Tonight was the finale of the Swedish version of Biggest Loser. I was really surprised of the good result across the board. Karl-Fredrik won the entire thing by losing more than 75 kilos (166 lbs) amazing!
My favourite Rune won the at home prise by losing 5o kilos (110 lbs).
I'll update to a better pic when its released
But the one I want to focus on is Runes fiance Florence. She really capture what Biggest Loser is all about. She was a very minor character throughout the series and was eliminated early on. She also gave the impression of not being that into it, but more or less was on the show to support Rune. At the finale she had lost 33 kilos (75 lbs) and ranked in as number three in percentage of weight loss behind Karl-Fredrik and Rune. Amazing result for a participant that I predjuingly ranked at the bottom.
I gotta give it to the producers, the series took of after a horrible start and the last couple of episodes were really good, almost US standard and the finale was actually better because it was shorter and more direct. The only difference dramaturgically from the US finale was that they weighed in the eliminated contestants in pairs saving a lot of time and I actually hope they change to that format in the upcoming US finales.
I really hope that enough people have seen this finale so that TV4 will green light another season. Unfortunately the series has not being well produced and I think the ratings has been really low thanks to that.
The biggest problem as I see it is that the Swedish version never really let go of its WE and THEM attitude towards the participants which is a huge mistake and that has to be changed if they decide to do a second season. It got to be about the bigger picture rather than focusing on the participants being singled out which I think was the general impression.
They also have to put a lot more focus on nutrition and edit better training montages (Seen Rocky anyone?). When it comes to simplistic dramaturgy they need to have a lot more challenges because they really establish the participants as characters. There are so many great examples of that in the US version that I sometimes think that the Swedish producers haven’t even seen it. Do your homework and it will play a lot better.
Finally they did not promote the show and the finale remotely enough. There were twitter and Facebook accounts connected to it but they were hardly updated and they have never been shown on screen so the following was minimal. I was also surprised to see that the they didn’t show up at the the big health and fitness convention that was held two weeks ago in Stockholm. Hell I would have liked to see a final challenge on there or why not shoot the entire finale during the convention!
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The finale was enjoyable, there is a good picture of Rune & Florence here; http://gfx.aftonbladet-cdn.se/multimedia/archive/…
And the slideshow at AB is ok; http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/article8…
It was kind of cool when the oldest contestant, Florence, did the third best result.
Thanks for the image tip. I was really impressed with Florence as I mentioned her experience feels more like the typical underdog scenarios that occur more often on the US version.
You think they'll go for another season?
Depends on Dammsugarpåsar.nu if they can take it ;D
Was it around a half million viewers on each program? Probably not as much they hoped for, on the other hand there has been a lot of good publicity on the net around the series, and I belive that viewers do know that this series is serious and for real, not the usual trash we are so used to get – a second season should thrive from this.
All the best to you Joel.
I don't know. I was surprised to see that the neither K-F or Rune was invited to the TV4 morning show the morning after the finale. Yet another great opportunity to promote the show that they missed out.
Kör på svenska: Håller med dig Joel – imponerade och inspirerande prestationer indeed. Men programmet som sådant var ju fruktansvärt tråkigt. Jag halvtittade dock på det mellan varven. Får hoppas på en ny säsong och att TV4a lägger ner lite mer energi på att utveckla och förbättra själva programmet.
Sorry för svenskan. =)
Vadan denna fascination för just Biggest Loser? Har bara sett sporadiskt på tidiga am säsonger men där kändes det lite fel med hela utslagningsprocessen, i just det avseendet föredrog jag det saligen avsomnade Tjockholmen som jag vill minnas också fokuserade väldigt mycket på samarbete och pepp mellan deltagarna.
Hmmm det är en väldigt vanlig svensk reaktion har jag märkt att man stör sig på en form av mobbningsmoment som utröstningen skulle kunna bli. Däremot om man sett mycket av den amerikanska serien förstår man att det egentligen är oviktigt. Det handlar om att bryta vanor. Vilket flera hemröstade deltagare visat genom att göra suveräna resultat på hemmaplan.
Min fascination kommer främst ifrån de otroliga prestationer som deltagarna gör men även för att det faktiskt är rörande och gripande i många fall. Sen håller jag själv på att ändra min livsstil en del och då blir Biggest Loser väldigt mycket intressantare.
Om du vill ha en Crash course i Biggest Loser kolla avsnitt 1 och finalen på säsong 8. Den säsongen är helt sanslös på många sätt.
Ja, det är klart att det känns mer aktuellt om det på något sätt ger resonans i ens eget liv. Jag tror att det jag vänder mig emot (även om resultaten är nog så imponerande och lovvärda) är att det blir så extremt, hade samma problem med Du är vad du äter (både svenska och engelska versionen). Eller, i fråga om "kärlek", Temptation Island.
Nummer ett är att det ska bli bra underhållning, om privatpersoner får ut något av det är det bara en bonus. Nog skulle man kunna hävda att det är precis lika krasst att utnyttja unga tjejer som tror att de kan bli Tyra Banks men det blir ändå till något annat i det här fallet. Uä, känner att jag inte alls kan förklara tillräckligt tydligt vad jag tycker och varför
Jag tror jag förstår vad du menar. Tyvärr finns det lite av en sådan offermentalitet i svenska versionen.
Den amerikanska är mycket mer inriktad på utbildning. Den är maskerad väldigt bra i reality kostymen men det handlar framför allt om att nå ut till "fettona" hemma i tv-soforrna om jag får uttrycka mig extremt klumpigt. Det är en av de mest positiva reality serierna sett till innehåll men det är lätt att luras att ha fördomar om man bara ser en trailer ett enstaka avsnitt.
Jag hoppas att svenska serien kan bli mer så. Läs gärna i ett av mina relaterade inlägg om premiären av svenska Biggest Loser där skriver jag ungefär om det vi skriver om här.
Kan bara hålla med, många fick bra resultat. Kan bar hoppas de fortsätter leva ordentligt och träna efter programmet.
Ha det fint
Hej Jeanette! Tyvärr har jag hört att flera deltagare gått upp lite. Jag hoppas att de väljer att köra ett uppföljningsprogram i samband med säsong 2 om de gör en till säsong.
The trouble with swedes is that they are just too lazy. The swedish version was a pure vacation compared to the american…
Great comment. I'll agree to a certain point but more to the fact that the Producers don't wanna pinpoint this problem in a larger scale (Sweden as population). Now they choose to direct it more like: "look at these fat f*cks, now they are gonna get healthy." the US version has a bigger genuine heart towards their audience and the participants.
I do agree that the swedish version was lame when it came to competitions and training. That really needs to be fixed if they do another season.
" the US version has a bigger genuine heart towards their audience and the participants. "
I can agree with that, very well put.
"I do agree that the swedish version was lame when it came to competitions and training. That really needs to be fixed if they do another season."
You will never see the same level of work in teh Swedish show, I can promise you that. I think it's all about Swedish mentality. They don't want to push people to hard. There is no "you can do it. You can push your limits further." but instead: "Oh, poor you, how you are working hard. Maybe you should reast a bit?" In the US, people has two or three jobs, many working 10 to 12 hours a day. Here people think 8 hours are too much and wants to have 6 hours work day instead. Swedes are just a plain lazy people. That's all.
I do agree, there is a big difference in mentality between the countries and I wish sometimes Swedes weren't as dependent on goverment and other authorities in their lives and took more responsibility themselves.
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