Counting On Season Two - Part 2

[OyToTheVey]

1 hour ago, Gillyweed said:

Well, he is right. They're getting married like 6 months after "courting"

LOL kinda fucked up that an arm around the shoulders is moving fast but marrying a stranger is perfectly ok.

[mdatca]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:16 PM, Lizzybet said:

I have some recollection of Jim Bob being asked the days of birth for each of the kids, and he managed it, pretty well, in fact. 

I wondered then and now how he did it, because aside from not seeming at all bright, I didn't think he'd care enough about each of the kids to even try to file away that information.

i wish I could remember the context. It was quite a trick!

 

He knows them because they are important to him.   He needs them on his tax returns and any other financials that ask about dependents. 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, OyToTheVey said:

LOL kinda fucked up that an arm around the shoulders is moving fast but marrying a stranger is perfectly ok.

Sadly, they don't see it as marrying a stranger, because he agrees with their views on Jesus and children. Nothing else seems to matter to them.

[OyToTheVey]

20 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sadly, they don't see it as marrying a stranger, because he agrees with their views on Jesus and children. Nothing else seems to matter to them.

I agree with Chris Hemsworth that he makes a great Thor. Can I be with him? That's how it works in their world lol I WISH! 

[Bad Wolf]

32 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sadly, they don't see it as marrying a stranger, because he agrees with their views on Jesus and children. Nothing else seems to matter to them.

Remember, they're marrying their best friend (that they've just met)

[GreyhoundFan]

16 minutes ago, OyToTheVey said:

I agree with Chris Hemsworth that he makes a great Thor. Can I be with him? That's how it works in their world lol I WISH! 

Well, if Jesus says it's okay....

[luxfilia]

I watched, and it's true that it's even less entertaining than ever before. However, there's still plenty to snark on. I guess that's why I watch. The survival camp seemed like the most bare-bones type place you could go. The guides seemed turned off by the Duggars' RV, lack of interest in drinking (purified) river water, their disdain for sleeping in the rudimentary shelters (made from leaves and sticks), and Jinger's constant cell phone usage. The boys hardly made an effort to look like they were enjoying it. But the girls were even worse. They just stood around joking about "watching how it was done" instead of participating in things like building the shelters. It kind of disgusted me. Maybe it's because I grew up in the south in the country. Even though I may seem like quite a "girly girl," I grew up in nature and so can appreciate it greatly. They seem to lack that, and the girls just made themselves look like fools, without even TRYING to appear otherwise. This is nothing new, sure, but this episode in particular just struck me as perhaps the MOST set up by the production company. No one was enjoying it, and no one was even trying to act like they were. It was awkward and uncomfortable. And Jinger being so enamored hasn't been bothering me THAT much until this episode, when she was literally never shown without her phone in her hand (and she didn't even have cell reception most of the time). 

The Duggars' way of life is damaging in many ways, no argument. So I know many people think it's a good thing their show is not entertaining. But I just have so much curiosity and it bothers me that they avoid all the many topics that could still make them interesting (in a train wreck type of way). And now they don't even seem to be active participants in the continuing lame storylines. Sigh.

[JesSky03]

1 hour ago, OyToTheVey said:

I agree with Chris Hemsworth that he makes a great Thor. Can I be with him? That's how it works in their world lol I WISH! 

As long as I can have Tom Hiddelston 

[pamplemousse]

2 minutes ago, JesSky03 said:

As long as I can have Tom Hiddelston 

Well, you've got a better chance at him now that he and Taylor Swift have called it quits.  

[Jinder Roles]

2 hours ago, JesSky03 said:

As long as I can have Tom Hiddelston 

Sorry but I have dibs on Tom. You can have him after I leave him for Idris Elba. 

[Whydon'ttheyspeakintongues]

I  have now seen the most recent episode.  I got some dodgy copy on-line that made everyone sound baritone.  Which at least meant that I didn’t have to put up with any baby voices (especially now that Jinger has joined in and now just sounds like a mini-DQ).

Every time I watch this show I wonder if it could get any more boring – well today I know that it can.  Seriously, even if you liked this family and believed all their bullshit – you can’t tell me there is anything entertaining in this episode.

SPOILER ALERT: Despite last week’s cliff-hanger no-one got eaten by a bear. 

And surely the survival school would have sent some details ahead of time regarding appropriate attire?    But at least we finally see them eating some fresh food – they probably just got a shock from edible things not coming from a can.

And Jill is flashing quite a bit of knee in that hotel bedroom.  Just a warning to any men reading this so you can divert your eyes when the time comes – wouldn’t want you to get defrauded.

