Sexy Beasts (2021) User Reviews

Good concept, terrible execution

[barracovj · 4/10 · 22 July 2021]

Positives: great concept, great SFX makeup (seriously, what talent!) and funny narrator who, while commenting too often, has some unique jokes that actually land.

That's it for the positives. The biggest issue with this show is that it entirely defeats it's own self-proclaimed purpose by making everyone attractive. Every single time someone's face is revealed, the narrator, the other contestants, all think they're hot anyway. They're all conventionally attractive, so what's the point? It's a show telling you not to be shallow while being incredibly shallow. Average people don't want to watch models preach about inner beauty.

The pacing is terrible. At the expense of wanting to show off as many designs as possible, the pacing suffers. Changing contestants every single episode doesn't allow time to get invested. If you want to show off more makeup designs, make it a Bachelorette style show with more contestants to choose from instead of cycling through people like tissues.

The editing, the rapid cuts, the constant jokes, the shots of them dancing or posing every 5 minutes is agonizing. We get it, they're wacky and wearing funny makeup. The entire show doesn't have to be vapid to get that point across. Just another good concept ruined by absolutely no genuine emotion or sense of vulnerability.

Average

[am-by · 5/10 · 27 July 2021]

The official reviews noted all the contestants were very attractive. I didnt think this was the case although all the contestants clearly thought themselves that they were very attractive. I found after two episodes the gimmick of the masks started to wear off and the contestants tiring. The lack of depth to their personalities and strange body language became boring. Also strange no follow up on the successful matches. We dont know did they see each other again etc. Bubble gum tv.

Great Concept, Bad Execution

[roro-r-k · 5/10 · 22 July 2021]

The show is fun to watch, I'll give them that. But I hoped they would choose average/normal individuals to participate in the show. Maybe someone with not so perfect teeth, or super toned body and glowing skin. I would have also liked to see gay and lesbian people.

The episodes are short, doesn't really give you time to get to know anybody, which is sad because you're really curious. The reveal is fun, I like trying to guess what they'd look like and let me tell you, 80% of the time I was WRONG. Lol

I recommend it if you're bored, but lower your expectations.

A Big Miss

[delisiaj-07855 · 3/10 · 21 July 2021]

I get the concept and the social experiment (same as love is blind)... Can you call for someone without knowing how they look.

1. Everyone is attractive 2. It's edited into snippets. You never really get to know anyone so you don't care who they pick or why 3. It's boring.. You'd think a show which is practically Love is Bling and The Masked singer combined would keep your interest 4. Most of the "best" are super annoying .. Like I was literally getting bothered watching it.

Maybe you'll like it but it's a Big NO for me!

I do like how it's ppl from the states and across the pond. That part was pretty cool.

The only redeeming part about this show is the makeup..

[warden-15731 · 1/10 · 22 July 2021]

For starters, everyone is beautiful - so it completely falls flat on the concept of whether or not love is blind. It's also HIGHLY edited and still incredibly cringe - nearly all the participants have absolutely zero charisma it makes it very hard to watch. Honestly just avoid this piece of garbage all together.

Stop hiring models.

[mrjosiahmuskrat · 1/10 · 24 July 2021]

If this show was done exactly the same but with actual people not NYC and London nightlife models, it would actually be worth something.

Thoughts on this show and on reality TV in general

[TheVictoriousV · 23 September 2021]

Sexy Beasts is a sobering reminder of just how out-of-touch major production companies have gotten. From the way these ungodly images are presented, you can glean that nobody on staff thought to ask: "Wait, isn't this 'fun game show' starting to resemble the kind of nightmarish furry sh-t people on Twitter will put the Annihilation soundtrack over?" Even if someone did raise this question, they are no longer working in TV or streaming.

This show also plays like the sort of thing you'd see in a cynical parody. I know I say this about almost everything that gets made in mainstream entertainment today, but this one specifically feels like a rejected gag from one of the Interdimensional Cable episodes of Rick and Morty.

Indeed, I could totally see myself joking about a reality show of this caliber back in 2010 (the height of the popularity of Jersey Shore at my school and the year I truly understood the gravity of how stupid we've gotten) where instead of "Big Brother-Tyler" or "Paradise Hotel-Steve" or whatever, my schoolmates would speculate about the future of such figures as James the Beaver, Ibrahim the Wolf, and Nina the Dolphin. Fitting the bill, Sexy Beasts is basically First Dates as mixed with a Guillermo del Toro film (though a Del Toro film would better understand what sort of tone is best suited for these monstrosities, yet also have far nicer themes about monstrosity - and love).

In the show, people are put in admittedly decent monster makeup and sent on blind dates with other masked persons. The show aims to test whether we've moved past our primal shallowness and can fall in love with each other based on personality - if the contestants do, they're usually rewarded with the revelation that the TV personality they fell for was really conventionally attractive the whole time. (This is classic Beauty and the Beast, but I'm also reminded of that one Ctrl+Alt+Del comic where a woman pretends to be fat in order to "test" her date and the "happy ending" reveals that she was thin all along, ergo our poor, poor protagonist doesn't actually need to suffer the ordeal of loving an "ugly" human being.)

