AFA Romance Social (Odessa) on UK Channel 4

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Russian brides > Main Forum > AFA Romance Social (Odessa) on UK Channel 4 - 07 Oct

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Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/7/2008 6:13:12 PM

Just flicking channels came across this programme, as soon as they call a programme 'mail order bride' it puts me off straight away however this was a fairly good production and I got in to watching it. Although a UK production, presented by a woman, it featured all American men attending the romance social, there was a good mix of guys, the good guys, the players and the obvious losers. To cut a long story short not one of the guys continued any relationship with any of the ladies, they paid $5,000.00 each for the trip (I think that included travel) and the guys, having discussed it amongst themselves, were all of the opinion that none of the ladies were seriously looking and the ladies were merely there to make up the numbers. If any Brits missed it then it's sure to be on another of the '4' channels, probably 'More 4' in the near future.

dcv

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	Send: 10/7/2008 6:59:07 PM

It was an interesting programme .I do not know how the American guy got through the IMBRA checks when he had a police record for assault.

nasfan6

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	Send: 10/7/2008 10:22:26 PM

dcv IMBRA is not for protection of the women, it is for taxing an entity that congress figured they were missing out on. It BS from beginning to end. Who's enforcing it has always been my question?

bowhunter

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	Send: 10/8/2008 11:10:13 AM

any one have a link to the video?

Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/8/2008 11:34:10 AM

You, at your own risk, might try this for a download: http://fenopy.com/torrent/Dawn_Porter_Mail_Order_Bride_WS_PDTV_XviD_REMAX/M TUwODk3NA==/index.html From http://www.tvscoop.tv/2008/10/tv_review_dawn_6.html here is a 'brief' of the programme: TV Review: Dawn Porter: Mail Order Bride, Channel 4, Tuesday, 7 October, 10pm Ms Porter has been on a seemingly perilous journey into the heart of love of late, going to all the places where paranoia and desperation are bedfellows. I mean, most people just go down the pub, maybe a club afterwards, and hope that the Gilette Mach 3 and aftershave will work the magic - and maybe enough pints to convince you, and your prospective mate, that you are in fact a wonderful dancer and a very charming man indeed. However, what happens when you're all out of ideas? Dawn Porter went off to the Eastern Bloc to look at those who decide the best way to find love, happiness... or quite possibly a dolly bird to help make the place look pretty... is by ordering yourself a wife off the internet. Now, having never looked into this myself, I never understood how it really worked. Turns out, you sign up with a specialist tour company and go to meetings where you're guaranteed to meet some girls. Naturally, it isn't as easy as merely turning up and saying "I'll take her please", and on rushes a girl desperate to get out of her country for a better life out West. So finding out what motivates the men who attend these expensive gambles, as well as the girls who attend, who better to send than Dawn Porter? From the off, as she's proven in the past, Porter has a remarkable ability to make people open up, which they do, often to their expense as they open up just a bit too much. As odd as some of the blokes are, in fairness, some of them seem to be pretty down-to-earth and sweet. However, it's the odd ones that cause the most concern... and one bloke with a deranged murderers giggle, called Kevin, crops up pretty frequently, telling lies to the girls about his age, his job and there's an air of... [i]danger[/i]... to him. He also admits to Porter that he's fond of young ladies and he likes aggressive sex... but more on him later. Another chap, Marc, was all swagger and cockiness, and repulses from the word go. He's clearly got a lot of money, but there's obviously something weird about him. I mean, there's probably a very good reason why he's resorting to mail order love. After a few meets with the girls, and getting nowhere, he cracks on to Porter ("there's a connection"). This might be funny normally, as I'm certain that Dawn is well equipped to deal with persistent male advances, however, Marc's attitude to coming on to Dawn made my heart pound in slow motion... like I'd just seen someone get punched out cold. In one of the most uncomfortable bits of telly I've ever seen, Marc invades personal space and goes all breathy and tries to woo Porter with intensity. It's made more uncomfortable by Dawn's continual 'no' and "I'm just doing my job". It seemed like a real violation. There was an element of 'you know you want it.' He further creeps out the entire viewing numbers by then, later, guilt tripping a girl called Irena with some crocodile tears. She was chatting to another guy - a policeman - after Marc, and he implies that this policeman is statistically likely to either get killed on the job or kill himself, topped off with grinning "I just wanted to share that with you." He's a horrible specimen that repulsed not only Porter, but this reviewer. He was predatory and conniving. However, in these moments, it was great is to see Porter getting in with the punches. She asked some tough questions to the blokes signed up and the tour operator. When the tour operator is asked about Kevin (mentioned earlier) everything goes strangely silent. Porter and her crew were asked by the tour to not delve into Kevin, but Porter had no problem with pressing the matter. It made for quite uncomfortable telly, but riveting. One important question is raised by Porter - why were the tour company more concerned about their reputation, rather than the wellbeing of the girls? To offer the flipside, Dawn spoke to a guy who had worked in the industry. Apparently, some operators employ escorts (if, indeed the girls on the websites are real in the first place) who essentially go on the date and potentially have a shag. It's not far from prostitution. It seems that, in this game, it's nigh on impossible to find 'love', or even something resembling a friendship. It seems like a lose-lose game, unless you're the one counting the coins. Comparisons are always a bit crappy, but there's one slight niggle with this new run of Dawn Porter shows: They don't run as well as the BBC equivalent. Part of me thinks it's down to technical things like the editing process and what little nuances are left of the cutting room floor. Another part of me thinks that it suffers a little from commercial breaks. As Dawn's shows rely on investment and that slow reveal of those she's looking at, which gets broken up by distracting adverts. The only thing I'll add further is that it felt like the show could've been a bit longer to tie up some loose ends, maybe talk to the people encountered. That said, it's still a cracking little show which looks at some serious issues without being bushy eyebrowed and smelling of cardigans. A smart show by a smart cookie who isn't afraid to go in over her head. Great stuff!

Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/8/2008 11:51:42 AM

Here's a link to watch it online, click on the 07 Oct programme and it starts after the adverts: www.channel4.com/video/dawn-porter-extreme-wife/catchup.html?i ntcmp=watchpage_box2#popover

FATCAT

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	Send: 10/9/2008 3:18:33 PM

the tv "mail order brides" insight on Tuesday night uk channel four. A interesting cross section of american men in Odessa and a fat psycho called Kevin. They travelled across the atlantic and paid Five thousand dollars what the F%$ * hell man how desperate I dont know. A foreign affair laughing all the way to Lehman bros. As the programme stated the women in odessa social were NOT desperate to get an American man but were desperate to get a sausage roll and Free champagne on offer. That is a hell of a way to try and get paired off with a woman.

dcv

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	Send: 10/10/2008 1:58:11 PM

Fatcat- yeah the kevin guy on tv was completely bonkers and sinister.how he exspected to get hitched with a woman there I just don't know.

peteb

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	Send: 10/15/2008 11:43:59 PM

yep kevin was a very strange chap, for sure. interesting programme though. i've been watching all of dawn porter's series. /pete

svenden

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	Send: 10/16/2008 11:57:05 AM

I had problems viewing this dawn porter programme. My media player played all of the adverts just before but as soon as the actual show was about to start it just freezes. Many attempts again with the media player.I pulled and daragged slider control to right on media player No success.

Kirkland

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	Send: 10/16/2008 2:24:02 PM

svenden, if you watch it on the channel 4 site they ask you to ensure you have the latest version of wm player. Have you tried that? A good synopsis by Martin. Couldn't make up my mind who was the scariest between Kevin and Marc. I'd be surprised if the Kevein guy had been anywhere near a girl let alone claim he likes rough sex. The Marc guy should be punched. Oily bastard. The restuarant scene with him and the girl made me squirm. The trouble with these programs is that they get the most idiotic of these guys, give them a spade and let them start digging. Like the Gerry Springer show...trawl the trailer parks of America to find dregs of society, shove them on a show and let the nation cringe. The fat old black dude with the condoms in his pocket...I mean come on?? Interesting that most of the girls that these guys had been corresponding with didn't turn up.

