If you have seen VH1 recently, you might have seen Mystery, pickup artist extraordinary teaching the art of seduction to many completely clueless pupils. Erik Von Markovich, commonly known as Mystery, is showing them a method he developed himself to successfully attract women. At first the students are hesitant and aren’t quite sure of what is capable in field, until of course, they see Mystery and his wings, Matador and J-Dog.

In the course of 8 weeks, this Mystery pickup artist teacher claims he can convert one previously clueless guy into a master pickup artist. If you can get past the cheesiness of the show, there is actually a lot of great content hidden inside every episode. Its not on the same level of Keys to the VIP in terms of seeing live technique, but there is a lot more structure and the students actually rely on everything else BUT their looks. In fact, one of the better looking guys is struggling to keep up with an overweight contestant in the pool, of all places!

There are a lot of great things about the show, but with all shows about pickup artist, at first glance it is hard to tell if their intentions are mislead. Are they just trying to pick-up women and get laid ? Are they just using women ? In short, the answer is no. Most of the men who participate in study the art of seduction, or ‘pick-up’, are looking to improve their overall social skills with women. They are usually terrified of approaching people, are socially awkward and very lonely. These aspects of their life reflect in every area, from business, hanging out with friends and of course, picking up women.

So as Mystery takes them through, teaching them the knowledge of the Mystery Method, they grow into new people. Everything that Mystery teaches them is carefully broken down in his book, which has been carefully revised over the years. The latest revision, called Magic Bullet is the Mystery Method handbook fully explained in a lot more detail than the original publication. My only complaint is that during every episode of the Mystery Pickup Artist on VH1, he only shows a few minutes of actual theory. From these few minutes, it is really hard to learn anything valuable from the show. If they actually spent more time explaining the theory which is found in the book, then the viewers would have a much better idea of what is happening and how to improve.

The Pickup Artist show is all about character development and change. Its becoming more of a drama series rather than an educational or demonstration of what true pickup artists can do. In fact, you only see Mystery, Matador and J-Dog in field once! Overall, its good exposure but if you want to actually learn anything, you’re going to have to pick up a book and start reading through it for yourself.