The mind boggles at the potential horror of a cosplay reality show on Syfy, but somehow Heroes of Cosplay looks surprisingly okay. The cosplayers seem like pretty reasonable people, and the show goes into the creation of the costumes in a manner that seems like its going to be informative, so that’s cool. But...
The drama seems a bit manufactured, as does the whole contest angle (what is the competition? Where is it?), but it’s a reality show — that’s pretty much par for the course. I think you’d have a much more legitimate gripe by pointing out there seems to only be one cosplaying dude featured in this series, and the rest are svelte women between the ages of 18-28. However, I still think it shows nerds in general and cosplayers in particular in a pretty positive light (i.e., not dangerous lunatics), and that counts for something. Besides, since this thing is produced by the guy who made The Flava of Love, we’re probably lucky that they didn’t just hire high-strung models and a bunch of nerds to dress them up.
The six-part Heroes of Cosplay begins on Tuesday, August 13th.