HOT TAKE: 'Temptation Island' Is The Most NONSENSICAL Dating Show Of All Time (Which DOES Make It One Of The Most Entertaining!) Here's Why!
Temptation Island is THE most nonsensical dating show of all time.
(I mean, geeze, tell us how you really think.)
Relatively recently I have delved very deeply into the world of televised dating shows. As a woman in my twenties, it is quite frankly shocking that it took me this long, but now I'm here with OPINIONS.
As you may have read in a previous reflection of mine, I believe Love is Blind is television's most realistic dating show. Conversely, Temptation Island is the least. Through my *pushes glasses up nose* comprehensive research, I have determined that there are two categories into which dating shows can fall.
The first category is Life Mate. The goal of shows in the Life Mate category is just what it sounds like: to leave the show married, engaged, or seriously attached to a significant other. Shows in this category include Love is Blind, The Bachelor, and the upcoming NBC series The Ultimatum.
The second category is Love Game. While shows in this category focus on love, dating, and relationships, odds are no one is leaving with their soulmate. These shows operate more like game shows, competing in contests based off of the basic principles of dating without being too serious about it. FBoy Island, Sexy Beast, and Love Island are great examples of Love Game shows.
Temptation Island fits in neither of these categories. The only category this show would fit in is People Who Should Have Broken Up Already. The show conflates too many aspects of each category. Through the show's over-complicated cacophony of romantic misery, Temptation Island emphasizes everything bad about modern dating while suppressing the optimism and heart that make it fun, leaving the audiences ending episodes hopeful that everyone just breaks up.
(While you read this, please continue to bare in mind that this overall nonsense is the REASON that this show is so addictively enjoyable. Allow this article to be both informative about the show's through line of nonsense while also opperating as a recommendation to go watch it.)
While many couples cite trust issues as the impetus to go on the show, Temptation Island severely and irrecoverably exacerbates the issue rather than solving it. The ideology at the onset seems to make sense: if you are unsure if you can trust your partner, go to an island with only temptation and see if it can be resisted. On paper, it sounds like a simple and straightforward way to get a yes or no answer.
SHOCKINGLY, this does not work. In an article on Psychology Today, Jeremy Nicholson M.S.W., Ph.D. dissects what is required to establish trust in romantic relationships. You won't believe this, but none of what he writes falls in-line with the Temptation Island program. He states:
"Therefore, to establish trust, it is essential that partners behave in ways that support the overall relationship and each other (rather than being selfish). It is also important that both partners recognize and appreciate the positive behaviors of each other-even when they have had a difficult time in relationships with other partners in the past."
If anything, the format of Temptation Island, shreds this finding into heartfelt, remnants of a relationship.
First of all, for the couples that don't trust each other when there has been no reason not to trust each other, this show will only add fuel to the fire. When they show clips of the partner with the singles, it will only serve to deepen the trust issues and, as the partners did not trust each other when there was no reason for a lack of trust, there is no WAY that when there IS reason for a lack of trust it is suddenly going to get better. (If you didn't follow that, read it again. It's a good point.)
ON TOP OF THAT, if the partners have no reason not to trust each other outside of the confines of the experiment but still proceed in their feelings, that means that they are just projecting their own insecurities and fears of commitment onto the other person. To fix that, you don't need Temptation Island. You need therapy.
Conversely, if you are a couple that does not trust each other WITH good reason and you just can't seem to get past it, just end the relationship. Watching the other person do exactly what you're probably mad at them for will not renew your faith in them. It will just give you new reason to be angry with them.
FURTHERMORE
A quick question to the singles who are trying to find a relationship with someone who you know for an ABSOLUTE FACT is already in a relationship: if you get them, how are YOU going to trust them, because you know for a fact that they left a committed relationship to be with you.
Another aspect of Temptation Island that primes every couple on that show for a quick demise is a lack of clarity on the rules or the objective. This can largely be credited to communication issues the couples may have on the outside of the show (which, once again, supports my claim that these couples should either be in therapy or breaking up, but then I guess we wouldn't have this entertaining show, so...proceed...I suppose...)
Communication is one of the most vital part of a relationship if not THE most vital part. In another article on Psychology Today, Elizabeth Dorrance Hall Ph.D writes about the importance of mindfulness in communication and setting clear intentions for what you want from a person. She writes:
In short, mindfulness is all about being active and in the moment whether you are communicating or not. It takes quite a bit of effort to engage in mindful communication. This is where intention setting comes in. Setting intentions helps us move toward more mindful communication by focusing on particular behaviors in specific relationships.
Communicating clearly is a relatively baseline standard for the makings of a healthy relationship. The show attempts to show us the couples setting boundaries for themselves and each other, but what we actually see the couple do is mutter about what they are afraid might happen without actually setting any super clear, strict guidelines. Are they allowed to experiment with other people? Should they resist at all costs? Should they cut things off at a certain point?
Once again, Temptation Island, points out a major problem in the relationship of most of the contestants without actually attempting to fix it in any way. I am not saying that the show causes a lack of communication, but the couples who are on the show almost immediately fall into the lack-of-communication trap that it has set for them (which, again, makes it all VERY ENTERTAINING for us!!)
Even with all of this: the trials, the tribulations, the TEMPTATIONS, some of these couples still end up together. That is some soul-mate level stuff. So, maybe this show actually does work to help couples overcome their issues! OR maybe they were strong enough before and after to be able to look back and ask themselves, "What...was that?"
In summation, I do attest: Temptation Island is nonsense, and I absolutely CANNOT WAIT TO WATCH THE NEW SEASON ON MARCH 16TH!!