Following that Jill and Derrick just continue to remind everyone how dangerous and awful Cintral America is.  You know what? You could just not live there if it is so bad!  I doubt they are doing anything of benefit anyway (besides the “souls saved” tally they have with Jesus, that is)

Then Jessa and Ben go and visit a carbon-copy of JBoob?    And Sierra gets a mention – I thought maybe she had done something wrong and been cut out of duggar-fundie-land…

And they continue to drop all those baby-hints.  The producers are obviously aware that it’s only weddings and babies that are keeping the die-hards watching…

And I wonder if Jeremy ever saw “Fatal Attraction” in his worldly, pre-Jesus days?  It might give him an insight into Jinger’s current behaviour and their future together….

 

[HarleyQuinn]

15 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Remember, they're marrying their best friend (that they've just met)

Their concept of "best friend" bothers me.  Jinger calls Jeremy her best friend, who she's probably never even had a conversation alone with.  I was with my husband for 5 years before we married, and that concept would be so foreign to them. 

[Whydon'ttheyspeakintongues]

30 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Their concept of "best friend" bothers me.  Jinger calls Jeremy her best friend, who she's probably never even had a conversation alone with.  I was with my husband for 5 years before we married, and that concept would be so foreign to them. 

They haven't focussed so much on the "chaperoned phone calls" this time around.  That could be because most normal people find that creepy so they have left it out of the show...  or that they are finally able to have conversations alone (although they, or course, can't be phyisically alone together - the horror!).

[HarleyQuinn]

If they do get unchaperoned calls, I'm betting someone is at least in the room with them so it really doesn't count anyways. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

On 9/9/2016 at 0:38 PM, Gillyweed said:

Well, he is right. They're getting married like 6 months after "courting"

Can't snark on this, I got married 9 months after meeting my husband. We celebrate 20 years in 11 days. 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

The arrest of Toby Willis from The Willis Clan for child rape is deplorable. Disgusting. But maybe, just maybe, TLC will be forced to reevaluate its line up of mega family shows. Because all the articles I've read have mentioned Josh Duggar and how it's one mess to another with TLC's lineup. Sickening.

[patsymae]

2 hours ago, CreationMuseumSeasonPass said:

The arrest of Toby Willis from The Willis Clan for child rape is deplorable. Disgusting. But maybe, just maybe, TLC will be forced to reevaluate its line up of mega family shows. Because all the articles I've read have mentioned Josh Duggar and how it's one mess to another with TLC's lineup. Sickening.

What!!! When did this happen?

[Tiny Bubbles]

8 minutes ago, patsymae said:

What!!! When did this happen?

A couple days ago. There's a thread in Quiverful of Snark. The arrest is for rape of a (child 3-13 years of age) 12 years ago. He's in jail. They've shut down some of their social media accounts.  First Alan Smith (s'morton thread in Q of Snark) and now this. Are the wheels coming off the fundie bus at last? 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

I saw TMZ do a story on it yesterday.

[mizandry]

On 9/10/2016 at 0:43 AM, Whydon'ttheyspeakintongues said:

SPOILER ALERT: Despite last week’s cliff-hanger no-one got eaten by a bear. 

 I think the "despite" part is what has me cracking up so much about this part of your post.

Seriously though... why the hell did TLC make them do this trip in the first place? It's like they brought the Duggars there thinking this would provide some kind of brand-saving moment for the show, eventually realized that nobody was going to do much of anything, and then SEVERELY, SINFULLY told kidults to lie (again)!!! What even was that mess? I was expecting regular boring, not this virtually plotless mess of an episode. 

I couldn't figure out what TLC wanted us to believe: were we supposed to know that they set this trip up for the sake of trying to make an interesting episode, complete with a bear-less Bear storyline (...THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET A BEAR COSTUME AND RUSTLE SOME BUSHES??? LOL!), or are we actually supposed to buy this BS that the kidults just got together and spontaneously planned a camp experience they would near-unanimously not participate in + dislike? This is about the only time I actually kind of wish JB and Michelle would have participated in the show's snoozy shenanigans... because I would have loved to see them running from a producer Bear. Maybe JB could "redeem" himself with a Bear Fight (like in the Monty Python skit below)!!! 

Re: Jinger and her clinginess - did anyone catch the part of the episode where she relayed to everyone that Jeremy wanted her to contact him again at a certain time during this "survival" getaway, when they'd been chatting all day (from what the show suggests anyways... but the multiple scenes of her on the phone incline me to believe that narrative)? Where are his boundaries???

