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Loren
06-10-2005, 12:13 PM
Is anyone else watching this show?

I don't watch much reality TV, and I didn't have high expectations for this series, but I've been very pleasantly surprised. It's not a dating show at all, and the 'social experiment' angle is actually pretty good. There's some embarrassment involved in their attempts to dance or work on a car, but nothing too harsh.

It is funny, though, when anyone demonstrates true ineptness. When the girls were quizzed on 5th grade knowledge, one was asked who was President during the Civil War. She thought for a bit, and finally said Hoover. The host told her that the correct answer was Lincoln, and she replied "Oh yeah, D-Day."

There's a competition in it (of course), but the contestants seem to like each other for the most part, and express some genuine regret at having to cut other teams. One guy and girl even started a budding relationship (before the guy got cut), and there was one bit that had her crying as she talked about how nice and genuine these 'geeks' have been, as compared to many of the guys she'd dated.

One of the little things that I thought was rather funny was at the start of the latest episode. There was a short segment with the girls talking about the guys, and it included one girl complaining about how she's sick of hearing about comic books and karate and the Dukes of Hazzard. I imagine many of us are familiar with such a response.

But then when it talked to the guys, one of them complained about how tired he was of listening to the girls talk about clothes and makeup, and he wished that they'd say something more substantive. And this reminded me that everybody has favorite topics of discussion that others find boring. It's this sort of thing that gives this show promise. It can remind us geeks that not everyone shares our interests to our degree, and it reminds others that what they consider perfectly normal conversation can be equally irrelevant to their listeners.

Loren

JerrBear81
06-10-2005, 03:08 PM
As a rule, I tend to avoid most reality shows. Though this one sounds intriguing.

Shellhead
06-10-2005, 03:22 PM
I often enjoy the reality tv shows, but I caught about five minutes of this one and gave up. A hot brunette tried to massage a geek's shoulders and he was whining about the unbearable pain that she was inflicting on him. Then, when they switched positions, he was unable to rub her shoulders for more than a few seconds because she had apparently crippled him with her massage efforts. That was so lame, this guy has basically removed himself from the gene pool.

une
06-10-2005, 03:46 PM
I love this show. It's really great. Loren really summed up what makes it great.

kmeyers
06-10-2005, 06:11 PM
I get the same feeling from this show that I get from most reality shows. To me, it seems like these people are trying WAY too hard to play the characters they were cast as. For instance, some of the nerdy guys act SUPER nerdy, because that is what is expected of them, and not necessarily how they really are, or would normally act. It just seems forced, and fake.

BlairH
06-10-2005, 06:40 PM
The host told her that the correct answer was Lincoln, and she replied "Oh yeah, D-Day."


Oh my god! That noise you hear is the combined aural assault of the Confederacy, the Union, several thousand GIs and loads of Wermacht spinning in their graves.

Loren
06-13-2005, 09:12 AM
I get the same feeling from this show that I get from most reality shows. To me, it seems like these people are trying WAY too hard to play the characters they were cast as. For instance, some of the nerdy guys act SUPER nerdy, because that is what is expected of them, and not necessarily how they really are, or would normally act.

I only see the "super-nerdy" act in one guy, and that would be Richard (the aforementioned massage guy). I think he's overplaying a bit because it worked to his advantage in the first episode, but his overexuberance from the start suggests that some of that is natural. It reminds me of some drama people I know. But his goofiness almost got him cut at the end of the second episode, as another guy made it clear that he was tiring of Richard's act.

And in any case, I see less character-playing than featured on other reality shows.

Loren

Greg Hatcher
06-13-2005, 09:52 AM
We saw it last week, just channel-surfing, and were hypnotized into staying and seeing the rest of it. We don't really understand the competition part -- the guys are trying to prove who can learn to be least geeky and the girls, least shallow? How do you have that as a competition? -- but Loren's right, the social-experiment part is fascinating.

The taglines under the names are REALLY cruel though. The one that leaps to mind is "Never kissed a girl" that they had under one guy's name.

Shellhead
06-24-2005, 02:15 PM
I was very bored and watched about half of last night's rerun of the Wednesday night episode. This Richard guy is super-arrogant, super-annoying, and desperate for attention. Even though I was kind of a nerd when I was a teenager, and so were my closest friends, I actually wanted to beat this Richard up and give him a wedgie!

ElectraAlan
06-24-2005, 02:40 PM
I didn't think it was possible to give geeks a bad name, but Richard is doing it. Most preachy TV dramas have a moral lesson to "be tolerant of people's differences," but this demonstrates that the moral lesson should sometimes be "stop being so fucking annoying!"

TheOnlyXTremeFan
06-25-2005, 01:35 AM
Scarlet is so fine.

vertigo_phreeze
06-25-2005, 06:50 PM
i have enjoyed the show so far. my girlfriend is/was in love with Lauren. i don't often use the phrase "cute as a button", but it definetly describes her.

also, while i am sure that some natural "hey the camera is on, time to put on a show" instinct drives Richard at times, i have known a few Richards in my day, so i think he may be slightly exaggerated, but still pretty genuine. he really blew it with his date with Lauren, she almost seemed like she liked him at a couple different points on the show.

Loren
06-30-2005, 04:36 PM
Scarlet is so fine.

I thought so too, but her personality was not exactly appealing last night. She went from sweet to sour. I can understand why she'd be upset, but she really dragged Shawn over the coals for something he didn't exactly have control over.

Loren

Loren
06-30-2005, 04:42 PM
I was very bored and watched about half of last night's rerun of the Wednesday night episode. This Richard guy is super-arrogant, super-annoying, and desperate for attention. Even though I was kind of a nerd when I was a teenager, and so were my closest friends, I actually wanted to beat this Richard up and give him a wedgie!

And he got even worse last night. When Chuck mentioned ADD, that seemed pretty on-the-nose.

It'll be a travesty if Richard ends up winning this thing. The only challenge he's won was for dancing, which was judged by an audience vote and which Richard won primarily because he was funny to watch. He hasn't performed well in the elimination challenges either, but has been kept afloat because Mindi has done so much better than the other girls. She's proven herself worthy of winning, but Richard's just riding her coattails.

Loren

Davideaux
06-30-2005, 06:43 PM
I like this show but I had a feeling I would since Ashton Kutcher produced it. God help me, but I love "Punk'd".