Since it first aired, I’ve been a fan of Beauty and the Geek.
I thought the concept was fantastic and the execution infinitely better than most “reality” shows. The contestants grew and learned. The show wasn’t as much about competition as it was about becoming a better person–the prize money was just an extra added bonus.
The current iteration of the show, though, has undone almost all of the respect I had for the show runners.
As of the last episode, it became nothing more than a hollow vehicle for cross-promotion and yet another place to make people feel awkward for no reason other than entertainment value. It has been trending that way all season, but now it has just gone too far.
Things were bad enough that we spent the first three weeks watching Beauty versus Geek, a cheap gimmick that goes directly against what the show is supposed to be about. At best, it was a chance to see all the pretty girls hanging out together being catty and plotting how they were going to manipulate the geeks in order to win. That culminated in a ridiculous boys against girls flag football game.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they again “evolve” the experiment and finally get to rid of the “versus” by pairing off beauties and geeks. Of course, they do this is the most humiliation-inducing way possible: by having an odd number of people involved and making the girls pick the guys they want to pair with. You guessed it: that leaves one poor social outcast standing there all alone being sent home because he was picked last.
Crap like that isn’t fair to either the girl doing the picking or the dude left hanging his head in all-too-familiar shame. Every previous version of this show stayed away from things like that. Every elimination was by pair. Every pair was given a chance to succeed. Every challenge built people up to be better than they were before. Or at least they were given the chance to be better, some previous beauties and geeks have shown us that mean people come in all breeds.
But this past week was the worst yet. First there were two cross-promotions shoehorned into the episode: one for the new Prom Night movie and one for the well-known soap opera The Young and the Restless. The movie plug was blatantly there for no reason what so ever. The soap stage was the setting for one of the most inane and humiliating challenges I’ve seen (at least until next week when it looks like they’re playing fireman).
The “challenge” was for the beauty and geek teams to write and perform a soap opera like scene (ostensibly centered around a prom night–as they try to make showing the movie trailer during the show somewhat relevant).
I ask you, what purpose does this serve? This isn’t a dating show. Most of these teams have no romantic chemistry at all. And, really, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Why put them on the spot and force them into what anyone with half a brain knows will be an uncomfortable situation? Where is the personal growth in trying to pretend you’re attracted to someone you’re not attracted to?
While I won’t deny being entertained by at least one or two scenes (Leticia and Matt were pretty good), I really can’t justify the challenge in the context of what they show was supposed to be.
The last bit that put the whole thing over the edge was the make-overs that happened earlier in the episode. The make-overs are always one of the high points for me. It’s good to see how the boys clean up. And usually that’s all it is–showing these guys who don’t think much about how they look what a little effort can do.
This time around, though, we have Joe, a geek who describes himself as a cowboy. He goes all out with the classic “western” shirts and ten gallon hat. It’s a kitschy look, but it’s a look that he put effort into, a persona that he took time to cultivate.
His make-over destroyed all of that individuality, all of that creativity. They stripped him down and dressed him up like any other of a dozen dudes you can pick out at a Georgetown bar on a Saturday night. You could see the look of devastation on his face.
Sure, they tried to dress it up like it was for his own good–that that persona was a security blanket he used to keep people away. Truth is, it probably was to some extent–but it was also a big part of who he was.
Could they have done things differently? Most assuredly yes. They could have stuck with the western look, but classed it up. A slicker jacket, a nicer hat, a less loud shirt and a string tie. Instead of being a rodeo clown, he could have been Maverick. It would have been a change for the better, done without insulting who he had already worked to become.
I can only hope that this season will stand out as a fluke in an otherwise empowering and positive show. I can hope, but I won’t hold my breath.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all the television I’ve watched, it’s that good things don’t last for ever. And BatG may have just run its course.
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