Netflix launched an ambitious “experiment” (spelled ‘R-E-A-L-I-T-Y
S-H-O-W’) under the name Love is Blind,
titled for its format that requires the contestants to decide whether they want
to enter into a marital relationship with one another without ever seeing each
other, relying only on conversations they have through pod walls.
The new format subverts many of the conventions observed
in reality dating show such as The Bachelor
franchise. It is interesting to see
the vast differences in contestants’ interactions with one another here: there is
noticeably more discussion on racial and cultural differences, economic status,
and due to the physical limitations in face-to-face communication, less artificially manipulated drama
staged by the show’s
producers. Is Netflix, a pioneer of many contemporary contents, rewriting
the grammar for reality television? Ultimately, however, when the contestants
face one another at the end of the series to discuss marriage and experience cohabitation,
things get even nastier than The Bachelor.
What is Love is Blind ultimately
trying to get at, I wonder. Does this show give a more clinical, darker diagnosis
of dating life for
Millennials? Or is this new reality show format smudging the
border between reality and production—we already know shows like The Bachelor
are produced and scripted
(although no one on the staff is called a ‘writer’, for obvious reasons), but we
still talk about Peter Weber like he is a dear but dumb-witted friend we personally know—even further, hiding the producers’ manipulations of the contestants behind
its glowing, futuristic pods? Does the
show’s pseudo-social-experiment format mess with the audience even more psychologically
than conventional reality shows do? I would love to hear opinions from people who
have watched this show on Netflix!
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