I got asked to be on a dating show
New format / new cadence (weekly Thursdays🤞)
Last week, one of my videos ended up taking off and I got a message from someone casting for a reboot of the 70s show The Dating Game thinking I’d be a good fit. In the show, a celebrity blindly interviews three potential matches and chooses one for a date at the end of the episode. Does this sort of thing ever happen to me or anyone I know? No, but it’s flattering to know my beauty and charisma translate over IG like this. As someone with no credits worth bragging about, the opportunity seemed intriguing enough. Part of me worried that if I made it onto the show, I could make a fool of myself in a clip that’ll be online forever. Fuck it, though. What else do I have going on?
My audition experience is limited but the whole process felt so strange. At this point in the entire reality/dating show complex, even the audience is aware that contestants are there for fame and clout way more than they are a shot at love (shout out Tila). And yet, in both my calls, I was asked multiple serious dating questions: What am I looking for in a partner? How often do I date? To confirm, you’re single?
On my first call, I cut through any confusion and straight up asked if they wanted funnier answers. In my video audition though, the casting director kept on with the serious questions. I so badly wanted to be like, “This is a TV show, right? Even if I win, I’m not actually going on a date with anybody…?” It was all very strange. Like, hey, wink wink, I’m not really seeking love here. Some dude just found me on IG and told me to audition. Also why keep asking me if I’m single? Aren’t there dudes on The Bachelorette with girlfriends. I thought we were all aware this whole thing is a sham. Why are we pretending it’s not? In the original show, the date winners get promised literally are trips to Italy. If whatever D-list celeb they get to do this show picks me, we’re clearly not doing that.
Even when I knew I could be funny, it was pretty hard improvising on the spot like that. If you watch the original show, contestants answer questions very quickly. It’s in front of a live audience. You don’t have the time to pause and think. In between calls, I grinded tape of the old show to prep my brain. Steve Martin was a contestant once. Burt Reynolds, too. At first, the questions were pretty innocent. What superhero would I be? Celebrity I would date? I said Elizabeth Warren. The video audition’s questions were a lot more sensual. If I were a popsicle, how would you melt me? 5 words you’d say to me in bed. Jesus, now I gotta be funny with a word count?
I don’t think the video audition went super great, but I find out in two months if I’ll get to woo Addison Rae or whoever.
What I’ve been watching:
Teenage Bounty Hunters
I unfortunately hadn’t heard of this show until after Netflix chose not to renew it as part of all their Covid cancellations and now that I finished I will never forgive them for doing so. Teenage Bounty Hunters follows two teenage twin girls in suburban Georgia who accidentally assist a bounty hunter (Kadeem Hardison) in a capture and end up working with him henceforth. It’s a pretty high concept premise for a relatively grounded show about progressive-leaning teens dealing with guns, God, southern culture and queerness and how those all don’t necessarily need to conflict.
The Queen’s Gambit
Maybe the show of the year. I mean it’s not, but let’s say top three. Everything about this show is so meticulous and perfect. It’s interesting in that it’s a period piece that doesn’t exactly lean into it other than the context of competitive chess at the time. I love the performances. I love her outfits. I love how exhilarating it makes chess look to the point where I half-considered starting to play and becoming a phenom myself. I love that of all the actors in the Harry Potter movies, somehow dude that played Dudley’s career is going best.
Holidate
I only tried this because I heard good things, and it’s fine. Netflix has cannibalized the TV-grade romcom and also the holiday genre in recent years and most of it is terrible. Even when you think of it as Hallmark-channel level quality, it’s never really worth your time. This movie isn’t that. It seems dumb to criticize that the story isn’t all that but both leads put forth a great effort in spite of that. Also, Manish Dayal is maybe the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life. He should be the lead in one of these.
Dash & Lily
This show is pretty adorable. I would honestly skip Holidate and go straight to this. The show follows two NY teens — Lily, friendless but very romantic about the holidays, and Dash, sociable loner much less excited about Christmas — who don’t meet in person but fall for each other by passing a diary back and forth with clues that reveal more about themselves. It’s as fun and cute as it sounds, and I killed the whole season in a couple hours. I love shows about families in New York. One is always bound to have some super fancy brownstone. Even Lily’s family’s apartment is much nicer than anything I’ve been told to expect about NY real estate. The show is weird in that all of the characters are supposed to be in high school but run around the city drinking with no parental supervision like a PG-13, Christmas version of Kids. This was also the first time it really hit me that this year’s holidays are going to be much different than they usually are. There were too many things I got suddenly nostalgic for — browsing a cramped bookstore with no masks, taking a sip of another person’s drink, family gatherings (jk about the last part).
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