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love is blind contestants

Posted on March 4, 2020

Love Is Blind on Netflix: what the dating show actually got right

Dating

Love is Blind Photograph: Netflix

Netflix’s Love Is Blind has become one of the most-talked about reality dating shows in the last couple of weeks and with good reason. The hit series challenges the age-old idea of whether or not love is truly blind through a social experiment that is both cringeworthy and compelling at the same time. 

The premise of the show is to test whether or not any of the male and female contestants can fall in love sight unseen. The contestants are separated by gender and can only communicate with one another when they go on dates in self-contained pods in hopes of getting a wedding proposal after a series of dates. It is only after the engagement that they get to see each other in the flesh for the first time – exactly one month before they walk up the aisle. 

Love is Blind Nextflix Cameron

Love is Blind Photo: Nextflix

All newly engaged couples then take a romantic trip to Mexico where they get to test their physical connection prior to letting any exterior factors such as friends, family and work schedules impact their relationship. After reaching these relationship milestones in a short space of time, they then have to decide at the altar whether or not the answer to the question of being united by holy matrimony will be ‘I do.’ 

The show sounds repulsive to those who do not have an affinity for trashy reality TV. In a previous life, that very well would have been me. But there is something addictive about Love Is Blind that combines elements of some of the biggest reality shows in the past such as The Bachelor and The Circle, both of which I failed to watch with the same degree of gripping intensity.

Without further ado, here are some of the things that Love Is Blind actually did get right:

1. Self-contained pods 

Love Is Blind Photo: Netflix

The irony that each of the contestants are physically attractive is not lost on me at all. However, I do feel that removing physical appearance from the equation does spark on a conversation of what drives attraction. It also raises the question of whether or not someone can still fall for a person who isn’t their usual ‘type.’ 

The whole idea of the pods helped the couples build an intimate connection with one another that I feel barely exists in a world of swiping right and left. As someone with an interest in trying to understand what drives people to one another, this element of Love Is Blind is what drew me to the show to begin with. 

2. Interracial dating 

Love Is Blind Lauren and Cameron Photo: Netflix

Black female contestant Lauren did not make it a secret that she had never dated a white guy prior to her engagement with scientist Cameron. There seemed to be a good deal of emphasis placed on this fact and I reckon if we all took a shot every time Lauren was shown on screen to say ‘Cameron is my first white guy,’ we’d all be fairly langered. 

All jokes aside, there was something that stood out to me when Lauren told her best friend about her first experience of dating outside her race. She said she never felt the need to ‘play down’ her blackness when she was around Cameron. This shows the importance of acknowledging the cultural differences that can come from being of a certain race as well as the pressures the one can feel when trying to navigate within an interracial couple.  

3. Meeting in-laws and pet dogs 

host of hit series on nextflix

Love Is Blind hosts Photo: Netflix

Each engaged couple also got the opportunity to meet one anothers friends, family and labrador pets with the mind that the get-togethers would give them a glimpse into what reality might look like should they say ‘I do’ at the altar in the short weeks that followed. 

While I do believe it was important that the couples got a chance to get to know each other on a physical level during their romantic trip away, what I thought held even more significance was the fact that they weren’t deluded into thinking that it was going to end there. 

4. Atlanta, Georgia

Love Is Blind Contestants

Love Is Blind Contestants Photo: Netflix

At the time of filming Love Is Blind, all contestants were living in Atlanta, Georgia and it wasn’t a coincidence. The producers of the show supposedly wanted to make it easier for all of the contestants who would end up engaged and then later married – how thoughtful!

This element of the show is very different to other dating shows that I have seen in the past where participants can run the risk of falling for someone that lives in a completely different country (Maura and Curtis). 

5. ALL OF THE DRAMA

Love is blind drama

Love Is Blind Gianannina Photo: Netflix

The one thing I can whole-heartedly say about watching Love Is Blind is that it is a completely different experience when you watch it with subtitles. From ‘dramatic music starts’ to ‘sobs quietly,’ the words describing the predicaments each of the contestants find themselves in (particularly in the finale) adds to the entertainment immensely. 

Overall, the show is the epitome of trashy reality meets glamzilla while managing to still provide some important dialogue around dating in the modern world. I could go on to discuss some of the things that are wrong and deeply concerning about Love Is Blind, but there really is no need to point out the obvious 🙂

Love Is Blind reunion special will premiere on March 5th on Netflix’s YouTube channel. Find out more here. 

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