The My 600-Lb Life Season 9 Patient Who Really Aggravated Fans

Ultimately, people watch "My 600-lb Life" because they believe in the very best of people. They want to watch individuals overcome insurmountable odds to lose weight as prescribed by Dr. Now so that they can qualify for surgery to help them lose even more weight. In many instances, it's the only way to help a person live longer than a few more years. Many of the people featured throughout the show have heartbreaking stories that explain why they turned to food to fill a hole in their souls, but no matter how sad a person's backstory is, there will always be some patients who just get on people's bad sides. 

That's where Season 9's Samantha Mason enters the picture. She started her episode at around 940 pounds and ended at just under 500, resulting in a total weight loss of 478 pounds. It's by far the largest amount of weight loss any patient has ever had on the reality series. It sounds like a success by any metric, but some fans just didn't particularly care for her episode. 

Many people habitually watch "My 600-lb Life," and when it came to Samantha Mason's episode, one thing became abundantly clear: This was going to be controversial. Redditor u/Beginning_Treat6614 posited the following to their fellow "600-lb Life" fans, "Did Samantha (S9E1) unreasonably aggravate anyone else?" Based on what other people have to say, it was a common emotion during this particular episode, in large part because Samantha was incredibly reluctant to lose any weight on her own. As u/stabbyspacehorse put it, "She didn't want to actually lose weight. She makes too much money and gets too much attention for being a [fetish model]. She only did the show for more exposure and to [placate] her daughter, who has obviously not learned from her mother's experiences."

But it didn't end there. Another point of contention with Samantha's aggravation was a result of something she can't necessarily control — her voice. Another user explained, "Also her voice reminded me of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame." This is in reference to Holmes' unnaturally deep voice that many believe was an act. Still, others came to Samantha's defense and understood where she was coming from, such as u/LionelHutzApprentice, who wrote, "She was a tricky one. The bravado and brash personality and the self depreciating jokes were annoying but then the glimpses of real, visceral emotional pain was very uncomfortable to watch."

Samantha's episode was a rollercoaster for fans and an excellent jumping-off point for discussion, regardless of which camp you fall into.