TV Review: Perils and pitfalls of online dating
Share with others:
It's odd that "Hooking Up" bears the imprimatur of ABC News, since it is basically a real-life version of "Sex and the City" -- with the twist that the New York women depicted here start their search for Mr. Right on the Internet (beginning Thursday, July 14, 9-10 p.m. ET). On the other hand, a lot more viewers will tune in to a program about the antics of desperate singles than will choose a news documentary, say, about the Gaza Strip. Fortunately, the same production team that created the hospital and police reality series "Hopkins 24/7" and "NYPD 24/7" manages to make the dating wars seem almost worthy of our attention.
Worthy or not, "Hooking Up" is mesmerizing and often very funny -- first, because Internet suitors, both male and female, tend to lie about themselves and that makes for some notably bad first dates. One of the women featured raves about the Web as a great way to screen out the jerks and losers, but an astounding number slip right through anyway, like the charmer who asks his date: "Did you shave today?" Euuuu. Or the guy across the table at a fancy restaurant loudly sucking his fingers clean during the meal (and then making his date pay half.)
Yet the topper this week has to be the man who describes himself as a youthful and slim version of Fabio. What eventually shows up (late) for dinner is not only a dimwit, but a wasted-looking dimwit at least a decade older than he claimed to be; whose first comment, uttered in the worst-ever fake British accent, is: "Is my hair alright?" No wonder the woman who first found him on the Web begins to lose heart.
But then, she's no prize either, we notice. And that's the other facet of the show that makes these fly-on-the-wall views of other people's dates so riveting. As the women struggle to find someone they like and would actually go out with again, it becomes clear why some of the girls are having problems finding a lasting relationship. How's this turn-on line from a women to the guy she just met: "I feel like the man in this relationship"? Even the perky blonde from South Dakota who looks and talks like a milk-fed "Rules" girl: It's agonizing at first to see her falling for a slick professional poker player, much like watching a horror film, where you want to yell at the heroine on the screen, "Don't go in there!" Only as it turns out, it's the men in her life who may need a warning.
First Published July 8, 2005 12:00 am
