If you’re in the market for a Masked Singer/Love Is Blind mash-up of a dating show, then we have good news.
New Netflix show Sexy Beasts is just that.
In an image-obsessed world, this bonkers series flips the Love Island approach to dating on its head and takes an “it’s-what-inside-that-counts” approach to finding a group of singletons lurrrrve (hopefully).
Great! Another excuse to gawp at a load of hot young singletons
Errrm, not quite.
Oh. So it’s not a Love Island rip-off?
No. Think more Love Is Blind meets The Masked Singer.
Y’what?
Exactly.
Sounds ridiculous
It is. Allow us to explain. Sexy Beasts is all about inner beauty – personality over looks (kinda). So each eligible singleton, and three possible suitors, don a range of prosthetic disguises including a dolphin, a mouse, a beaver, a panda, a zombie… you get the idea.
They then choose who they click with most based on vibe alone after heading out on fun-filled (ice-sculpting, life drawing, axe-throwing) dates. Then it’s all about the big reveal.
It sounds terrifying… and a little familiar
That’s because it’s actually a reboot of a short-lived BBC Three series that bombed back in 2014.
The guy doing the voice over sounds familiar too
That’ll be Rob Delaney of Catastrophe fame
And is it?
What?
A catastrophe?
Not quite, but the reviews aren’t exactly glowing.
The “fundamental flaw” of the show according to Variety is that the cast “generally seems drawn from a particularly eligible segment of the population. The amateur bodybuilder who asks his dates to feel his muscles... the six-foot-tall model from New York who is tired of guys only noticing the way she looks.”
The Guardian agreed, stating that “the exclusive participation of strong 8s to indisputable 10s on the desirability index is a limitation of the show’s stated experiment in non-physical attraction” but still found it “highly entertaining”.
Meanwhile Digital Spy thinks the show “falls flat” because “with so little time to get to know each contestant, it’s hard to feel all that invested in the possible relationships that we see forming. The interest instead is all tied up in the anticipation of discovering what everyone really looks like.”
Pah. What do so-called critics know? I’m in. Where can I watch it?
The show lands on Netflix on Wednesday 21 July.
Can I get a sneaky peak beforehand?
The trailer is all yours...