HOT TAKE: 'Love is Blind' Is The ONLY Realistic Dating Show and This is Why!
Love is Blind is the only practical dating show.
A hot take, but hear me out.
Describing Love is Blind as realistic in any way, shape, or form, is an instantaneous eye-brow raiser. Men and women are separated into different houses, are not allowed to see each other, only speak to each other through a wall, and are only allowed to see each other when they are engaged to be married.
(What? Is that not how ALL dating works?)
The reason, however, that Love is Blind stands out among the rest is the controlled variable that the title of the show boasts. Television is an inherently visual medium. We are used to seeing the most attractive people do the most attractive things. Therefore, on other dating shows, it is incredibly difficult to get past the allure of someone's exterior. Even on Love is Blind everyone still dresses up for the dates. (Which, I mean...why?)
By entirely removing aesthetics from the operation, the contestants (subjects? Humans on the show? What do we call them?) are able to push past the amplified fan fare of television's glitz and glamor and move onto more dating-realistic conversation. The scientific aspect of the show coupled with the central blindfold make Love is Blind the most intelligent, most realistic, and most likely to succeed dating show out of all of them.
Love is Blind's greatest strength is that it entirely removes the unspoken (but very real) competition in other dating shows to end up with the most attractive person. Shows like The Bachelor put unnecessary and unrealistic weight on what a person looks like rather than on what they ARE like. In that, in an instinctive human way, the show's mission turns. Rather than trying to find love, contestants are just there to prove that they can leave with the most attractive person possible.
Love is Blind, however, makes that quest impossible. Well, nearly impossible. Many clearly come on the show with the intention of trying to leave with the most attractive person they can find; however, these people are blocked by the structured set up of the show, forcing them to seek conversation and emotional connection because there is literally nothing else to go off of. Where other dating shows take people who are trying to find love and transfigures them into narcissistic beauty hunters, Love is Blind forces people to remain in the assigned role of romantic scientist.
This role of "romantic scientist" is a microcosm of the show itself: where other shows turn love into a competition, Love is Blind turns it into an experiment. It is easy to think that forcing science is more artificial than competition. The dating world can easily seem like a competition to the externally observant eye. It is all a collection of competitors, seeking to find a partner before anyone else does. The longer you wait, the harder the competition becomes because everyone will have paired up already.
However, this competitive notion, largely fabricated by Hollywood and glamourized by the television industry, is a fallacy. That competitive spirit only works if the assumption is that anyone could end up with anyone if, harkening back to the problematic first point, you look attractive enough. Yet, that is not how real life love works.
Real love is about science, connection. It is about shared opinions. It is about similarities. It is about some random outer force that for some reason forces us into the arms and attentions of another person. Love is not purely aesthetic. While it is a non-negotiably important factor, it is arguably the least important. Therefore, Love is Blind, through its structured pursuit of science, more strategically creates an environment where the development of real love is possible.
Furthermore, the show intelligently recognizes that people don't need random competitions or outside forces to come in and ruin a relationship: people can do that all on their own. Shows such as Temptation Island put couples to the test to prove that their love for each other is real. Yet, if love is largely made up of trust, how could any couple leave those shows feeling stronger about their relationship? Had they not just spent months on end doubting their partner?
Conversely, Love is Blind, instead of having random challenges, leads individuals through the experiments, allowing them to live and learn from each other together. People that spend that much time together in a close and committed relationship will start fighting. There will be drama. It does not have to be fabricated through competition. Therefore, the drama of Love is Blind keeps its finger on the true pulse of the show throughout: human love and human emotion.
FURTHERMORE
If even more proof was needed that Love is Blind stands in its own league, apart from other relationship shows, I would point everyone's attention to the absence of one very specific sentence.
"I don't think so-and-so is here for the right reasons."
The Bachelor, Temptation Island, Love Island: on every dating show you can think of, sans Love is Blind you have heard a contestant utter these words. Every contestant seems to think they are the only ones that want to find love and that everyone else is only there for fame and fortune. In a way...everyone is right!
With a show like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, there is an instant fame that follows you. Everyone is seeing your face constantly. People cheer for contestants on these shows like they cheer for football teams. This euphoric high is not something human beings, especially in a state as open and vulnerable as a new and loving relationship, are often readily equipped to deal with. It can go to their heads (once again calling back to the problematic aesthetic nature of the show.) At the end of it all, if everyone examined themselves truly, no one is there for the right reasons because the true motive and reasoning behind being there was corrupted from the moment the show began.
On Love is Blind, the throughline hypothesis of the series serves as an anchor, keeping people grounded even within these televised throws of passion. Are there still people who definitely come on the show for increased fame? Absolutely. Do I still question the motives of people trying to find love in a highly televised manner? Oh, certainly. However, in the throws of the very popular reality dating series genre, Love is Blind is the only one that truly and consistently understands the assignment.
That is what makes it the best dating show. Fight me. I dare you.
Love is Blind returns tonight on Netflix!
