I love watching people date, not by creepily pressing my nose against the windows of cute French bistros, but by watching hours and hours of reality TV.
Over the years, I’ve seen every imaginable premise: singletons trying to work out which of a group of the opposite sex has been determined by an algorithm to be their perfect match; people judging the naked bodies of potential suitors before hearing their voice (scandalous when it launched, but now Channel 4’s Naked Attraction is a national treasure); and even American women who thought they were vying for Prince Harry’s hand (he was a pretty poor lookalike).
But a common and recurring thread throughout the book has been to try to unite people by personality, not by appearance.
The British version of the American dating show Love Is Blind premieres on Netflix tonight
The show begins with 15 men and 15 women, separated from each other. They can hear, but not see, the potential partner they are dating.
As a child, my first experience with dating shows was Cilla Black’s Blind Date, which left such an impression on me that my cousins and I used to recreate our own fictional version and have our parents watch it and applaud “in the audience.”
Since then, we’ve had Dates in the Dark and Married at First Sight, where strangers walk down the aisle and then meet each other. Not to mention Netflix’s Sexy Beasts, where couples go out dressed as strange creatures.
But of all these shows, there is one that does it best: Love is Blind. The original American series premiered in 2020 and I was hooked immediately. Now we have our own British version, which premieres tonight.
If you somehow missed the original Love is Blind, let me fill you in on the premise. The show begins with 15 men and 15 women, separated from one another; their only interactions are in “pods” that allow them to hear, but not see, the potential partner they’re dating. After dozens of dates, where you whittle down the number of people you have a connection with, you can only meet your soulmate by getting down on one knee and proposing to someone you’ve never met.
At this point, we have a handful of engaged couples moving on to the next stage: a pre-wedding honeymoon followed by a few weeks of living together to see if they can handle the reality.
Husband and wife duo Matt and Emma Willis will host the UK version
Finally, each couple walks down the aisle at a real wedding and declares in front of family and friends (and the watching public) whether they do or don’t.
One of the biggest problems with reality shows is the “real” part of them. Often, we are all too aware that the contestants are just putting on a show for us, the audience, and while I know you can never avoid some elements of that, Love is Blind comes across as one of the most genuine reality shows out there.
This is partly because you can only lie for so long as the production team has hundreds of hours of dating material to choose from, and most of the 30 contestants never appear on our screens for more than a few minutes.
You might think I’m naive, but at least eight of the ten couples who got married on the American show are still together to this day, with a divorce rate that must be lower than the population average.
In a moment of reality TV magic on Season 3 of Love is Blind, a contestant whose proposal was rejected paused his on-camera interview, not to compose himself but to put in eye drops and make it look like he’d been crying; the genius editors decided to keep that moment.
Now we’re all waiting to see if the British version lives up to expectations. I’ve seen the first four episodes and, without wanting to get ahead of myself, I’m as excited and optimistic as a teenager downloading Tinder.
Husband and wife presenting duo Matt and Emma Willis host the British version and do a great job. But the show’s presenter is just part of the furniture, a bit like a commentator at a football match: you need him not to be rubbish, but the matches you remember are the ones the players played in. The show is made entirely by the cast.
Writer Flora Gill’s first experience of dating shows was Cilla Black’s Blind Date, which aired from 1985 to 2003.
Flora, pictured, was immediately hooked on Love is Blind US when it came out in 2020.
I already have my favourites: the charming funeral director Freddie, whose job seems to be anaphrodisiac, and there are characters I’m wary of, like the “nice guy” Sam, who keeps saying things like “the sweet guy never wins” and “I think if you put it (my life) in a book, it would be the best book anyone could ever read.”
The beginning of every season of Love is Blind is always my favorite, and the British version is no different. Dating is a process that leaves people very vulnerable, and it’s fascinating to watch as an outsider. There are the cringe-inducing lines (Get ready for poems and spiritual journeys), the honest conversations (How do you find middle ground when one person wants to have kids but the other isn’t sure?), and the sudden sparks when you realize you have something in common (One couple learns they both wear their deceased grandparents’ rings, while another hits the gym twice a day).
The slightly depressing side note is that Love is Blind is intended to be a “social experiment,” a term so overused that 14-year-olds are now going around filming pranks for TikTok claiming it was “just a social experiment” when in reality they just like doing horrible things like throwing ice in the faces of unsuspecting strangers.
The show really tries to force it into your head that it’s just testing a theory about whether love is truly blind, as if a group of scientists and psychologists discovered that an entertaining reality show was the only way to know for sure.
But the truth is that the series is better than that and has all the drama and disappointment necessary to keep you hooked.
On Channel 4’s Naked Attraction, now a national treasure, people judge the naked bodies of potential suitors before hearing their voices.
In Netflix’s Sexy Beasts, couples go on dates dressed as strange creatures
And if you needed any more proof that love isn’t blind, take a look at the cast: they’re all incredibly attractive. Presumably, it’s easier for love to be blind when you know your future soulmate is at least a nine out of ten. One of the first comments a man makes when he sees his fellow contestants is how tall they all are, which shows how carefully they’re selected.
But it’s a good thing the show isn’t about one big surprise moment where you discover the person you proposed to looks like Jabba the Hutt.
This is the eighth international version of Love is Blind and each one offers something slightly different.
In Love Is Blind Brazil, they are incredibly open and passionate, with lots of drama. Love Is Blind Japan is much more touching and sincere.
No one does a dating show like the UK does (who else would come up with the Love Island format?) and judging by what I’ve seen so far, this edition of Love is Blind has the potential to be amazing. That famous British chat mixed with a tried-and-true American concept… I haven’t watched the entire series yet, but I think I’m ready to say, “I do.”
The first four episodes of Love is Blind UK are available on Netflix tonight.
