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Analysis
Three years ago, the first season of Love Is Blind dropped on Netflix, and reality TV was forever changed.
The addictive show combined elements of other popular reality shows—attractive singles, a quick timeline for finding love, shared living quarters—with higher stakes.
The contestants on the show are (in theory, anyway) more serious about entering into a relationship than the people are on other dating shows. They don’t get to see the people they’re dating until they propose to one of them. Now in its fourth season, Love Is Blind is still an event when it premieres. (The final episode premieres today, April 14, and there’s a live reunion on Sunday night.) Part of the reason is due to the release schedule—every week over the course of a few weeks, we get new episodes.
That leaves a lot of room in between episodes for discourse and memes.
This season, I noticed an increase in the amount of people reacting to the show. Scrolling through TikTok without seeing LIB skits and reactions is near impossible.
Joy Ofodu (@joyofodu) posted a skit acting as Kwame and Chelsea and Jackie and Marshall—two of the five engaged couples in season 4. Another creator, Sean Colby (@seancolby), has been making videos from the point of view of the camera man on the show, making faces whenever a person says something odd or shocking. Others declared Jackie Bonds the main villain of the season, especially after alleged leaked texts between her and her friends mocking the man she was engaged to were shared widely on social media. Twitter was also filled with LIB reaction memes.
It’s hard to imagine LIB becoming a huge success without the online communities that dissect what happens each week. However, there was a common criticism among the reactions: why doesn’t Netflix vet its contestants more closely? There are people every season now who don’t seem interested in entering into a serious relationship who sign up for a show that ends in marriage.
“This show needs a 30+ age requirement and some marriage counselors,” one TikToker wrote.
Watching unserious people on a reality show can lead to some great entertainment, but viewers want to actually root for somebody.
Why it matters
This weekend will bring out a lot more LIB drama—and social reactions. But, while everyone loves gossiping about what happened between the couples on the show, there are also fans who want to see some improvements for future seasons. Fewer wanna influencers, more real people who are ready for a relationship. Is that so hard?