Dee's affection for Sonia's kids seemed wholehearted and she tried to stick up for them and stop selfish Lance from bullying them. He criticised Dee's hygiene then smoked not only in the house but in the kitchen. He called her a racist but seemed to think it was okay to despise and insult someone for being fat. What he said about her overweight being more unhealthy than his smoking and drug habit was rubbish.
Why is the 'goddess' throwing herself away on Lance even though her kids appear to hate him? Anyone who talked to my kids like that would be history.
And was I the only one who found Sonia's behaviour crudely manipulative? She appeared better educated than the others but her tactics were primitive. She played the sisters off against each other, set Mary up with outrageous provocation, then encouraged Dave to stage an even worse tantrum (he was quite scary at one point) and sucked up to the more impressionable Carol.
The programme format seemed designed to encourage unreasonable behaviour eg 'these rules are not negotiable'. Even if Mary's parents set a good example, you'd hardly expect her to submit to a whole new set of rules and a gross invasion of her personal space without even an attempt at negotiation.
I'm sure the adults in real life can't be anything like the cartoons that this programme turned them into. But the children, in my view, were being exploited. It's harder for them to put on an act. Mary's rage, Carol's sly disloyalty, and the misery of Sonia's kids being crushed under Lance's monstrous ego, came across as all too real. These painful exposures were of no benefit to the children.
How old do you think children should have to be before they can validly consent to be used in this way?