The Prom Is Over – Looking Back on ‘Beauty and the Geek’

Obviously the people at WB, along with Beauty and the Geek’s creators, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, are happy with the success of the program this summer. In fact, it took a lot of people by surprise when it became so successful, in part pressing on a simmering topic around the office water-coolers on if “nerds” were suddenly hip and/or hot. Television critics and casual viewers were also taken in by the show, finding it one of the more fun and uplifting programs of the summer. Yet, the above begs the question, what made the show work? The geeks? The beauties? The competitions?

The answer is a lot simpler than asking whether people watched to see someone win or lose, or even that of watching to look at the contestants as some type of sideshow attraction. Looking back at responses we received here at RNO and around the internet, viewers didn’t really seem to care who won until it got to the final three couples, and that was due to the edited footage showcasing a type of feud between two of the “geeks” and had nothing to do with conflict between the couples or between teams. In consequence, the standard framework of the contest portion of the reality show was actually turned a bit on its ear with B&TG – people tuned in not to see people snap or fight each other, but rather to see how everyone worked together towards common goals.

This is what we got in mega-doses throughout the season. There were several times throughout the show where the contestants were told that they had to go off and study for a competition and instead of the individual teams fencing themselves off from the others, they worked together in groups. Also, the guys would pal around together, while the women would fall into their own little clique when the guys weren’t around; not to mention that the contestants sometimes wanted to protect partners of other teams from harsh treatment by others (whether it be that person’s partner or by some outside entity). Even Richard, a man who had the distinction of being universally listed by all the other contestants as annoying and impossible to be around at times, had been defended just as hard by the other cast members. Moreso, his harshest critic on the show, Chuck, was someone who wanted to help Richard get past being a cartoon. Perhaps he didn’t use the best judgment in getting that across at times, but the effort was there.

Because of this, the show had a calming effect in dealing with crises instead of the “chickens with their heads cut off” attitude that prevails on so many reality shows these days. In most programs, everyone is out to screw over their brother not because it is the right thing to do, but because they feel it is expected of them on the shows. No doubt, when the contestants first arrived in B&TG, there was that competitive drive, especially amongst the women who expected the program to be some type of dating/game-show reality program.

This could be seen early on when Chuck and Caitilin got the chance to toss two couples to the elimination room. Chuck was a bit sad, because he was having fun with the people and did not want to spoil the good times; Caitilin, however, saw the show in terms of what it was supposed to be at first – a competition that demanded heads be served on a platter. For this reason, she verbally struck out at Chuck, yet eventually was swayed to his position when the time came to name two couples. After that point, the two worked together as a solid unit to both have fun and win the competition. Along the way, they felt the need to do the competition right instead of trying to subvert others or go out of their way to cause problems for the other teams.

This is quite possibly why Richard became such a sore point to some viewers. It is clear that Richard was placed in the show because it was felt he would be the “memorable” one. He would add a spark to anything that occurred on the show. Please bear in mind that I’m not suggesting that Richard was a plant or was told what to do at any time. I’m merely suggesting that the casting people saw Richard and said to themselves, “here’s the man that’s going to be our go-to guy for footage if anything else drags.” Problem was, it made him the focus of a show when no such focus was needed. He was more like he was a hindrance that nearly derailed the program at several points. Viewers simply weren’t interested in seeing Richard spaz out for the umpteenth time week in and week out; they were interested in seeing how the men and women worked together to reach their goals. After all, wasn’t that what the show was to be about – how these incompatible members of the opposite sex worked together? Y’know, that whole “social experiment” thing that the show was supposed to be about? The show only got dull when it stopped being about the “social experiment” and became “Richard is going to switch Chuck’s coffee with Folger’s Crystals … let’s watch the hilarity” for half an episode at a time.

As I have stated in the reviews over the past seven weeks, Richard could be interesting at times. The problem was that they used all his hyperactive, “I’m playing for the camera” moments and made him look really unappealing. I blame the editors more than Richard though. The way to look at it is like this: if you chewed gum in front of the cameras for only two minutes each day for three weeks, and then all the footage was edited together to show you chewing gum 21 times in a row, viewers would get the impression that you’re psychotic about gum. In much the same way, I believe Richard was painted badly due to the editing. Now, the other contestants state he was like that all the time, but several also said that he had moments that were not shown and/or were off-camera where he was a great guy to be around. One way or the other, I suspect that Richard will look back on this series as perhaps not a mistake, but certainly something that he could have played smarter at in retrospect.