On Wednesday, Netflix dropped the trailer for Sexy Beasts, its latest reality dating show, which offered up a simple premise: What if there was a dating show with the mechanics of Love Is Blind with the aesthetics of The Masked Singer? And for many people watching it, that question was met with a resounding WTF.
In the teaser trailer, we’re given a view of just what that show looked like. In each episode, one person meets with and goes on dates with three contestants. They go out on dates, get to know each other, and they might even kiss before the main contestant has to pick which of the three they want to date.
The catch? All four people are covered in makeup and prosthetics, so the contestants won’t know what everyone looks like until the masks come off. So in Sexy Beasts, regular date questions about kids, health insurance, and compatibility are juxtaposed with images of pandas, dolphins, monsters, and even a man made to look like a beaver uttering the phrase, “Ass first, personality second.”
Here is the official synopsis from Netflix:
Ready to say goodbye to superficial dating? SEXY BEASTS is the dating show that takes looks completely out of the equation using fantastical, cutting edge prosthetics to transform the daters—giving them a chance to find love purely based on personality!
If the concept of Sexy Beasts sounds familiar, it’s not the first time it’s been around. It originated as a short-lived reality dating show from Lion TV that aired on BBC Three in 2014. But the show also made it to several other countries including Germany, South Korea, and even the U.S., where it aired on A&E. But the popularity of The Masked Singer, in which celebrities compete against one another while wearing elaborate costumes and disguising their voices when speaking, gives Sexy Beasts potential new appeal. And Lion TV is also behind the latest iteration of its show.
Netflix first announced that it gave Sexy Beasts a two-season order on Tuesday with comedian Rob Delaney attached as the show’s narrator.
“Making Sexy Beasts for Netflix has been an incredibly exciting process,” Sexy Beasts creator and Lion TV executive producer Simon Welton said. “With an international cast featuring some truly brilliant characters, a host of prosthetics which look extraordinary in 4K and with Rob Delaney narrating, the viewers are in for a real treat. I hope the show puts a smile on peoples’ faces as they play along to discover who’ll fall in love with who, and what our cast all really look like.”
That might be all well and good, but some of the people who watch the trailer can’t make heads or tails on what they just saw.
The word furries started to trend in reference to the people in Sexy Beasts with posts ranging from people mistakenly calling the contestants furries to those who wished that Sexy Beasts had furries who were involved with the show or that furries were the ones finding love instead.
Despite Netflix’s assurance that it’s a show based on personality, they can still judge each other on their looks to an extent. Or when every single person on the show is already conventionally attractive.
People and institutions alike also brought up similar-looking entities that could’ve easily appeared on Sexy Beasts.
“Honestly, we get the TV we deserve,” Sam Sanders wrote.
The first season of Sexy Beasts will drop on Netflix on July 21; season 2 will debut later in 2021.