The style of a ‘Ruby’ in the rough

The Style Network is not the first place you’d think to look for a reality series about a 500-pound woman. But here is “Ruby,” which this Sunday joins the home of “Fashion Police,” “Dress My Nest” and “How Do I Look?”.

Ruby Gettinger lives in the photogenic city of Savannah, Ga.; she is pretty and lively and cannot cross her legs or paint her toenails. She dreams of taking a bubble bath, riding a horse, sitting on someone’s lap. She has weighed as much as 700 pounds, which does not sound possible, and looks back nostalgically at 350. She is surrounded by people who love her but cannot resist allowing her the Southern cooking she craves and which is killing her. Sometimes they are the ones to cook it.

“You want to help her,” says childhood friend and roommate Jeff, “but you always want her to be happy.”

“I’m always taking the easy road, the quick fix,” admits Ruby.

As we meet her, she is about to get a life-or-death sentence from her doctor -- who describes her as “a metabolic time bomb” -- and decides to seriously tackle her weight. On one level, we are here to see whether Ruby can get down to the 150 pounds it’s suggested her frame is made to hold. It’s the same thing that propels “The Biggest Loser” and other weight-loss shows -- the unlocking of the princess from her prison.

“It’s not a childhood dream that I dream: Oh, let me be the biggest woman in the whole wide world,” she says.

At the same time, we are here to get to know Ruby better, as she gets to know herself better. Indeed, the second episode has relatively little to do with her weight-loss program and much to do with the return of an old, buff boyfriend. (Weighing 500 pounds is an impediment to many things, but it does not stop her from riding on the back of a Harley-Davidson.)

She is good-humored and good company, though one would guess that she’s less well-adjusted than she seems, and a visit to a psychiatrist hints at yet-to-be-explored repressed childhood trauma. Similarly, when Ruby’s nephew Jim says he lives with his aunt because his parents “got a cat” to which he’s allergic, I mean, one would have to think there’s more to that story.

It’s not the most compelling reality show ever -- apart from the old boyfriend, whom she at least claims to be over, there is relatively little personal drama surrounding Ruby. But it’s a sweet portrait of supportive friendship and embodies, in a way that’s hard to miss, struggles we all have with ourselves -- and there is nothing bad to say about that.

--

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

--

‘Ruby’

Where: Style

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)