Love Is Blind: Why I Need 100 More Seasons
Unless you're currently nestled tightly under a rock with absolutely zero contact with social media, you know about the viral hit Netflix Original reality show, Love Is Blind. If you're like me, you spent all three weeks of the series' duration obsessing over the glamorous couples determined to secure their future husband/wife. I'll admit I was hesitant at the beginning of the first episode to continue watching, giving the utter ludicrousness of the show's concept. Somehow, though, these 20-30 something's roped me in, held me tightly and never let me go right up through the series finale two weeks later. So...what exactly is the show all about? and why has it quite literally taken the nation by storm?
The show starts off with 30 men and women who are on a quest to find their potential partners for life. Unlike most traditional dating shows, contestants aren't able to make their choices based off of personal appearances; instead, the show throws in the concept of "dating pods" in which the contestants can hear each other but not see each other. The hopeful's spend a few days going through the trials of small talk and getting to know one another as they try and find the man/woman of their dreams. Throughout the duration of the show, we follow six couples; Amber and Barnett, Diamond and Carlton, Giannina and Damien, Kelly and Kenny, Jessica and Mark and Lauren and Cameron.
Each couple has their own charm (or lack thereof) respectively and the combination of their story lines makes for some DAMN good entertainment.
So why does THIS particular reality show differ from all the other's that have come before it? One word: Authenticity. Most shows of this nature (*cough* The Bachelor series *cough*) are obviously scripted to a severe extent and many of the cast members are unrealistically foolish, catty and obtuse in nature.
While I can't sit through more than 20 minutes of the Bachelor, I could devote hours upon hours to Love Is Blind. That's because it's inherently obvious that the contestant's really had no idea what they had signed up for coming into the show and that's because an experiment of its nature had never been done before on live television. This dynamic allowed for the men and women to be simultaneously vulnerable and a little bit skeptical. Although I wasn't too fond of the choppiness of the production team's cuts and I think they could have shown more of each individual couple's true, unfiltered dynamic, I was still just as sucked in as the rest of America.
So what's next? Well, a reunion show, OF COURSE. Given the glories of today's social media, we're able to keep up with all of our favorites through Instagram, but nothing could ever compare to a tell-all, full-fledged televised update of the live's of the couples (or, SPOILER ALERT, non-couples). It's been a long time since a show has had me so wholeheartedly invested that i'm squealing at the screen, jumping for joy, and living vicariously through the trials and triumphs of total strangers. If you haven't had a chance to watch yet and you've read this far...have I convinced you? ;)