Interesting views on this page here with the comments split between those who think it's a life affirming reality show or a " 21st Century freak show " . This certainly sums the show up perfectly in that THE UNDATEABLES is a piece of television you will love or hate . I can't say I in all honesty will can ever love this show
No doubt the producers are making the show with the view that these undateable people are very human people with the same needs and desires with 7 billion other human beings but inadvertently the makers end up portraying the people as stereotypes . For the life of me I can't remember who is who on this show and neither will you . To be brutally honest if I said " sky-diving midget , autistic poet , bloke who looks like Craig David from BO SELECTA etc " you'd instantly know who I'm talking about . I'm not being either cruel or smug by stating this merely merely reporting fact . If you're able to remember these individuals via their disabilities rather than their personalities or the outcome of their date then the producers have failed in their aims
On the subject of stereotypes then the show scores a spectacular own goal by having the subjects find a date via a dating agency . Before the internet came along dating agencies were something of a joke institution where people with very little if any contribution to the human gene pool would sign up to in the meagre hope of getting a leg over . I'm afraid that most of the people who appear on the undateables doorstep do indeed live up to the clichéd stereotype - an IQ barely reaching double figures and a face like a monster from DOCTOR WHO . Did the producers select these people from the agency because they're so unattractive ?
All in all a programme that is guaranteed to make the audience feel uneasy when it's supposed to have the opposite effect . The only heart warming aspect of THE UNDATEABLES is knowing that you might have a crap low paid job in a kitchen surrounded by stunning waitresses and jealous boyfriends and it suddenly feels like you've got the best job in the world