FATCAT

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	Send: 10/16/2008 3:02:41 PM

Svenden. I had a similar problem when I tried to play it -it stopped at the part where 3 people are sitting under hair dryers.!! After much tampering I had re Load the media player, Only then did it play correct. Otherwise you can view this tv transmission again in about 4 or 5 weeks time when channel 4 web site moves it onto You tube for viewing there. www.channel4.com/video/dawn-porter-extreme-wife/catchup.html?i ntcmp=watchpage_box2#popover

peteb

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	Send: 10/17/2008 2:25:33 AM

if anyone really has a problem seeing it, i can divx my sky+ copy and put it on one of my websites for download. it is worth seeing. PM me if anyone needs me to. /pete

Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/17/2008 5:56:14 AM

Yes, I think it is worth seeing particularly for anybody that may be considering an AFA Romance Social. Of course any TV production needs to make interesting viewing and had they concentrated on some very ordinary (boring) guys then that wouldn't have made for such interesting viewing and whilst we can joke about, laugh at, some of those guys it shouldn't be 'lost' if it was, or was not, a genuine romance social with ladies genuinely looking for foreign guys or were these ladies 'hired hands' to assist in the seperating of these guys from their hard earned money?

jetmba.

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	Send: 10/18/2008 9:06:13 AM

I haven't seen the show. I've been away from the forum for a while attending to other things. But I will attempt to watch it shortly. Let me tell you though - at each Romance Social I have attended there ARE afew loser guys (more at the recent one that at the first). They certainly exist - in life, AND at Romance Socials. But if you look at the bright side, if you are anywhere NEAR normal yourself - you will shine like a star in comparison to those guys. There MAY certainly be hookers. And even if no "professional" hookers, maybe amatuer hookers - girls who suppliment the spending money by getting paid for doing what a lot of single girls do ANYWAY on a night out. And MArtin makes a good point - that the program would be boring if they concentrated on the normal guys. Strange guys are to be sought out and ENHANCED for entertainment for programs like that. But I can tell you from EXPERIENCE (not from watching a sensationalized television show on TV) that Romance Socials WORK,if you are serious (and not a wierd guy). I have attended two sets and met incredible women. And i'm talking in real life here, not TV Land. Certainly my experiences have been better than most letter writers have had. Then again, maybe I've been personally successful because I am such a wonderful, handsome, articulate, incredible guy, who women would throw themselves at on any continent...... Trust me, its not that. Romance Socials work!

Batman

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	Send: 10/18/2008 9:26:25 AM

Jetmba wrote: Then again, maybe I've been personally successful because I am such a wonderful, handsome, articulate, incredible guy, who women would throw themselves at on any continent...... Thank you from saving me the effort of saying it for you! ;-)

Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/18/2008 1:16:29 PM

Mmmmmm, Someone can, nearly, suddenly spell, except for some obvious mistakes, perhaps someone is utilising the services of a secretary!

jetmba.

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	Send: 10/18/2008 7:13:26 PM

Strangest guy I ever saw at a Romance Social had a striking resemblence to danny. He struck out, naturally, and didn't get a girl. I don't think he even ever took a girl out. But then again - he wasn't handing out free houses, like our village danny does.

jetmba.

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	Send: 10/18/2008 7:25:28 PM

When I try to access it from the US via the website Martin posted, I get this: "You need to be within the UK or the Republic of Ireland to watch Channel 4 programmes."

Rag'n'Bull

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	Send: 10/18/2008 7:26:22 PM

jetmba, Please watch the programme, I would genuinely be pleased to learn of you feedback, there's a guy that takes condoms in his pocket to the social, now who could you NOT associate him with? :)

Russian brides > Main Forum > AFA Romance Social (Odessa) on UK Channel 4 - 07 Oct