My guilty secret... (Britain's Next Top Model)

Member Name: mouche202

Product:	Britain's Next Top Model
Date:	28/06/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strangely addicitve, good photos, fun bitching, look at modelling industry

Disadvantages: Mindless reality TV

I had half a mind not to write this review - do I really want to confess in public to watching this show? But considering that I've spent most of the weekend semi-watching about 10 episodes of the catchup omnibus, I feel the need to get my opinion off my chest!

Now to be fair to me, I do crossstitch while watching TV (now is that something I want to confess to in public I wonder?) so usually it's just background noise for me. And this show is perfect for background noise.

It involves getting a bunch of 18-23 year old aspiring female models into a house and setting them different tasks each week as they compete to become Britain's Next Top Model. Now, if that isn't a recipe for bitchy reality TV of the highest order I don't know what is!

I started watching this series a few episodes in when all the contestants were already in the Model House but I believe there was some sort of boot camp before that stage. Each episode involves a task, a challenge and a photoshoot. Plus a lot of filler with the girls commenting on their experiences and on each other (meowrr!)

As in any reality TV show, the girls are evenly split between the superbitches, the 'nice girls with issues to make them interesting and sympathetic', the ones that are not nasty enough to make you hate them but not nice enough to make them boring, and the outsider whom everyone likes to pick on. Oh and they're all quite good looking too. :)

While the show really is a no brainer, it has shown me (someone who had zero interest in fashion) that modelling really isn't as easy as it would seem. These girls have to work quite hard and do quite bizarre things. Not to mention be photogenic, stick thin, gorgeous and 'project their personality'. I suppose it must be worth it if you're successful but it can't be much fun being a jobbing model.

Anyway, Lisa Snowden hosts it and she is glamorous and pretty and seems like a nice person. She seems to genuinely care about the girls and gives them good advice. The contact between her and the girls is fairly limited though and she doesn't have much of a role to play except at the assessment session at the end. The other judges are Huggy Ragnarsson, a supermodel with frankly frightening Botox-gone-wrong lips and Louis somebody, milliner to the stars apparently. The models modelled his hats in one episode. Almost as scary as Huggy's lips!

But the photoshoots are generally quite interesting and the photographers are obviously very talented - some of the photos are really gorgeous.

All in all if you have time on your hands and are mildly interested in reality TV, it's worth a watch. You might end up getting reluctantly addicted like myself.

Edited: This airs on Living channel at 9pm on Mondays. Sorry I missed that earlier.

Summary: Worth a watch