The new Netflix show Sexy Beasts recently dropped but it isn’t getting the positive reception that the streaming service had hoped for, and we’re about to explain why people find the onscreen action disturbing. Viewers were immediately baffled by the dating show and are saying that it’s the stuff of nightmares. There are many reasons why the show is turning viewers off, though all of those reasons don’t relate to the unsettling makeup. A lot of viewers weren’t on board with the concept to start with. Aside from keeping them awake at night, they feel that the show is a big misfire.
The show features singles who don animalistic makeup and prosthetics before going on blind dates with other animal-human hybrids. Each episode has a man or woman date three potential partners without seeing their real faces. The star of the episode must then eliminate their suitors one-by-one until they’ve chosen their favorite beast based on personality alone. The show is like Love Is Blind meets The Masked Singer. At the end of the episode, there’s an unmasking, where the now makeup-free star meets their runner-up and winner, who have also ditched their disguises.
Netflix may have intended the show to be light and fun, but plenty of viewers on Reddit are calling it “grotesque,” “repulsive,” and “nightmare fuel.” It’s not hard to see why viewers would be turned off by the show, and if Netflix didn’t anticipate the backlash, they should have. The makeup and prosthetics that the singles on the show wear are realistic rather than cartoonish. When paired with their human bodies, the overall effect places the viewer smack-dab in the uncanny valley. Many viewers feel that the show is more eerie than entertaining, and some couldn’t even make it through an entire episode. The wacky dating series is really getting panned.
Some viewers weren’t as bothered by the makeup and prosthetics as they were by the lack of diversity among the singles. Many of the show’s stars are models, and all of them are “conventionally” attractive. For a lot of viewers, the whole “dating by personality rather than appearance” premise is ruined. This is because the singles can be sure that when they’re talking to a beaver or an alien, there’s a hot person under all of the makeup. Many viewers expressed a desire for more diversity among the contestants so that there is actually something at stake.
For a lot of viewers, the “masked” reality shows are becoming a bit of an overused concept, and Sexy Beasts is just the latest iteration of a stale gimmick. Despite making many people uncomfortable, Netflix already has season 2 in the works, so viewers can look forward to more nightmarish imagery in the near future. Given the reception the show has gotten, perhaps Netflix will rebrand the new series as a spooky October show. Then, viewers will find it scary in a good way.
