Dating shows are a far cry from the type of programming generally associated with “peak tv,” and yet it would be wrong to disregard the appeal of this genre. Still, it’s worth pointing out that dating shows can be a little surreal — as Netflix’s 2021 Sexy Beasts exemplified. You know, the one where single people donned absurdly ornate prosthetics to test out their chemistry.
If Sexy Beasts represents one approach to dating shows — one that points to the importance of personality and chemistry, as opposed to physical appearance — a U.K. show called Naked Attraction might be its polar opposite. When the series debuted in 2016, Channel 4 described its premise: “a single man and a single woman choose a date, each from a selection of six people, but instead of seeing them clothed for the first time, they will stand naked before them in the studio…”
And now, viewers on this side of the Atlantic can watch it as well. Naked Attraction joined the Max lineup on September 20.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd had more information on the show’s US debut in a recent report, with Hibberd writing that the show can “come across as rather jaw-droppingly brutal in the contestants’ graphic analysis and dismissal of people based on their most private of parts.”
It’s worth noting that the show’s seventh season is currently airing in the U.K. — though plans for a celebrity edition a few years ago did not come to fruition.
Dating shows are a strange genre, to be sure, and an all-nude one sounds like an especially surreal example of the style. That said, it also sounds far less unsettling than the time in the 1970s when a serial killer was a contestant on one such program.
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