Two women were selected for each episode and essentially disappeared from their regular lives for three months while they worked with a team of professionals. That team included everyone from personal trainers and therapists to dentists and cosmetic surgeons. At the end of the process, the two women would be compared, with one advancing to the season-ending beauty pageant.
That pageant determined the ultimate winner. Contestants were judged on their transformations, and the woman who earned the most votes for her makeover was crowned “The Swan”. Looking back at the premise more than two decades later, it’s easy to see why the series is ripe for a closer examination.
That’s where The Swan: Behind the Mirror comes in.
The new Hulu documentary brings several of the women back together and gives them an opportunity to revisit an experience that was far more complicated than the glossy makeover montages suggested. Through new interviews and behind-the-scenes access, the documentary explores what happened during production and how the experience continued to affect the women long after the cameras stopped rolling.
