[ASC-list] Beauty and the Geek looking for scientists

Wed Jul 7 04:42:09 UTC 2010

My 2c for what its worth.

I saw one episode of the first series as one of the contestants was a student at my former workplace*. It was cringingly bad, but given I had a glass of wine in my hand, it was somewhat bearable.

But for the most part, in my opinion a majority of shows on commercial tv, to use a colloquialism, "suck". 

The sad thing is the Australian viewers who have the Nelson ratings gizmo have no taste. Case in point: the #1 show in Australia for a while was "Dancing with the Stars".  A show where the terms "dancing" and "stars" should be used loosely, for there was neither dancing nor were there any stars, merely people famous for being famous, or in the case of some of them, who had an affair with someone remotely famous.  

These "reality" shows are cheap to make, where they can get a lot of sponsorship and thus put in lots of product placement.  Commercial TV is all about turning what is supposed to be an art form, into something commercial to exploit and turn a profit on.  

Why would they pay for researchers, writers, actors, experts when they can just make a game show out of archetypes and not pay them much (compared to professionals)?

At least we have the internet as a platform for providing quality content. It's why the big media conglomerations are running scared and are trying to control the internet. Because this way you can make content and hopefully build an audience of other fellow malcontents who share the same dismay at the state of commercial tv.

Herein endeth my mini-rant.  I won't get started on the state of commercial radio and music in the top twenty.

(*Shameless plug, if anyone needs a photographer in Melbourne, I am available for freelance assignments and have experience shooting scientists in their natural environment. I'm available via natalie at recalcitrant.com)
-----Original Message-----
From: asc-list-bounces at lists.asc.asn.au on behalf of Michael McRae
Sent: Tue 06/07/2010 6:00 PM
To: asc-list at lists.asc.asn.au
Subject: Re: [ASC-list] Beauty and the Geek looking for scientists

You pretty much nailed it in one, I'm afraid. There is nothing 'experimental' about it - it's about exploiting 'dumb bimbo' and 'socially awkward geek' stereotypes and through the magic of television make it seem as if through hard work and a bit of competition, even geeks can be transformed into whatever it is the viewing demographic would presume should be the image of social confidence and bimbos can be made to seem academically gifted. All wrapped up in a nice, neat, engineered bundle under the cosmetic veil of 'social experimentation'. *yawn*

I celebrated the fact that there was no Australian version. Until now. 

M.M.

From: regan at reganforrest.com
To: wdas at nasw.org; asc-list at lists.asc.asn.au
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 17:11:25 +0930
Subject: Re: [ASC-list] Beauty and the Geek looking for scientists

Hmm. So they say that:

"The premise of the show is to carry out a social
experiment. . .. We will couple together beautiful, socially savvy women with
highly intelligent males, and through a series of challenges, see what they
learn from each other. The idea is to embrace and celebrate the talent and
individuality of each contestant."

I confess I've never seen the show, but the promos suggest
a completely different proposition, namely: we put socially awkward nerds
and outrageously stupid bimbos together and humiliate them all for your viewing
pleasure!  

They don't make it look like much 'learning', 'embracing'
or 'celebrating' are going on at all . . .                 

Does anyone have any experience of the show besides my cynical
observations from afar?

Regan

_________________________________________________________________
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