All this episode told me about Jeremy is that he's an older, 28 year old "worldly" adult with a poor sense of space and respect... and that's really concerning to me, among several other things I've picked up from him (but am holding back on voicing since I know I don't know the guy and have only seen so much of his KoolAid garbage). He strikes me as quite controlling so far, and his apparent-but-relatively-lowkey clinginess (due to appropriate socialization with the evil, evil World and being "on" for the cameras) bothers me a hell of a lot more than Jinger's contextually understandable, but very immature infatuation towards him - which we're seeing a lot more of because this is more her show than his (for now), and it's the only plot TLC's even bothering to play up for the cameras at this point.  

I just feel sad for Jinger, because she never got to express anything like this when it was socially appropriate for her to do so, which is why we're seeing it all play out in full force at 22. She's repressed A LOT of normal, healthy "adult" feelings as a human who has gone through puberty, so I'm honestly not surprised by any of this from her end -- it surprises me more that her two older sisters weren't more of the same, but it may also just be that Jinger is a lot more of an open book than they are with their emotions. I'm the same way in that respect, and we're the same age (but with vastly different social + economic backgrounds), so I guess that's why I can afford Jinger some sympathy on this one.

The fact that Jeremy is ALSO being really clingy and immature and not encouraging Jinger to have a life outside of him for even one night, though, really makes me judge him as the older, more socially experienced + emotionally mature person in the relationship. He should (and I suspect does) know better, but he's getting that social conditioning in now before he claims his "meek," obedient fundie trophy wife who he has wrapped around his finger, by feeding into her immaturity and not establishing healthy boundaries early on. There's just something really off about him... but I guess that's inevitable, as this is the Counting On franchise. :\
 

[nastyhobbitses]

2 hours ago, mizandry said:

 I think the "despite" part is what has me cracking up so much about this part of your post.

Seriously though... why the hell did TLC make them do this trip in the first place? It's like they brought the Duggars there thinking this would provide some kind of brand-saving moment for the show, eventually realized that nobody was going to do much of anything, and then SEVERELY, SINFULLY told kidults to lie (again)!!! What even was that mess? I was expecting regular boring, not this virtually plotless mess of an episode. 

I couldn't figure out what TLC wanted us to believe: were we supposed to know that they set this trip up for the sake of trying to make an interesting episode, complete with a bear-less Bear storyline (...THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET A BEAR COSTUME AND RUSTLE SOME BUSHES??? LOL!), or are we actually supposed to buy this BS that the kidults just got together and spontaneously planned a camp experience they would near-unanimously not participate in + dislike? This is about the only time I actually kind of wish JB and Michelle would have participated in the show's snoozy shenanigans... because I would have loved to see them running from a producer Bear. Maybe JB could "redeem" himself with a Bear Fight (like in the Monty Python skit below)!!! 

Re: Jinger and her clinginess - did anyone catch the part of the episode where she relayed to everyone that Jeremy wanted her to contact him again at a certain time during this "survival" getaway, when they'd been chatting all day (from what the show suggests anyways... but the multiple scenes of her on the phone incline me to believe that narrative)? Where are his boundaries???

All this episode told me about Jeremy is that he's an older, 28 year old "worldly" adult with a poor sense of space and respect... and that's really concerning to me, among several other things I've picked up from him (but am holding back on voicing since I know I don't know the guy and have only seen so much of his KoolAid garbage). He strikes me as quite controlling so far, and his apparent-but-relatively-lowkey clinginess (due to appropriate socialization with the evil, evil World and being "on" for the cameras) bothers me a hell of a lot more than Jinger's contextually understandable, but very immature infatuation towards him - which we're seeing a lot more of because this is more her show than his (for now), and it's the only plot TLC's even bothering to play up for the cameras at this point.  

I just feel sad for Jinger, because she never got to express anything like this when it was socially appropriate for her to do so, which is why we're seeing it all play out in full force at 22. She's repressed A LOT of normal, healthy "adult" feelings as a human who has gone through puberty, so I'm honestly not surprised by any of this from her end -- it surprises me more that her two older sisters weren't more of the same, but it may also just be that Jinger is a lot more of an open book than they are with their emotions. I'm the same way in that respect, and we're the same age (but with vastly different social + economic backgrounds), so I guess that's why I can afford Jinger some sympathy on this one.

The fact that Jeremy is ALSO being really clingy and immature and not encouraging Jinger to have a life outside of him for even one night, though, really makes me judge him as the older, more socially experienced + emotionally mature person in the relationship. He should (and I suspect does) know better, but he's getting that social conditioning in now before he claims his "meek," obedient fundie trophy wife who he has wrapped around his finger, by feeding into her immaturity and not establishing healthy boundaries early on. There's just something really off about him... but I guess that's inevitable, as this is the Counting On franchise. :\
 

Yeah, for the entire episode, this is all I could think of whenever they talked about Jeremy/his behavior:

Spoiler

 

 

[BabyBottlePop]

3 hours ago, mizandry said:

There's just something really off about him... but I guess that's inevitable, as this is the Counting On franchise. :\
 

It makes me sad that these kids' lives are a franchise. How much of their lives are influenced by ratings? 

