Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model review
This three-part documentary has remarkable access to people involved with this 00s TV hit. It’s an awful tale of body-shaming, humiliation and toxic treatment
TL;DR
- America's Next Top Model (ANTM), created and hosted by Tyra Banks, was a popular reality show that ran from 2003 to 2015.
- A new Netflix docuseries, "Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model," explores the show's controversial practices, including body-shaming and humiliation.
- The series features interviews with Banks, producers, and former contestants, but is criticized for being overlong and unevenly paced.
- ANTM is shown to have upheld toxic beauty standards, with contestants being weighed and criticized on camera, and subjected to dehumanizing photoshoots.
- Disturbing incidents include pressuring a contestant to close a gap in her teeth and asking another to pose with a fake bullet wound.
- A particularly concerning incident involved a contestant, Shandi, having sex with a man after drinking heavily during a trip to Milan, with the event being filmed by production without intervention.
- While some figures like Ken Mok acknowledge mistakes, Banks largely deflects responsibility, attributing some of the show's extremes to viewer demand.
- The documentary concludes by showing former contestants in a better place, but criticizes the series for framing all criticism as coming from Gen Z and for offering only superficial analysis of the show's lasting impact.