"There's a helpful message hidden in Khloe Kardashian's heavily criticised TV show."

When you read the blurb for Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, it’s pretty easy to form a strong opinion in advance.

People who struggle with their weight seek revenge on former lovers, fat-shaming friends, unsupportive parents and more.

The method? Getting a whole body make-over care of Kardashian’s crew (krew?), and emerging thin, glossy and ultimately desirable on the other end.

So far, so awful. And I really expected to hate this show intensely.

But sitting down to watch Revenge Body prior to recording an episode of The Binge this week with Mamamia’s Laura Brodnik something very strange happened: I kind of enjoyed myself.

Listen to Laura Brodnik and Tiffany Dunk battle it out over Revenge Body. 

I’m going to preface this by saying it wasn’t the recently aired debut episode of Revenge Body I watched – I was sent episode three to review – so maybe there was less shock value involved, but on the whole I thought Revenge Body was pretty relatable at its core.

Not only that, I thought it had some great takeaways for people at home.

Far from being an imitation of The Biggest Loser where contestants are put through ridiculous physical challenge normal people wouldn’t dare (does anyone else remember that time they had to pull a nine tonne plane up a runway?) or tempted to eat stupid amounts of unhealthy food to win an advantage in the game, Revenge Body for the most part showed people getting into fitness in a realistic way.

Yep, some of them struggled with it.

One guy threw up his protein shake less than 10 minutes into his workout. But rather than sending out a “you need to exercise until you vomit” message, the takeaway from that scene was that you need to fuel your body with the right foods in order to get it working right. In other words, try a healthy breakfast as opposed to a shake from a tin.

And while getting “revenge” may be the premise of the show, I was pleasantly surprised to see it quickly became the secondary reason. If anything, it felt like Kardashian and her crew (krew?) had to keep reminding the contestants – and those watching at home – of their revenge goals in order to keep the show on brand.

What stuck out more was watching people who had become unhappy with their lifestyles rediscovering things they’d loved to do - for one, playing softball with her friends - and gradually learning that they were doing this show for themselves first and foremost.

There were also moments of personal triumph as contestants started to feel healthier and happier and less worried about their outward physical appearance and instead more appreciative of the things their bodies could now do.

I’m not a girl who worships at the Kardashian altar, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Khloe who seems to speak her mind and go against the conventional grain.

And while she does have a knack of picking up on the fears of the contestants, their triggers and the reasons they came to take on the show, she’s not at her best here.

If anything, the usually warm and animated Kardashian member appears cold and distant and is only really around for a slightly strained in-studio interview with the people looking to overhaul themselves.

But by putting herself firmly into the background it allows us to learn more about why these seemingly lovely and loveable people have come to enter themselves on a show that has the potential to wreak havoc on their bodies and their lives.

Maybe I’ve missed the point.

Maybe there will be some further episodes of the show that shock and disappoint. Maybe Kardashian is in the background because she’s not that invested in the people on the show’s journey. Maybe we’ll learn that contestants put themselves through extreme dieting behind the scenes. Maybe we’ll hear some stories of regret.

But for now, I’m going to say that as makeover shows go, this one isn’t too bad. And that’s a sentence I never thought would come out of my mouth.

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