Stream It or Leave it? Sexy Beasts
The Dating Game meets The Masked Singer meets The Purge ... and Wipeout
Listen now on Spotify and Apple
This week we swallowed our pride and subjected ourselves to a new dating show concept crossing species and time, made possible only by prosthetics, Netflix, London, and comedian Rob Delaney.
First Impressions
Jeff: It's like The Dating Game meets The Masked Singer meets The Purge ... and Wipeout.
Shindy: A kind of Come Dine with Me (U.K. Channel Four) feel ... where narration ... is cheeky and makes fun of each contestant.
Mat: It’s [Netflix] going full circle to doing network television and trying for that audience, which might be the future. And it may be the beginning of the end of television network television.
Spoiler Alert (08:53)
The wild Sexy Beasts makeup and prosthetics (07:23)
We were all impressed by the incredible makeup, however a behind-the-scenes episode was a missed opportunity. And did the human-like makeup backfire?
Matt: I felt the makeup was incredible. The [makeup] guy apparently did work on Guardians of the Galaxies, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
I'm surprised there wasn't a connection behind the scenes of how they put the makeup together. That seems to be a missed opportunity. It wouldn't have been very hard to produce.
Jeff: The makeup was great. It was very professional and really well done. And it accomplished the premise of the show, which was to sort of hide people's facial features.
[On the other hand the show] didn’t do anything … to hide people's bodies, so other people who were sort of looking for a body type were able to scope it out. Right?
Cute animals > Ugly humanoids (29:52)
Jeff: What was interesting in general, was when a guy was given an opportunity to let somebody go, if the woman was wearing any kind of humanoid-type of makeup, an old lady, or the one that was a zombie or whatever she was with her jaw sticking out the side they let them go. They couldn't get past the ugly makeup anyway!
Mat: Cute animals beat ugly humanoids.
Jeff: The lady who was dressed as a witch had dropped she was a model, she made it through. The fantasy makeup seemed to make it through.
Everyone’s hot: Seriously, these people can’t get dates in the age of Tinder? (09:47)
Mat didn’t sugarcoat his feelings on the whole experiment and proved one of his personal dating theories right when it comes to good-looking people. Shindy agreed there were no ogres on the show but extended compassion for the contestants’ motives to be on the show. Jeff pointed out that despite them donning masks, they were still able to judge their prospects’ physical stature in terms of height, weight and size.
Matt: The whole thing is B.S. from beginning to end, just from the reason these people give for being in there, like ‘we can't get a date.’
It's the world of Tinder. Don't tell me you ‘haven't been on a date for two years,’ ‘cause I'm not believing any of those people, but yeah, the contradiction is right there. It's not about looks right, but all of us and all of them the whole time, are thinking, “Is this person good looking or not?”Jeff: It didn't bother me. It definitely reduced the authenticity of the show. But you know, nobody's over the age of 25.
Shindy: The first girl is a model and maybe that's attracted a certain kind of guy in the past. So this time it must've been fun for her to have to try to get ahead based on just her personality or connection or chemistry with somebody?
Mat: Well, this proved to me, one of my theories that great-looking people have terrible game. Because they're never forced to develop it. That's why the small talk was so terrible and I'm glad they kept it brief, but good-looking people don't know how to tell stories and don't know how to make good small talk because people are paying attention no matter what.
Shindy: Well, I am an example that that is an utter lie because I am a great looking person and I know how to tell great stories.
Mat: When you're dressed up like crazy animals soon how hard is it to have a fun day? You could just have two hours just laughing at each other, and it'd be a great time!
The whole thing was completely zero stakes, because I don't think anybody there, maybe apart from the Panda was actually looking for anything other than to be on T.V. and have a fun time.
Blind date success stories: Can you connect with someone, sight unseen? (14:39) (22:35)
We got personal with our own experiences with blind dating, and whether they were a hit or miss:
Shindy: I met my ex-husband for the first time over the phone.
Jeff: Now that you said that it reminded me that my very first kind of real girlfriend, I met over the telephone because of omebody we knew. She and I talked on the phone and we're actually still friends, but we have great chemistry still.
Shindy: Who wouldn't fall in love with the legendary voiceover artist of ‘Cool Boarders’ on Sony PlayStation?!
Where are the Sexy Beasts contestants now? (24:36)
Shindy: The one that had the most success was actually the Panda. She had a graceful, sweet Instagram message where they did try to make it work, but they're best friends now. And they still talk every day, but to Jeff’s and Mat’s points, they're a continent apart and it's difficult when you're that young, trying to have a long distance relationship with someone across the pond.
Our favorite ‘beasts’ (26:04)
Mat: The ‘cute’ Panda, the ‘real’ Beaver
Jeff: The Dolphin, Mandrill
Shindy: Personality-wise, the Panda, the soft-spoken Dolphin
Stream it or Leave it? And our respective spirit animals (42:38)
Jeff: Leave it, minotaur
Mat: Leave it, a dog
Shindy: Stream it! Siamese cat or cheetah
What else we’re watching (44:38)
Mat: A Glitch in the Matrix, a documentary on HULU
Jeff: Road Runner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, in theatres, and Mandibles on VOD
Shindy: The Hunt, a film on HBOMax, The White Lotus, a series on HBOMax