Tuned In

The Morning After: Fading Beauty

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Geeks and beauties, after this week’s beauty “make-under.” / Michael Desmond /The CW

The CW’s Beauty and the Geek had its fifth-season premiere last night, and like many reality shows whose concepts have survived past their sell-by date, it’s decided to shake things up with a twist. The twist, in this case, pretty much undoes the whole premise of the show: rather than pairing up attractive women and nerds in a series of competitions, the show now has the two groups compete against each other. That’s right; it’s now Beauty vs. the Geek. It’s different, I guess, but judging by the first episode it misses what made the series sweet and charming in the first place, which was matching up social skills and books skills to see how they could compliment complement each other. If Ashton Kutcher and his fellow producers wanted to give us a twist, why not do that season of male beauties and female geeks they’ve been saying they’ve wanted to do for years now? Even for a show about subverting expectations, I guess passing up the chance to put hot babes on TV is a twist too far.