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Freakishly normal
The network insists on calling Beauty and the Geek a “social experiment,” but about half of each show is spent playing up the shallowness of the women and the cluelessness of the men. Or maybe it’s the other way around, because in truth the program exposes the fact that we are all flawed in some way. Our flaws just become more obvious when that’s what we focus on. The geeks are defined by their social awkwardness, and the women are merely skin-deep beauties with nothing going on underneath.

The editors have a funny way of enhancing those characteristics, so that we see a woman shudder at the thought of being touched by a geek, and we see a geek fall apart when a woman touches him. Really, there’s a lot more going on here. The heart of the experiment comes out when the game itself is on, and the contestants are forced to face either their own elimination or that of their newfound friends.

This was never more obvious than at the end of tonight’s show, when my favorite team was kicked off. The two of them were able to see themselves and each other in a more favorable light than would have been possible before they were on the show. Despite the title and the high-concept nature of the program, it can be very touching.

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