This is my new favorite show. Does anyone else watch? It is wonderful! The premise is taking someone and immersing them in a whole new profession or lifestyle for a month, and then being judged on their belevability at the end. Very interesting to see who fools the judges and who doesn’t.
Anyone else hooked?
Twiddle
Ugh, let me try that again. This is my new favorite show.
I watch it. Faking It and Queer Eye are the only reality-esque shows I can stomach. Faking It is actually pretty inspiring on occasion. In particular, the one with the ferry-worker trying to pilot a yacht and the one with the dancer trying to become an equestrienne (?sp). IIRC, the latter started out with a very low self-image and was not very committed, but about 2/3 of the way through the show, she did one of her daily diaries where she said (something like), “I am absolutely going to do this, and when I do, [the woman trainer] can kiss my ass.”
When I watch it, I wonder how the UK and the US compare in terms of social stratification. If a US network copies it, what will it look like?
The makers of the show appears already to have pre-empted that scenario, and have done a series entirely in the US - the ones I’ve seen have been Harvard geek becomes Dallas Cowboys (?) cheerleader, and blue-collar Boston dude becomes interior designer.
I love this show. My favourite was the burger van guy from Scotland who had to fake being a top chef.
My favourite was “Cellist turns DJ”. The look on the big name DJ’s face when he realised that his belief in his own “talent” was just crap - that she had become as good as him in a few weeks, was priceless.
I think the other good one was Alex who became a bouncer. When he finally reveals that he is gay, all the tough guys laugh at him and say they knew. They obviously don’t give a shit. In the voice-over at the end he is talking about going back to visit them.
My favorite was the male ballet dancer turned pro wrestler. He started off thinking that it would be easy, but being afraid of being injured. Watching him being astonished at how hard it was, getting over his fear of injury, and finally, getting a mullet, was amazing.
And then the little clip at the end of him teaching a class full of pro wrestlers some basic ballet moves…
Great show.
There is a US version of the show and it seems pretty much the same as the BBC version. Just different jobs.
For the record, the woman faking it as a cheerleader was trying out for the Atlanta Falcons. The Cowboy cheerleaders are way too high profile for anyone to fake.
The only part of the show I don’t like is the panel of judges at the end, which all seems very forced.
and like groo mentioned earlier on it changed him. He also had little to no self worth but by the end he was a confident man. It was actually quite moving to see him change. Very inspirational.
Spoiler about the ep. where a guy gets a chance to be a pro racecar driver
The guy the got a chance to be a racing driver really threw his chance away. He was basically told that if he could do it he’d get work as it’s results that matter. He was to cocky and arrogant and pissed away his chance.
Only seen two episodes (one of which was the cellist/dj one) and I loved it, loved it. Wish they would show it in repeats!
I knew that. Why didn’t I remember it? And yes, the burger-flipper-chef episode. And the cellist. I knew all that stuff. What’s going on with me lately? And who’s my governor now? And call me insane, but I’m positive that the SDMB color scheme has somehow changed. Things are getting very odd around here. I’m just going to turn on CNN and find out what my pro-smaller-government, anti-nation-building President is up to.
(But first I have to catch the rat-bastard who stole my strawberries).
I liked the chef, the bouncer and the equsti–the show jumper, but the one that really got to me was the house painter who had to pass himself off as an artist. He really found a new focus in life and a way to express himself. On the follow-up show we find out that he has kept it up and is selling his stuff (at rather inflated prices, I think, due to the method he became a working artist, but he does have talent). He’s still painting houses, but has an art studio and you can just see how this has made a difference in his life.
Oh, and the gay guy has kept in touch with the bouncers. He’s in Austrailia and is very active in the Gay Pride scene there–a change for him as well, he used to be fairly low-key, but says since being a bouncer, he’s willing to be more up-front about who he is and the issues that matter to him.
My take on the American version is that it wasn’t such a life changing experience for the people on the show–maybe the class consciousness in Britain is more apparent, or maybe the American version is just more superficial.
Seen a few eps, not a show I go out of my way to watch. Saw the balletomaine ==> wrestler ep and it was hysterical. I was interested by the differences between British wrestling and American. The American version never really caught my interest, although I did watch the drag racer ==> drag queen ep.
The similar show that seems to have vanished is called something like “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” where one professional, one non-professional with some experience and one non-professional with no experience vie for a job doing something like planning a wedding or a party. They’re all presented to a potential client as professionals and the client picks one of them. If he picks “the bad” or “the ugly,” hilarity ensues.
I agree, this is my favorite, though the ferry worker who managed to not just compete in the yacht race but win was pretty cool. The painter was thrilling to me because of how drastic the emotional change was for him; it was like he’d spent his whole life in one house, and then somebody suggested he might want to see what was behind that door over there, and when he looked he suddenly realized he’d been living in the coat closet. His work was kind of all over the place, but he definitely has a natural eye, and in a couple of years he’s got the potential to be really, really interesting.
Also, count me with those who thinks the British show is more interesting than the American show because of the underlying class issues that don’t really play a part in the US. Of course we have classes, but they’re a lot more flexible and fluid, at least in the abstract, than in the UK. (I like Apted’s Up series for similar reasons.) The American version focuses on self-image and self-esteem, but the added social-politics twist in the UK gives it the edge for me.
I’ve only seen a couple, including one nobody’s mentioned–the president of the US Beer Society (or some such) passing as a high-end restaurant sommelier. Interesting show, but I never know when it’s on (we don’t get BBC America, but catch it on TLC on occasion).
Anyone catch the minister who tried out as a car salesman? I just liked how it was sort of in the opposite direction of the more “inspirational” ones.
(no offense to any car salesmen present 
)