Love Is Blind is peak trashtastic TV.
We laugh at it and with it at the same time. The concept itself is absolutely ludicrous and yet all the more compelling for it, especially when the casting is on point.
Jersey Shore was an innovator here: throw a bunch of eccentric weirdos and self-described guidos and guidettes into a house down the shore and let the cameras roll. That’s the lineage.
Let’s dive in.
Love Is Blind’s concept is baffling, simple, diabolical, and fantastic
Couples date “through a wall” and get engaged, sight unseen. Then we see what happens next.
And that’s it – a dead simple concept that’s completely bonkers.
Oh, or as Love Is Blind calls it: “the experiment.” And with no irony whatsoever, the show constantly asks, “Is love TRULY blind?”
It’s hilariously weird, but the diabolical thing is that we get sucked into what’s happening despite ourselves.
This is where great casting kicks in: we end up getting invested in who “should end up together” but perhaps more importantly, we get invested in who should dump whom with a quickness.
Also important: the cast is lousy with hot people. That never hurts.
Format, format, and format
Mark Burnett understood this with Survivor and… ugh… The Apprentice. Format is king with reality television.
Love Is Blind always follows the exact same structure, which quickly becomes part of the comfortable rhythm of watching the show.
- “The pods” – This is the couples meeting and the “dating through a wall” part. Whereas many reality shows that feature new casts each season are a bit of a slog in the early stages as we struggle to figure out who is who, Love Is Blind excels at quickly “dropping us into the action” of seeing strangers meet (like through an actual physical barrier wall, dig?) with the intent of getting to know each other on a deep level very quickly.
- Proposals and breakups – By the time we’re into the second episode, we’re hip deep into passionate romances and devastating breakups, with a side note of seeing what the dudes and ladies are gossiping about together back in their Black Mirror-ish “living quarters.”
- Pseudo-honeymoons and intermingling – We’re then swiftly zipped off to some White Lotus-ish paradise, where the couples can finally get to know each in real life (including the bedroom) while all the guys and ladies get to finally meet in IRL over drinks (sometimes many drinks), which inevitably leads to tears, jealousies, and even occasional heart-warming moments.
- “Real life,” family and friends – The middle stretch of a Love Is Blind season dumps the newly engaged couples back into the “real world” (reality TV style), an early stress test of whether these wacky kids are gonna make it together. There’s no end of drama that can erupt during this phase, including but not limited to: meeting family and friends for the first time (and dealing with varying levels of shock and disapproval among these groups), huge revelations about past lives and relationships, financial and work life conversations, and that’s not even getting to the “oh… this person is way different than I thought they were when I knew them through a wall six days ago.”
- Pre–wedding stress and rituals – While some may enjoy it, I find the dress and tux fittings and the lengthy reality TV padding leading up to the actual wedding day to be tedious. 10-second fast forwarding on Netflix is your friend here #protip.
- The wedding ceremonies – The single weirdest thing about Love Is Blind might be that cast members are seemingly encouraged to reveal whether they “really” want to get married at the altar on their actual wedding day, mere weeks after they’ve met each other. You see what we mean by LUDICROUS and TRASHTASTIC, people?
- The reunion – Whereas most reality show reunions are a boring afterthought, Love Is Blind requires you to smash cut to the reunion episode, where we’re fast-forwarded to a year later so that we can find out who’s together, who’s not, and how many couples made it from “the pods” to actually still kinda being married IRL a year later.
We needs to know, and that’s what a great (trashtastic) reality TV show is all about.
Second screen FTW
With all of the above being said, Love Is Blind is the ideal second screen show and/or the ideal “folding your laundry” show, the art of which Netflix has perfected and literally optimized for our viewing pleasures.
The reliable show structure allows our brains to relax (further) so that we can lightly tune into the doings of the cast, the kind of thing where you can peek over from the Q3 financials spreadsheet you’re poring over and think, “Oh man, that dude is totally about to get dumped for sure now,” before going back to focusing on how to stick it to Bill from marketing at The Big Meeting.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to binge watching Love Is Blind: UK Season 2.
Oh, there are international editions of Love Is Blind, you ask?
Yes. Yes, there are. So many treasures await your future laundry folding sessions, my friends.
Enjoy.