The Pick Up Artist Review

About The Pick Up Artist

This show airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on VH1 and about 10 million times throughout the week in reruns. The premise of the show is that eight nerdy guys who are socially and sexually repressed learn the art of picking up women and, each week, one is eliminated until there is just one man left. That man is dubbed, "The Pick Up Artist".

The guy who leads these nerds is named Mystery. I have NO idea who he is outside of this show but it's a mystery to me what women see in him. He's awkwardly tall, thin, has stringy long hair, and is nothing special as far as looks go. His hook is his so-called style. He wears fur cowboy hats, colored goggles over ski caps, tons of jewelry, black nail polish, lots of piercings, weird fur coats, leather, and even carries a feather boa. Yeah ... OK.

He does have charisma and self-confidence though and apparently the ladies like him. With him on this second season of the show, are his friends Matador and Tara who help advise the guys on the best ways to pick up chicks.

The show starts with all of the nerds getting makeovers. Gone are the outdated hairstyles, glasses, plain clothes, even their body hair! In are the piercings, streaked hair, and funky clothes. And the bling. They have to have "accessories" to capture women's attention. Once they have their makeovers, they are taught different lessons each week.

The funniest thing is how the art of picking up women is talked about. Bars and other social settings where single women can be found are called "the field" and the guys go on "field tests" with a hidden camera and the teaching trio watching as they work a busy club. If a guy talks to two women at once, that's a set. If he talks to three, he has just opened a three set. Hey Mystery! We're women, not SETS!

As these guys' hopes and dreams are stripped away by elimination each week, we watch the faster learners go from innocent, nice guys to complete liars who walk into bars with preset stories and lines. ("Do you think Mick Jagger is good looking?" is one opener. I think if some strange guy came up to me and asked that, I'd walk away. Fast. However, I'm not the in the demo that these guys are going for.). Each week the would-be pick up artists take notes as though there were learning rocket science and they practice on each other all the way to the "field" where they go in one at a time to practice their skills. Mystery, Matador, and Tara watch from a truck in the parking lot (I think they're in a truck.) as the hidden camera follows one guy at a time. We hear their interpretation of each guy's "performance" and then, a winner for best performance of the night is picked. He is safe from elimination and gets to choose two friends to remain safe with him. The rest are on the chopping block.

The elimination ceremonies are hilarious. They are so serious. The three, in their finest pick up attire (Well, Tara is in her finest pick me up attire), judge each man's field test performance and give out medallions to the survivors. For one unlucky man, it's game over and he weeps as he tells us how life changing his experience has been and how he will continue to practice his newly learned skills in the field.

In the end, one man is crowned ... The Pick Up Artist.

I watched this show last year out of pure curiosity and, of course, was hooked. I couldn't believe VH1 renewed the show but they did and it's in its third week as I write this.

This show is not all sexist and degrading however. Mystery does encourage the guys to engage the men in the bars but only to get at the women. He also does try to teach the guys to have more self-esteem and to be confident. Obviously those two values have gotten Mystery a long way because, stripped of his "accessories", he's a plain, kind of weird looking guy. But he does have a way with the ladies. Of course, although they say that the cameras are hidden and no actors are in the bars, that doesn't mean that people don't know what's going on. When Matador and Mystery go into a bar to show the n00bs how it's done, they are chick magnets. Women just fall all over them. Is that real or is it scripted? I don't know or even care. I just watch to see how ridiculous the next "field test" will be.

Guys, if you're watching this show, please know that it's great to look your best and to be friendly but women are watching the show too. Don't use dumb "openers" and don't engage your "target" in useless drivel just to get her number. Be yourselves. Women DO like men who don't rely on accessories, stories, pick up lines, and pretense.

This show is oddly entertaining but I really hope it isn't teaching the young men of the world to be anyone other than themselves. They may be very disappointed when they walk into a bar with a feather boa on and an "opener" when their target turns away, thus breaking up the three set the guy just opened. Oh, brother.

My Viewpoint

The Pick Up Artist is unintentionally funny. The poor guys who are trying to learn social skills come off so badly and seem so incredibly needy. They hang on Mystery's every word as if he were a god when, in fact, he's just a guy with a huge ego and a LOT of crazy looking clothes and accessories that hide his plain looks. Maybe that's the idea of the show: to teach men that anyone can be a pick up artist with enough pretentious trappings. In any event, I watch it so who am I to complain, right? 3 stars. Watch it. It's so mindless and lame you'll be hooked like my husband and I are. I really hope he doesn't try one of those lines on me some night. No, I don't think Mick Jagger's good looking, Honey. Now go to bed, I have a headache. ;)