The final product is unacceptably boring, given the sort of visuals we're treated to, and hardly very romantic. Perhaps if we'd seen more of each beastly pairing, but I guess even the showrunners realize that there's only so much time we can reasonably devote to bland hotties going on dates - Pan's Labyrinth-style grotesqueries or not.

Despite its unintentional eeriness and kinda dumb concept, however, Sexy Beasts is, at the end of the day, nowhere near the most rancid thing reality TV has given us - in fact, it's damn near impossible to top the bottoms in this particular genre (Honey Boo Boo, Born in the Wild, et al.). Yes, it plays like someone hurled darts at a dartboard filled with random words and ideas in order to find something even remotely original to add to the world of reality television, but the fact that there was an attempt puts it above most of its genre peers.

Some of my friends who watch reality shows, to their credit, don't do it because they sincerely idolize or care about the dating lives of Holothurian-brained TV celebs, but because they think of it as going to the zoo (made more literal by shows like Sexy Beasts, I guess) and studying the behaviors of our most brainless specimens. However, I think there is another level of curiosity to this experiment:

Think of the fact that there exists a reality show (a full-blown franchise, even) called Big Brother, its title most surely a reference to George Orwell's 1984, wherein impossible-to-deactivate "telescreens" existed in every household to feed the citizens information. Think of the fact that people not only started purchasing such devices on purpose (including pocket-sized ones that seem able to monitor the user, not unlike Orwell's vision of the TV) but also began accepting whatever braindead tripe rises to popularity because it's being aired on Fridays and everyone else at school is talking about it - even when its title (accidentally or not) evokes a dystopia of groupthink and TV mind-control.

This, to me, says more about the human race than watching some of its members behave in such-and-such way when pitted against other conventionally attractive sponge-brains in projects like Paradise Hotel, Ex on the Beach, Love Island, Paradise Beach, Love Hotel, Ex on the Island, Beach Island Hotel, Big Brother Uganda, or whatever else we've all agreed to consume. And keep this in mind, before you leave this post thinking I'm some pretentious know-it-all (which I am) who's totally above it all (which I'm not): "We're all puppets, I'm just a puppet who can see the strings".

Surprisingly not that bad

[reviewerB · 6/10 · 24 July 2021]

I had fun and quite a few laughs watching this. And I am picky with comedies and reality shows. But I find this unpretentious little show funnier, more endearing and more suspenseful than many other dating shows available (like The Circle, Too hot to handle, and other stuff I couldn't watch for more than five minutes). I do agree with the reviewer that complained about the excess of flashy filler scenes of contestants dancing in front of a light. Instead of that, the show could let us know contestants a little bit more. Also, I wish some episodes would feature other age ranges. Not sure if older people would be up for it though. And LGBTQIA+ people as well. With those tweaks I would definitely watch a second season.

More Beastly than sexy

[roxmewild · 1/10 · 28 July 2021]

OMG what a dreadful show! This has been done before in a much better way "Love is Blind" that show was believable and well produced.

This show is a bad joke from the ridiculous stupid masks/ prosthetics the competitors wore to the settings .I can only imagine the idiot that thought this up as a good idea!

The concept of being attracted by a persons personality before any visual attraction is not the problem but the way they decided to achieve it is so cringe and awful it is stupid!

Love is Blind is by far a superior production and credible my advice watch that and forget Sexy Beasts the worst show ever.

Not Bad as Satire

[joncheskin · 6/10 · 7 September 2022]

Sexy Beasts is one of many dating reality shows to recently come out of Netflix. The premise is a new twist on an old premise--contestants come on the show and are transformed by Hollywood makeup artists into either cartoon characters or animals so that their physical looks are completely obscured. They go on dates to see whether they become attracted to each other without knowing their date's physical appearance, one contestant usually chooses among three candidates who vie for the title "Sexy Beast". Then there is a reveal so that the contestant can see if he/she made a good choice.

Sexy Beasts is definitely trashy entertainment, and I must admit that I tend to watch these shows only for that purpose. In level of quality, it is about equal to other Netflix entries like Love is Blind and Too Hot to Handle, but I want to give a small positive shout-out to this show for one specific reason: Sexy Beasts attempts to satirize this genre a bit, first with the ridiculous costumes and also with an especially snarky and sarcastic narrator who is actually pretty funny. Since there is so much to make fun of in these shows, I heartily approve this effort. Thus, I find this show more entertaining than most in the genre, and if you do not make the mistake of taking the show at all seriously, you might as well. This is a silly show, redeemed by the fact that it is actually a bit funny.

Fast forward worthy

[catschasemice9594 · 2/10 · 23 July 2021]

Utter balderdash. Watched the first episode then skipped quickly through the rest. Fantastic prosthetics. So two stars. Pretty vapid people. Sorry folks none of you are going to meet your life partner on this chunk of cheese.

