It's February 2020 and you're scrolling through Netflix. After 10 minutes of deliberation, you settle on a relatively unknown dating show. Five episodes later, you're fully obsessed with a woman named Jessica feeding her dog red wine. There's a couple called Cameron and Lauren (that you would defend with your life), a woman telling her fiancé she's thousands of dollars in debt and another slagging off her just-engaged sex life. We are, of course, talking about Love Is Blind.
Three years ago, Love Is Blind quietly dropped on Netflix, and within weeks it was the only thing people could talk about. Ever since the first series aired, quickly followed up by two more, it's been a mainstay in popular culture, with a fourth series on the way this week.
The premise of the show is simple; 15 men and 15 women enter an experiment in which they date each other in pods. The only catch? They can't see each other, and must fall in love "blindly" based solely on their personal connection. If their dates are going really well, a proposal happens, and it is only then that they get to see their fiancé/fiancée. After meeting, the successful couples go on a group honeymoon, before moving in with their new partner and eventually having a wedding, where they decide to say "I do" or "I don't" at the altar.
Whilst it seems like a normal concept now, it was the novelty of the experiment that really pulled viewers in. Could people actually form genuine relationships without knowing what their partner looked like? Could a couple really form an intimate bond without even sharing a hug? It was exciting and refreshing to see a new take on a dating show.
And as an unknown reality show, it was safe to assume the cast members were there for legitimate reasons (to fall in love) and not boost their Instagram following, making us root for them even more.
Though the novelty of the pods has worn off, there's still a reason people on coming back to watch - the drama. And wow, is there a lot of it.
The intensity of the situation (they're literally getting married!) raises the stakes, and people appear to do and say things they probably wouldn't have, if they weren't with the person they believed they were going to marry. Like when Giannina told fiancé Damian that she didn't think their sex life was as good as he did. Or when Bartise told his wife-to-be Nancy that he thought Raven was a "smoke show". The concept of getting married seems to bring a whole new level of honesty that we haven't previously seen on dating shows.
All that aside, there's the good old fashioned messiness of it all. Despite ourselves, we just can't helping being obsessed with it. Think of the many love triangles we've seen over the years - Amber, Jessica and Barnett. Cole, Colleen and Zanab. And how could we forget the chaos of Natalie, Shayne and Shaina? The cherry on the cake has been the shocking revelations - Amber telling Barnett she's deep in debt, Carlton revealing he's bisexual to fiancée Diamond and Shake telling everyone how he felt about Deepti, but not Deepti herself.
There's also the sheer chaos of the people the producers have managed to bring together. On no other show would you see a woman feed her dog wine straight out of the glass or have Raven doing jumping jacks whilst Bartise confessed his feelings for her. And don't even get us started on the man (hi Andrew) putting eyedrops in to fake tears.
Nowhere is the pandemonium more present than at the reunion and After The Altar specials. Filmed months later, when the cast have had time to reflect (read: see what was and wasn't included in the final cut), even more truths come out. Seriously, people do not hold back. Though other reality shows have reunions (Real Housewives, Below Deck etc) the revelations feel more shocking. Sometimes, its sweet and surprising, like when couples reveal they're back together after saying "no" at the altar, but more often than not, it's just pure mess. Remember when Shake told everyone the only person he fancied in the cast was host Vanessa Lachey?
As the fourth season approaches, I just want to take a moment to thank Netflix for bringing this chaotic reality show into our lives. I don't know what we did without it.
Love Is Blind season 4 is available on Netflix from 24th March
