Summary
Netflix series Love is Blind season 1 is a surprise hit in the platform’s reality catalog with its intriguing approach to dating that inevitably leads to a quick marriage.
Netflix series Love is Blind season 1 will be released on the platform on February 13, 2020 — add it to your list now.
To quickly jump into the concept, Netflix reality dating show Love is Blind houses single men and women on either side of the house, all in the age range of late-20s to early-30s. Every day, the singles enter pods and they experience a date — neither the man or woman can see each other. They all have to choose someone they would like to marry, and once chosen and the proposal is accepted, they are allowed to see each other and start their journey of engagement all the way up to their wedding day. The process of pod dating to the wedding is around 40 days.
I tried very hard to be skeptical, and I tried especially hard to convince myself that I did not like this Netflix series, but there is something about this social dating experiment that perked my interest. It does not feel cheesy or overdone, and the participants do not come across as “fame-seeking”. The way the participants talk about the prospect of marriage and “finding the one” seems genuine and serious. It’s not like Love Island, where the formula is incredibly superficial and often game-playing; for a start, the participants in Love is Blind cannot even see each other — it rules out the shallow aspect.
READ: Love Is Blind Season 5 Review
There is a Big Brother aspect to the concept; when the men and women finish with their dates in the pods, they often go back to their side of the house and discuss their experiences. Drama is sometimes around the corner, but it’s not every scene where sparks are flying. The creators, Nick And Vanessa Lachey, who are a married couple themselves, evidently wanted to take this experiment seriously and move away from the scripted reality that often glazes our screens.
I’d harbor a guess that certain audiences will raise their eyebrows at Love is Blind season 1 and I would not blame them. Surely it is unachievable to fall in love with someone and want to marry them in a matter of days after only speaking to them through a wall? This pondered my mind many times, but then I decided to lower my cynicism slightly — in the social environment the participants are living in, there is a high possibility that these scenarios could happen.
Indirectly related; Netflix’s Love is Blind reminded me of my travels in America, whereby I was employed at a seaside hotel in Cape Cod. The environment I was in meant I was with the same people every single day at such a fast pace — friendships formed extremely quickly and it quickly felt like a family within a matter of weeks. We were all shacked up in employee housing and they were my social, work and family life all rolled up into one closed environment near the beach. We had no choice but to form connections, we did not have the luxury of months or years to get to know each other.
Love is Blind is similar; the participants are housed in an environment that is intense and the only focus is to enter these pods and figure each other out — when that is your only focus and routine in a small social environment, then you can start to believe that the dating experiment is believable.
I say this with a surprised tone as I usually dislike reality dating shows, but I would highly recommend Love is Blind season 1.
