another reason for IMDb to add a ZERO rating to its list ...
you look at the title of this and the photo on the natgeo website that goes with it and you think 'okay, this might be interesting seeing these people's over-the-top collections and obsessions' ... you'd be right so far since it would be interesting to see that ... however, it is not what you get from this show this show is about how the families of these hardcore hobbyists try and "cure" these hobbyists of their addiction ... a wife and a mother try and fix the first guy and an older brother and a mother try and fix the second guy ... apparently, they both succeed ... kind of ...
i don't understand and never will understand why people think they can change other people ... this is the case in the first story where the collector of action figures is married to someone who thought they would 'grow up' at some point ... well, first off, this is just stupid and sad ... on both sides to be honest ... the collector will apparently tell the wife (they have two children) to cut back on food bills because he is going to be buying something ... obviously he's a complete horse's ass to suggest such a thing as cutting back on the care of your children, in effect, so you can add to your collection ... however, since the wife and mother does this then why should he not keep telling her this? this is called 'enabling' in alcoholic circles ... and of course the mother is the second problem in this weird triangle as the wife suggests calling in professional help in the form of a psychiatrist, the mother starts to cry saying she's upset she might be hurting her son and that she's let him down somehow ... yeah, well you let him down years before this since if this makes you cry then you obviously let him get away with murder while growing up ... and this is the result ... eventually, after some long and painful viewing (yes i stuck it out), the guy agrees to start selling off some of his collection ... but we never see a follow-up to see how it all turns out a couple months later or what-have-you ... i'm thinking he has just been pretending to sell-off his collection and it's divorce with him moving into his mother's basement and next starting up a Star Trek collection ...
the second story is about a guy who collects nothing but Andy Van Slyke baseball cards, photos, etc ... now Willie Mays i can see ... but Van Slyke? he was a second-tier player at best ... but he claims to have over 60,000 baseballs cards of the player ... obviously, again this can't be just cards unless they're thousands of repeats ... but whatever, on with the painful story ... his older brother now enters the picture and says how he's worried his younger brother won't ever advance and that it's unhealthy .. well leave it to an older brother to tell you that you're worthless and won't amount to anything unless you do what he tells you to do (for those of you like me who have older brothers, you know all about this ... i stopped talking to my older brother 25 years ago because he wouldn't stop telling me how worthless i was ... this guy should do the same but doesn't) ... also of course the mother is involved since this collector had a bad breakup and moved back in with mom ... she is again a mother who let him do whatever he wanted when growing up and his father was absent ... so now there's this weird vibe of the older brother stepping in to take the father's role and frankly, the Oedipal feeling of this part of the show was thick and very heavy and creepy ... there's something weird about the older brother ... of course he's completely condescending and a know-it-all but also the mother completely defers to him ... very weird ... so this collector, in the end, BURNS his entire collection on advice of the psychiatrist his brother has scrounged up ... so this guy wasn't too hardcore to begin with ... and he is a perfect fit for a Manchurian Candidate since his mind can be so easily changed ...
these shows are just sickening to watch and must be an embarrassment to family and friends when they see them on TV ... it's certainly sickening to watch them ... if people want to collect things, let them ... frankly, if you think you know what's best for someone else and set yourself above them, you're more of a problem than the collecting is ...
and for natgeo, this is far below the standard you have set thru the years ... get on with something other than 'reality TV'
you look at the title of this and the photo on the natgeo website that goes with it and you think 'okay, this might be interesting seeing these people's over-the-top collections and obsessions' ... you'd be right so far since it would be interesting to see that ... however, it is not what you get from this show this show is about how the families of these hardcore hobbyists try and "cure" these hobbyists of their addiction ... a wife and a mother try and fix the first guy and an older brother and a mother try and fix the second guy ... apparently, they both succeed ... kind of ...
i don't understand and never will understand why people think they can change other people ... this is the case in the first story where the collector of action figures is married to someone who thought they would 'grow up' at some point ... well, first off, this is just stupid and sad ... on both sides to be honest ... the collector will apparently tell the wife (they have two children) to cut back on food bills because he is going to be buying something ... obviously he's a complete horse's ass to suggest such a thing as cutting back on the care of your children, in effect, so you can add to your collection ... however, since the wife and mother does this then why should he not keep telling her this? this is called 'enabling' in alcoholic circles ... and of course the mother is the second problem in this weird triangle as the wife suggests calling in professional help in the form of a psychiatrist, the mother starts to cry saying she's upset she might be hurting her son and that she's let him down somehow ... yeah, well you let him down years before this since if this makes you cry then you obviously let him get away with murder while growing up ... and this is the result ... eventually, after some long and painful viewing (yes i stuck it out), the guy agrees to start selling off some of his collection ... but we never see a follow-up to see how it all turns out a couple months later or what-have-you ... i'm thinking he has just been pretending to sell-off his collection and it's divorce with him moving into his mother's basement and next starting up a Star Trek collection ...
the second story is about a guy who collects nothing but Andy Van Slyke baseball cards, photos, etc ... now Willie Mays i can see ... but Van Slyke? he was a second-tier player at best ... but he claims to have over 60,000 baseballs cards of the player ... obviously, again this can't be just cards unless they're thousands of repeats ... but whatever, on with the painful story ... his older brother now enters the picture and says how he's worried his younger brother won't ever advance and that it's unhealthy .. well leave it to an older brother to tell you that you're worthless and won't amount to anything unless you do what he tells you to do (for those of you like me who have older brothers, you know all about this ... i stopped talking to my older brother 25 years ago because he wouldn't stop telling me how worthless i was ... this guy should do the same but doesn't) ... also of course the mother is involved since this collector had a bad breakup and moved back in with mom ... she is again a mother who let him do whatever he wanted when growing up and his father was absent ... so now there's this weird vibe of the older brother stepping in to take the father's role and frankly, the Oedipal feeling of this part of the show was thick and very heavy and creepy ... there's something weird about the older brother ... of course he's completely condescending and a know-it-all but also the mother completely defers to him ... very weird ... so this collector, in the end, BURNS his entire collection on advice of the psychiatrist his brother has scrounged up ... so this guy wasn't too hardcore to begin with ... and he is a perfect fit for a Manchurian Candidate since his mind can be so easily changed ...
these shows are just sickening to watch and must be an embarrassment to family and friends when they see them on TV ... it's certainly sickening to watch them ... if people want to collect things, let them ... frankly, if you think you know what's best for someone else and set yourself above them, you're more of a problem than the collecting is ...
and for natgeo, this is far below the standard you have set thru the years ... get on with something other than 'reality TV'
