We don’t recommend watching the video above, an overview of the new TLC series Dr. Pimple Popper in which dermatological growths are poked, prodded, squeezed, jiggled, and irrigated. But then again, we don’t recommend not watching it either. The show—which opened with this scene during its premiere on Wednesday night (following a special that aired on TLC in January)—follows the titular dermatologist (real name: Dr. Sandra Lee) in her at times giddy adventures in rooting around under people’s skin to remove that which lump-ifies them. We hate this show, we hate this show, we love this show. A discussion of our impressions, as we went through the episode, follows. In the words of Dr. PP, this might get wet.
Megan: This is not as gross somehow. I think the videos are bad because there’s no narrative.
Rich: The doctor will soothe you now.
Megan: I find her comforting, yes. But I do not find like, ricotta cheese coming out of a cyst comforting.
Rich: It’s all about finding the balance, I guess.
Megan: I also am not repulsed by people with stuff under their skin.
Rich: Let them have their lumps!
Megan: Draw a little face on them.
Rich: Um, I’m gasping.
Megan: Which part!!!!
Rich: That intro was A LOT.
Megan: I couldn’t look at it directly, like the sun. But where I’m at, she’s about to drain a lipoma that is like he size of a baseball glove. Slksadfj I just gagged.
Rich: I love that this is all coming through TLC’s exploitation-reality filter. The melodrama of the four patients’ backstories before the doctor gets to poppin’!
Megan: Maybe I love Dr. PP now.
Rich: My message to you:
Megan: Thank you. What a perf encapsulation of Us. She genders the lipoma, wait for that.
Megan: When he’s finally out, the camera focuses on him, and a little piece of him slides to the operating table. A touch I really appreciated.
Rich: “I love mashed potatoes.” How dare Tyler, who has two facial lumps, and his food analogy!
Megan: I almost threw up just now, FYI. FUCK U TYLER.
Rich: Discharge was compared to food several times this episode: mashed potatoes, butter...chitlins????
Megan: I’m going to vomit probably. My eyes are watering. Making the choice to watch this on my TV instead of my iPad was not the smartest. I just rewatched the mashed potatoes in like HD, and I did gag.
Rich: Hahahhaha, this show is good. I love when things are as extreme to Dr. Pimple Popper as they are to us. On this episode, she encountered “the deepest cyst” she ever has. Same!
Megan: Wow, this show is good!! Like a horror movie, I cannot look directly at the screen.
Rich: The keloid removal is...dizzying. And then they handle it after???
Rich: It looks like a little, incredibly irritated butt.
Megan: Aw...Gagged during the keloids also!!!
Rich: Unreal.
Megan: I guess this is my new favorite show, though.
Rich: It’s excellent.
Megan: In the updates (filmed weeks after the subjects’ surgeries), everyone’s feeling amazing!! They have their bodies back!! This bitch doesn’t have to wear a hoodie to cover her lump!
Rich: I had no idea pus extraction could be so uplifting. Tears are streaming down my face...or is that cottage cheese?
DISCUSSION