The Swan!

[m4tt]

Have you seen the commercials for this <i>Brand New</i> Fox reality series? If you haven't let me summerize. They take a bunch of "ugly ducklings" and stick them in a house with no mirrors. Then each week they make a girl all purty by doing all kinds of plastic surgery on them. And at the end of the show, they have a beauty pagent and decide who is the prettiest!

I think it's a stupid idea, this country is shallow enough as it is, now they are making it worse imo.

What do YOU think?

[Flying Mullet]

Yeah, this show is as bad as the Littlest Groom or whatever. Nothing like telling 150 million normal women in america that they are ugly because they don't meet some made up expectations of a FOX producer. This show is utter crap! :aimmad:

[Del Murder]

Maybe, but people will watch it. You can't blame Fox for giving the public what they want. The fact that it even spawned it's own thread here shows that Fox has done it again. No publicity is bad publicity!

[Sephex]

When I saw the commercial for this, I wasn't suprised anymore. It has gotten to the point where reality TV is struggling to find new ways to shock/interest people. I have never understood what is so interesting about watching other peoples lives when people should be working on thier own. It seems to me that people use television programs such as "The Swan" to make them feel good about themselves. That is why I think some people buy supermarket magazines (The Star, National Enquirer, etc.) too. It's sad that people need these type of products in order to feel good, I think. I guess it goes back to the old saying, "To each thier own."

[Dr Unne]

I find it repulsive, but it will likely be a hit, I agree. If people weren't shallow enough to want to watch that kind of trash, no one would produce it and put it on TV. I don't watch TV at all any more except the news, and this is a good reason for me to continue doing so.

I can't understand why a girl would go on a TV show where one of the requirements is "You have to be ugly". What kind of lack of dignity is required for something like that?

[Flying Mullet]

Hell, people eat cow brains, cockroaches and other crap for $50,000 on <i>Fear Factor</i>, so apparently dignity isn't worth much anymore.

[Dr Unne]

Yeah, my dad remarked the other day that if they could get it past the censors, they could probably find people willing to eat their own poop.

[MecaKane]

"Mark my words, by next year they'll have people eating a corpse on that show." Jimmy Kimmel

But seriously, the swan can't be worse than Average Joe, not only does it get the ugly losers, but it screws them later on and gets the pretty-boys. Who, of course, win.

[Bahamut2000X]

Ya I agree, it just sort of makes the society of this coutry look worse then what it was with all these "reality" TV shows now.

For once I'ld like to see a real reality TV show about a family having mini wars over the remote control and arguing whether they should have french fries or mashed potatoes for dinner. Now that is reality. Not a bunch of people eating pig brains, or having contests to determine who get's to marry a fake millionaire.

[MecaKane]

Well you're looking for The Osbournes, then. =o
Only it probably has more cursing and the father touring on ozzfest, than a normal family.

[Peegee]

Average Joe was funny. I watched it and constantly rediculed the "average Joes" for being supplicating losers.

Or did I get the wrong show? Either way, some reality tv shows have entertaining value. If I only watched tv when it was educational or worthwhile in a transcendent manner, I wouldn't watch any TV at all, and that would be bad.

[IlGreven]

Just one thought:

They replaced Firefly with THIS?!?!?

Thus, the very reason I watch no FOX, not even The Simpsons, rears its ugly head...

[Leeza]

<i>They replaced Firefly with THIS?!?!?</i> - IlGreven

I agree. :)

I still watch Survivor and I'll watch Big Brother if it's ever on again, but these other wannabes are sad.

[DMKA]

I watched one episode of the original Survivor and then I was pretty much done with the reality gameshow thing...

The only 'reality tv' shows I would watch after that on rare occasions were COPS and some court shows, like Power of Attourney and Judge Hattchet, but that was years ago...

Unlike most people though, I can honestly say I NEVER watch tv...not even the news. Its been that way for about the last year and a half. Hell, I got so far away from TV I didn't even hear about the last whole Michael Jackson thing till like 5 hours after everyone else heard about it.

[TheAbominatrix]

It's a sad sad world when stuff like this is considered entertaining, and when these women are made to feel ugly because they don't look like they stepped off the photoshopped cover of Cosmo.

Hell, I hated Firefly (Farscape rip!) and I'd rather have it on than this (where the hell did Keen Eddie go, can ya tell me that?). TV is just a swiftly deteriorating pile of crap these days. The news is constant drivle (BBC News is the only news I watch, they don't report on Britney Spears' new boobies and instead focus on real, important stuff) and I havent watched anything but reruns of proven quality shows in a long time, save for South Park and the stuff on Adult Swim.

Though, that new show Wonderfalls is pretty good...

[Big Ogre Umaro]

Unlike most people though, I can honestly say I NEVER watch tv...not even the news. Its been that way for about the last year and a half. Hell, I got so far away from TV I didn't even hear about the last whole Michael Jackson thing till like 5 hours after everyone else heard about it.
You are awesome. (http://www.theonion.com/onion3604/doesnt_own_television.html)

[DMKA]

How ironic...my name is also John like him...lol.

But seriously, I NEVER watch tv...at all, whatsoever. I do own one though, but thats just for gaming and ocassional film watching purposes. If not for those, I wouldn't own one either. I don't even have any form of cable or antenna on my tv because...I don't watch.

[fire_of_avalon]

You are awesome. (http://www.theonion.com/onion3604/doesnt_own_television.html)
I have never seen flyers for anything by any of the Bergman's, and I don't even know who Truffant is. Why do the condescending ones always live near me?

[Dingo Jellybean]

Personally, I don't find this show as repulsive as some may think. Because people are persuing happiness. I don't care what they do as long as it does not interfere with the happiness of others. If it makes you happy do it, using common sense of course.

So yeah...I don't see why being happy is so repulsive. If this is such a bad influence on women and girls, don't watch it.

[TheAbominatrix]

The fact that they constantly refer to the women as ugly is the big problem. They're called ugly over and over again, then have surgery to make them 'beautiful'... which is fine, I suppose. But then, they're sent off to a competition to prove, once more, that almost all of them still arent pretty enough.

[Dingo Jellybean]

Well, I actually watched this show for the first time.

The show isn't as bad as I thought it would be. But it's kinda useless having a therapist on the show. I mean after the surgery, of course they'll feel better.

But there was that one girl's name, I think it was Kelly, who wasn't that tall, but she wasn't even ugly at all. Actually, I thought she was pretty cute...she was even cuter with all the markings on her face.

[Felldoh]

Hmm... and people wonder why I stopped watching TV. All those kind of shows suck.

[LH]

At first I thought it was pretty bad, but after thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion that I really don't care. From my perspective, that is, from the perspective of someone who doesn't care what he looks like and is even unsure if he looks good or bad, it seems like a bad idea to put yourself down, call yourself ugly and work so hard at changing something as unimportant as looks. When you put yourself in the shoes of someone who actually does care about his/her appearance, it's not so bad. I guess the women feel that they're strange looking and have a good enough sense of humor about it that they could star in a TV show set around changing their appearance. It's free surgery as far as I can tell, and that's a plus for the contestants. Who knows, maybe some of the women are in professions where like it or not physical appearance affects how much money your make, like say waitressing. Whatever. I'm not going to watch it anyway because aside from the stupidity factor, it seems boring.

[Ran Ciel]

I was kind of horrified at the concept at first, but then I caught an episode tonight and found out that they give each of the girls therapy as well to cure the reasons they thought they needed surgery in the first place, so I guess it all evens out in the end.