Aren't psychological assaults fun to watch?
Especially when they go on for months.
Quote of note:
It's the nature of the TV beast to copy something first and then twist and exaggerate the concept to keep an ever-jaded public interested. That's probably why Fox came up with the dual-cruel ideas of no looking in the mirror for three months and then, once you do, joining a beauty pageant just to crush your newfound, surgically enhanced self-esteem.
Think TV is sick now? Give it time
Tim Goodman
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
Whenever a reality television series is so repulsive in its premise or execution that normally wise people believe that we, as a society, have hit bottom, there's only one thing to say in response if you know anything at all about television: Wait for it. Something far worse is around the corner.
You will be tested on this theory when Fox -- who else? -- unveils "The Swan" in one week. It is a reality series that takes women described as "ugly ducklings" and puts them under the cosmetic-surgery knife, fixes their teeth, lets them see a shrink, makes them work out, styles their hair, does their makeup and generally turns them into, you guessed it, swans.
Now, this is well-trod territory on television. Back when makeovers were quaint -- new hair, a better dress, some nice shoes -- the idea was surely hatched to take it up a notch. And so we did until ABC aired "Extreme Makeover, " and conventional wisdom at the time suggested that we'd hit bottom and covered ourselves in muck. Viewers of "Extreme Makeover" thought it was either extremely uplifting or extremely horrifying. If you fall into the latter camp, you might be particularly offended by Fox's little twist on this trend: The ugly ducklings who have had their faces rearranged by a plastic surgeon don't get to look in a mirror for three months.
Once they complete this "transformation process" -- where they go from ugly and useless, crazy and badly coiffed to swanlike -- they get to look in the mirror at "the reveal." Then, before they can fully grasp their Snow White moment, they are entered into a beauty contest. Yep. You're pretty now, but wait until you've seen what we've done to the others!
