Why, you’re beautiful! 3 ‘nerdy’ TV boys who are actually just hot

“Should have never gone to Specsavers”

It’s a trope which even the authority regarded as dead, but last night’s Holby City applied the paddles and shot 200 volts through the Gorgeous Without Glasses Boy. He’s definitely on the way back.

This used to be a female thing. Remember Plain Jane Super Brain, the Neighbours character who was mocked for being a speccy geek until she ditched the glasses and pulled Guy Pearce? Or Laney Boggs in She’s All That, who got contacts and bagged Freddie Prinze Jr? Well, it seems that viewers have seen through the facade, and now TV writers are having to try something radical. Boys in glasses!

Holby City – Arthur Digby (Rob Ostlere) (see main image)

It’s important when trying to pull of the GWG Boy that he also have a nerdy name. Most of the good ones have gone – there can be no more nerdy Malcolms after Captain Reynolds in Firefly – but Arthur and Digby are still on the list, and putting both of them together makes for a Super Nerd name.

Quite adorably, Holby doesn’t even think we’re aware of the old glasses snafoo and have to hammer it home with lines like “Attractive girls never talk to me”, as they did in last night’s ‘Blood Ties’. Then we see bumbling little Arthur in his glasses dancing really badly with the supermodel nurse who everyone loves and has a kind heart and will surely see past his ugliness BECAUSE SHE HAS EYES AND HE’S CLEARLY ROB OSTLERE! Rob Ostlere, who played Waymar Royce in Game of Thrones. Rob Ostlere who will be the hottest person in the room about 99% of the time. The sledgehammer introduction will drag out now for about another six months, until one day Arthur gets something in his eye and takes off his glasses, at which point everyone will be really shocked that he is a stunner. The same doctors who regularly make Sherlockian leaps of logic to diagnose ailments which only affect one in every ten trillion people who have visited Togo in the last six months completely fail to realise that a male model is working with them.

Neighbours – Ed Lee (Sebastian Gregory)

“Who’s that geek over there?”

Natasha ‘Tash’ Williams is one of those characters who is so pretty that you sometimes have to ‘ugly them up’ by associating them with lesser beings on screen. Maybe this was what the writers were going for in their ‘Beauty and the Geek’ storyline in which she realises she’s good at maths and then falls for a full on LARPing nerd called Ed, who – wait for it – wears glasses! He also has horrible fashion sense and can be a little socially awkward, but that’s not as noticeable as the fact that he’s played by Sebastian Gregory, who is not only handsome but a cool drummer type who has been in Neighbours before, as the cool boyfriend of even cooler Rachel Kinski.

The storyline in which Tash tries to get Ed to be cooler and look better is not remotely believable because most people can see past glasses to the denim blue eyes beneath. If anything, his beauty, brains and actual personality should place him permanently beyond the reach of Tash, who is so shallow that she would rattle around a hall of mirrors until she died of starvation.

Heroes – Alex Wolsly (Justin Baldoni)

“A REALLY LONG TIME!”

Most characters in Heroes are not what they seem. The mild mannered watchmaker is a serial killer, the little cheerleader is indestructible, and the local comic book geek is actually an athletic demi-God who would be banned from Hollister for being too handsome. When Noah Bennett starts collecting up people with abilities to be boxed up in Building 26, his superhero daughter Clare tries to get one step ahead of him, meeting up with Alex who has the ability to breathe underwater. Alex works at Sam’s Comics and has glasses,  but SPOILER! he’s actually incredibly beautiful and has the body of a professional swimmer. And he can hold his breathe for  a really long time. Get it? A REALLY LONG TIME.

Posted by Kirsty Walker on January 3, 2013. Filed under Featured,Headline,Heroes,Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.