed after it all came out. Specifically, I’m thinking of the dad’s outburst about how it’s not about the money. Afterwards, he seemed to be trying to behave with some dignity, but I don’t think he was happy about any of it.
I read an article about the show which claims that Randi has not returned to work since the show ended(she’s still on leave) and she is still pissed that it was all a sham. Agreed about the editing part probably making it look like something it wasn’t.
Dio, I’m a bit concerned how many reality TV threads you’ve started.
In the end, it was just a dumb show.
And if Randi really thinks $250,000 is “financial security” for her parents, she’s going to learn some hard lessons. I also suspect it’s not as much money to her parents as she thinks. After taxes, it’ll be $150,000, and the interest on that per year will be maybe 10 grand.
Even with $500,000, it’s not like all their problems are solved. Maybe it’ll buy her a house, but she’s a Kindergarten teacher, so it’s probably the only way she ever gets one.
One thing I wonder about it is this – I saw that Randi’s from Littleton, CO. Not a big town, and she’s not that old so… she might have been at Columbine. Makes you wonder. They didn’t want to muddy the waters with that story, but it’s likely that she did and was there during the shootings.
I agree that having Steve balk at the “I do” was just too much – I can only imagine that the show producers thought it would be a good transition into the explanation, and didn’t realize the family would walk out. Plus, it gave them another cliffhanger to cut to commercial on. Frankly, I wouldn’t have expected them to walk out, either. I would have thought they’d stand up and cheer that the wedding was off.
That the dad stayed until the bitter end made me like him a little more. But still, these people should be ashamed at being shown on TV for the shallow people they are (and if they aren’t, the show did a good job of editing them to seem that way). When watching the video tape that was supposed to “explain” what Randi went through, the big joke was still that Steve walked out, a big fat guy. He wasn’t even obnoxious yet, and there was Mom watching the tape, having a big “yuck” reaction to how he looked. Oh ha ha, he got his back waxed – clearly Randi would never date a guy with a hairy back. She did it all for her family – making a guy get his back waxed is just about on par with walking to the ends of the earth and back for the sake of your family. :rolleyes:
I think the show should have been called “My Creepy, Sullen, Obnoxious Brother.” What was up with that comment he made about setting the wedding on fire? That’s just weird.
No kidding! Or maybe “My Manipulative, Intrusive, Controlling, Family Dynamic.” Randi’s whole family, except her father, seemed to be pretty uninterested in what she wanted. That said, though the fist few episodes were absolutely hilarious, I don’t think I even smiled during the finale. The gleeful torturing of Randi was a riot. The actual tears and family pain, less so. YMMV.
Very disappointing. The series was great fun, and this just wasn’t.
That said, I have some observations/thoughts:
At first, I wanted to like Randi and be on her side. And I anticipated feeling bad for her family. This lasted until her family arrived. What a bunch of asses! I hope Patrick gets crucified in the media and she has to spend her money to buy him an island where he can spend the remainder of his angst-ridden life. Did anyone else feel like he might be jealous that Randi is marrying someone other than him? Ewwww I can’t believe I typed that.
I also had an observation to share. I don’t watch reality TV usually, but I did watch Fiance and Joe Schmo, and I saw an amazing similarity: at the end their was the slick psychological ploy to keep the prank’s subjects from going batshit belligerent. Did anyone else feel that there was a similarity in the way they buttered up the subjects by expounding on what great people they are? It all falls flat for me…
I agree: lousy finale. It was merely “bleh” until Steve started in with that speech about how they had started to make a show about a great practical joke that turned into a show about this great (barf) family that is so incredibly loving (gag) that they’d do anything for their wonderful (choke) daughter blah blah blah.
“My Creepy, Obnoxious, Sullen Brother”, indeed! That’s what I kept telling the Mrs. last night.
I think it was an article at Reality News Online that had some input from someone who went to the same school as Randi and her older brother did. It wasn’t Columbine, but another school in the town. She also mentioned that the brother was portrayed just like the writer remembered him. She claims that he was a bit of a bully in junior high. That was my first impression of the guy.
I also think the father came out the best in this whole fiasco. I actually like him, which I can’t say about her siblings at all.
I was disappointed with the finale last night also. After all the laughs I got from the proceeding weeks, last night’s show just wasn’t funny. Except for the brothers having to wear kilts. Maybe that’s why they were so upset about Randi getting married in the first place.
How can a 2’ 7" guy be a bully? Anyway, I’m surprised that Randi didn’t act more pissed when Steve “blew” it. And the attempt to the the story into one about the “love of a family so strong that it can even lead to the total betrayal of what an individual in the family wants” was pretty lame. Very forced. The father came off as the only human (besides Randi) in the family.
Especially if, like so many other Reality shows, the prize money is paid out over the course of 20 years.
(For Love or Money was even worse – the million dollar prize was to have been paid out over the course of 40 years. That works out to a paltry $25,000 per year, assuming that the payments were divided evenly, which they probably weren’t.)
No kiddin’. There was nothing big, fat, or obnoxious about the finale. It was just one great big teary-eyed group-hug smarmfest. Couldn’t Steve at least have knocked over one of the supporting pillars to the wedding podium where he and Randi were standing? Couldn’t Steve’s fake family have jumped up and done their “traditional wedding dance” to the tune of “The Bird is the Word”? Couldn’t Randi’s older brother have actually tried to set the wedding stage on fire?
Guys, not to be a pain in the ass, but there’s a big difference between financial security and never having to work again. If you’ve got 10k interest coming in every year, that’s over $800/month, which is definitely nothing to sneeze at! I know it would make my life a hell of a lot easier, but then, I’m gonna be in grad school until at least 2007.
Exactly! Here’s what I was expecting: the Coys sit still and behave (like they did) despite what the editors tried to lead us to believe. HOWEVER, some member of Steve’s “family” does get up to protest which horrifies the Coys that the big, fat obnoxious family would dare reject their daughter, and madness and hilarity ensue. And then–only afer madness and hilarity have ensued, complete with producers intervening to prevent Psycho Son (“she was supposed to marry us!” from going ape-shit–could they have dropped the bomb that it’s all a joke and offer them a million bucks to make up for it.
Here’s what I was not expecting: “We wub you berry, berry much!”
And that’s the problem – the shows imply that the recipients of these prizes are going to be “millionaires”, which in most people’s minds means never having to work again. In truth, they’re just going to get a little bit of guaranteed supplemental income.
I meant to ask, What ever happened to the scene of Steve telling Randi’s dad that he “couldn’t wait to sleep with his daughter?” That was played in every preview but I never saw that in the show. I’d have liked to see the reaction from that line. Also, the shot in the previews of Randi’s father standing up at the ceremony–the one intended to make us believe he was going to object; where’d they get that?
