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Beauty and the Geek

(From the title alone, you knew someone from this site had to review it, right?)

Created for people who are easily suckered into reality shows, Ashton Kutcher’s latest opus targets viewers that do not belong to either the beauty or the geek camp. Seven brainy guys meet seven pretty girls, combine their specialties, and compete for cash in Beauty and the Geek.

Of all the lessons “learned” between the starkly different stereotypes, someone should have taught those women that it is better to be quiet and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. The fembots are plastic and full of themselves, although it is fun to watch them humiliate themselves, then write it off with excuses such as, “I shouldn’t have to know that!” or “What’s the point? My computer has spell-check.”

The geeks recruited for this show, while socially awkward, were all cute and charming. If these guys are still virgins and never been kissed, it’s clearly from a lack of social confidence, and not because they are losers. Geeks have a lot to offer. Where the men show promise in reaching their goals of being more socially adept, the women are lacking in potential of being anything more than arm candy. Reminds me of a usually smart guy I know who serially married strippers. The relationships always fizzled because they had nothing to offer each other outside of the bedroom. While it sounds like a great problem to have, he didn’t understand that by continually dating women with no substance, it was going to be a challenge to develop a relationship with any depth. By looks alone, some of these women will be giving the guys wet dreams for years to come. Fortunately, Beauty and the Geek is not being billed as a dating show. If it was, the geeks would be suffering from the same problem my stripper-marrying friend has.

While the premise of the show is interesting, I believe it reached too far into both stereotypes to cast the show. A few of the beauties who IMHO aren’t much to write home about, are utter snobs, and the geeks, while brainy, aren’t given the opportunity to showcase their smarts with anything more challenging than teaching the women 5th grade geography. Richard, who in looks alone reminds me of Chris Pirillo from Lockergnome.com, has an Urkel-esque quality that is going to get his ass kicked. Hey, conflict makes for good television, right? Unfortunately, the dynamics between the opposing sides is not enough to carry my interest past the pilot episode. Beauty and the Geek isn’t horrifically bad, (it's actually pretty good for a reality TV show), but it’s not good enough to watch again next week.