This is the only dating show I'd ever watch

[shipwreckjack · 10/10 · 21 July 2021]

Mixing the best parts of the Bachelorette/Bachelor, Blind Date and Face/Off, they get it all done in like 20 minutes. I can't stop binging this show. Personality and chemistry are the only things you can go on, humor is very noticable, and character flaws, shallowness and personality defects are obvious with nothing to hide behind. Why aren't you watching this show already?

Fun, Entertaining Show

[laurenboebinger · 7/10 · 23 July 2021]

Husband and I found this hidden gem and it helped make our night fun with the silliness of the outfits, the quips of the host, and the personalities of the cast. Recommended for a lighthearted, entertaining at home couch date.

Terrible editing

[ncentia · 2/10 · 23 July 2021]

I don't understand the point of all the choppy editing and flashing shots of contestants dancing around in front of lights. It is so visually busy and irritating.

Drivel

[bosscain · 1/10 · 24 July 2021]

I thought I'd waste some time watching this and can truly say that this show is mind numbingly dull and very predictable. No matter how much they pretend to "get to know each other" after the makeup and prosthetics come off the contestants revert back to their very superficial and shallow selves.

Mehhh

[nastasia_g8 · 1/10 · 13 August 2021]

It was a good concept but the contestants were shallower than a tea spoon full of water.. They chose good looking people, well most of the times anyway, but did you really pay attention to their personalities when interviewing them??? Booooooring!

Unbelievably bad.

[random-70778 · 30 September 2021]

Really? Creative team for this needs to not quit their day jobs. Stick to slinking fries. Essentially one joke repeated over and over.

The charm is in the makeup

[daddyslittlebyte · 6/10 · 9 August 2021]

Most of the entertainment of this goofy show is in the make-up, which I think is really well-done. The amusement comes from the "contestants" being silly in these costumes, and the only real hook is in the reveal upon seeing the contestants out-of-costume. Other than that the content doesn't really match the premise, as all the contestants are very attractive.

could have been better

[djurrepower · 4/10 · 23 July 2021]

Most people on this show come off as shallow and flawed, wich does make it a bit interesting. But the editeing and everything beyond that makes it quite boring.

4/10: nah.

Fun, funny, cheesy, just cute

[nrgigaba · 9/10 · 21 July 2021]

Very unique concept. So much effort has been put on the makeup and the amazing location selections. Well shot, amazing music and edits.

Loving the make up and creativity.

[sisubalan · 7/10 · 25 February 2023]

It was okay, interesting and creative. Huge fan of the masks/looks, so kudos to the design and make up departments. The execution of the reality series was great and the contestants or casts were great as well. Diverse casts or contestants, it will be great if there were more representations like indian, muslim or at least lgbtq+. Great voiceover / narrator for the reality show. Some of the casts were really toxic and some were really nice which i love the inclusion all kinds of people. It was great. You can feel the emotions as well as the frustrations of the contestants. Good for family. So recommended.

Definitely a loss of time

[descamps-etienne · 1/10 · 22 July 2021]

Tried the first episode, juste to know if this was a nice Reality show to watch when i'm bored... well, I prefer to be bored ans use this time otherwise.

Everything seems to be fake and does not look like a reality show at all...

I don't get the point?!

[jerrywestra · 1/10 · 9 August 2021]

They try to find the most beautiful people for this empty minded show. Pretending it's supposed to be about personality and getting to know someone. The casting is terrible but the idea was good.

Dumbest And Wierdest Blind Date Rip-Off, Stick With The Masked Singer

[jeremycrimsonfox · 2/10 · 22 July 2021]

An American adaptation of a BBC reality show, Sexy Beasts basically has a person dating three different people to see who is the right date. The catch? All four are wearing masks and costumes because the show focuses more on love based on personality. One by one, the person who is the one looking will eliminate the three until one is left standing, in which the masks are off.

Okay, I am not going to lie, Netflix has started to become a digital dumping ground that is a mix of awesome anime and cartoons to movies and reality shows that are either mediocre or bad. This is a bad one. Basically, the show falls apart as it tries to do dating without looks as the person focused believes looks are not cutting it (news flash: it's not about how you look on the outisde, it's the beauty inside that counts). The show goes out of its way to make the males sound like wierdo pervs, adding clips on their preferred body part on the female body (again, inner beauty is what really counts), and the commentary from comedian Rob Delaney failed to make me laugh. The second star is only because of the makeup effects (and I have to feel sorry for the poor makeup artist and costume designer who were roped into this abomination of a blind date show). I will be sticking with The Masked Singer.

I DONT DEE WHY THE REVIEWS ARE SO BAD

[Ezufeboke · 7/10 · 28 July 2021]

Look, this was a reality dating show with a twist. I wasn't really expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Episodes aren't too long and tiresome. And it does help that all of the participants were good looking eyecandy. Its a pretty good pass time.