Also, @mizandry you've made a good point. I thought Jeremy being older and worldly might work out better for Jinger, versus an unemployed man boy. Now I'm not too sure. Jeremy's clingy behavior is controlling and I don't think Jinger could wear the pants like I feel Jessa does behind the scenes with Ben. 

Time will tell what will happen. 

[Arix]

5 hours ago, mizandry said:

 I think the "despite" part is what has me cracking up so much about this part of your post.

Seriously though... why the hell did TLC make them do this trip in the first place? It's like they brought the Duggars there thinking this would provide some kind of brand-saving moment for the show, eventually realized that nobody was going to do much of anything, and then SEVERELY, SINFULLY told kidults to lie (again)!!! What even was that mess? I was expecting regular boring, not this virtually plotless mess of an episode. 

I couldn't figure out what TLC wanted us to believe: were we supposed to know that they set this trip up for the sake of trying to make an interesting episode, complete with a bear-less Bear storyline (...THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET A BEAR COSTUME AND RUSTLE SOME BUSHES??? LOL!), or are we actually supposed to buy this BS that the kidults just got together and spontaneously planned a camp experience they would near-unanimously not participate in + dislike? This is about the only time I actually kind of wish JB and Michelle would have participated in the show's snoozy shenanigans... because I would have loved to see them running from a producer Bear. Maybe JB could "redeem" himself with a Bear Fight (like in the Monty Python skit below)!!! 

Re: Jinger and her clinginess - did anyone catch the part of the episode where she relayed to everyone that Jeremy wanted her to contact him again at a certain time during this "survival" getaway, when they'd been chatting all day (from what the show suggests anyways... but the multiple scenes of her on the phone incline me to believe that narrative)? Where are his boundaries???

All this episode told me about Jeremy is that he's an older, 28 year old "worldly" adult with a poor sense of space and respect... and that's really concerning to me, among several other things I've picked up from him (but am holding back on voicing since I know I don't know the guy and have only seen so much of his KoolAid garbage). He strikes me as quite controlling so far, and his apparent-but-relatively-lowkey clinginess (due to appropriate socialization with the evil, evil World and being "on" for the cameras) bothers me a hell of a lot more than Jinger's contextually understandable, but very immature infatuation towards him - which we're seeing a lot more of because this is more her show than his (for now), and it's the only plot TLC's even bothering to play up for the cameras at this point.  

I just feel sad for Jinger, because she never got to express anything like this when it was socially appropriate for her to do so, which is why we're seeing it all play out in full force at 22. She's repressed A LOT of normal, healthy "adult" feelings as a human who has gone through puberty, so I'm honestly not surprised by any of this from her end -- it surprises me more that her two older sisters weren't more of the same, but it may also just be that Jinger is a lot more of an open book than they are with their emotions. I'm the same way in that respect, and we're the same age (but with vastly different social + economic backgrounds), so I guess that's why I can afford Jinger some sympathy on this one.

The fact that Jeremy is ALSO being really clingy and immature and not encouraging Jinger to have a life outside of him for even one night, though, really makes me judge him as the older, more socially experienced + emotionally mature person in the relationship. He should (and I suspect does) know better, but he's getting that social conditioning in now before he claims his "meek," obedient fundie trophy wife who he has wrapped around his finger, by feeding into her immaturity and not establishing healthy boundaries early on. There's just something really off about him... but I guess that's inevitable, as this is the Counting On franchise. :\
 

It's possible that Jeremy wanted to talk to her at a certain time in a "Babe, I'm busy. I'll call you at (time), but I can't talk right now, I'm working." kind of way.

[MargaretElliott]

Yeah, we've been snarking on Jinger (myself included) for her immature behavior, but what does Jeremy think of it? I think he seems a little embarrassed, personally, based on his behavior surrounding her cup label (I think...) But then again, he's a worldly adult, who has no doubt spent unchaperoned time with emotionally mature women in his life. Did he know what he was getting into? Is he cringing along with the rest of us? Or does he, like many fundie men, infantilize women and get off on his own superiority? I don't think we can ever know the answer, but that would greatly influence my opinion on Jeremy.

[paulypepper]

I think he is going with a younger girl that he can mold into being the woman of his dreams.