This will be a rant. I couldn’t sleep last night because I
had tried to watch Gok Wan’s new TV show , ‘Baggage’, earlier in the day and
the half of it that I did watch was so awful I was itching to get my HATRED for
the show off my chest.
Channel 4 brands it as follows:
“Gok Wan hosts this
dating game show series, where contestants must choose and reject potential
partners on the basis of their baggage. Daters choose from three contestants
who gradually reveal the hidden secrets and crazy flaws that they'd normally
keep firmly under wraps on a first date.
As the show goes on, the contestants bring on bigger and bigger
suitcases, which they open to reveal their secrets. And the bigger the bag, the
bigger the Baggage! Who'll find love and win a romantic holiday, and who'll
have just too much Baggage?”
Here are 5 reasons why ‘Baggage’ is a huge waste of space:
1. The half-dressed girls in shiny outfits
Gok’s assistants ooze tackiness and I actually cringed at
the way they enter the studio and provocatively bend down to present a suitcase…completely
unnecessary. I get the whole ‘baggage’/luggage/flight attendant theme
(although, thinking about it, last time I got a flight it was a conveyor belt
that brought me my suitcase…) but watching this is like stepping back in
time/something I wasn’t aware I’d signed up for.
2. Nothing of note is actually said
The show’s concept is flawed. Not only does nobody actually
care about pointless facts about people that the viewers will gain no
attachment to whatsoever given that they are only on the television for an
absolute maximum of 30 minutes in total but the ‘baggage’ is hardly something
that would put you off going on an expenses-paid romantic holiday. The game
show features like the names of the rounds such as ‘Big Baggage’ which reveals
that one of the potential dates is a huge Harry Potter fan really is quite
misleading. For a show pretending to be charged with innuendo, the so –called ‘baggage’
is tame and boring. It is genuinely a complete waste of time.
3. It is humiliating for the contestants
Sure, they get to parade down the steps and walk a few
metres flaunting their good (?) looks, but they are ridiculed. Even the audience look bored and over-compensate by putting all their energy into 'oooooh'-ing, clapping and wolf-whistling with unnatural pace and vigour. In Episode 1,
one poor girl was pretty much victimised by Gok who stereotyped her as a blonde
bimbo and made snide remarks about her lack of intelligence on no sound basis whatsoever.
I understand that the contestants willingly put themselves forward for the show
but the very behaviour that the show tries to pull off as ‘banter’ is degrading
and not really the direction we should be heading towards. The girl was
actually scowling as she left the studio, having just been rejected for revealing
her trust issues. As well as the evident sexist slant, the final round is also humiliating.
In this final round before the couple win the holiday the last piece of ‘baggage’
is revealed, only this time it is the deepest, darkest secret of the guy/girl
who has been choosing so far – except, if the potential date guesses what the
secret is correctly (50:50 odds), they have no chance to say that this ‘baggage’
is too much to handle, thus exhibiting the potential date as desperate and submissive.
And off they go, hand in hand, perhaps unwillingly having just discovered that
their date lives with their Nana. Shock horror.
4. The delusional idea of ‘beauty’
Okay so I only made it half way through Episode 1 and may be
proved wrong on this point if an atypical candidate is put forward (though I
doubt it) but from what I saw, the girls at least that were brought out as
potential dates fit a very specific definition of ‘female’. The game’s
methodology tries to focus on things other than appearance i.e. candidates
choose who to date based on their secrets, but unfortunately is tainted firstly
by the fact that the candidate can see all the potential dates and thereby pick
based on looks anyway, and secondly, Gok’s every other sentence describing how ‘gorgeous’
these dates are. Beautiful people are obviously allowed to be on television but
what I think I have a problem with is that it is the same type of female which
is presented as ‘stunning’ and ‘beautiful’ - there is literally no variation other
than hair colour and I don’t think that I have ever seen anybody that resembles
me. This can’t do much for self-esteem of young people either who are so
heavily influenced by what they see on television. Yet another programme that
promotes fakery.
5. Gok Wan himself
I would have thought that a man who attempts to boost
self-confidence of women in other shows such as ‘How to Look Good Naked’ and ‘Gok’s
Fashion Fix’ would not engage in a show that embodies the above. Clearly Gok is
unfazed by the fickleness of what he promotes by presenting this show and
actually embraces it sinking into a patronising role which, judging by the
facial expressions of those who took part in the first half of Episode 1, were
ill-received.
Not impressed.
