When I first saw the ads for Beauty & the Geek, I delivered a predictable tirade about gender and intelligence and how stupid it was that the Beauties were all female and the Geeks all male.
Then I saw a couple of episodes. And now I’m hooked.
This is the first reality show I’ve ever seen where the underlying tone of the show is really very sweet. The premise: socially-challenged geeks helping academically-challenged social butterflies how to learn stuff. In exchange, the socially-skilled pretties teach the guys how to have a conversation with a girl & comb their hair & tell a joke.
It makes me happy to have been a That 70s Show fan from the beginning, since without its success, Ashton Kutcher wouldn’t be Ashton Kutcher, and he wouldn’t have had the clout to produce Beauty & the Geek. Now if I could just talk to him about doing the show with reversed genders…
And while I still wish it weren’t gendered so strictly, it’s a lovely little show – honest and funny. I worry this means I’m softening up in my old age, but then I think – so what if I am? Hey, maybe the beauties are teaching me something, too. Oh, the horror.