Dating is chaos. Nowhere is this more clear than in the Netflix dating show “Love is Blind”. Singles fall in love there without ever seeing each other, just based on conversations. This reveals more about love in postmodern times than any sociological study. For the past five years, the show has been a look into the abyss of postmodern love finding. With season 6, which has been running since Valentine’s Day, a new low has been reached.
Everything starts in such a good mood. “I want a man who values my inner self,” beams AD, 32, a real estate agent, into the camera. “The looks should just be the cherry on top”. Trevor worries that his muscles distract from his personality. He is 30, a salesman, wears a fokuhila and says: “Many women make up their minds about me before they get to know my inner personality.”
“Love is Blind” should be the answer to Tinder and Corona. Proof that connection can also arise without superficial, physical contact. A group of heterosexual singles are locked up for ten days, separated by gender. Cell phones and media are prohibited, as are contacts outside. Her only occupation: dating. They meet for dates in cabins, the so-called “pods”, where they can hear the other person through loudspeakers but cannot see them.
The goal of the dating phase is to get a marriage proposal. Only then do the couples see each other – and go on a luxury vacation together. Phase three is moving in together in apartments rented by Netflix. And if everything goes well: wedding, of course. Then Netflix proved that while we stoically swipe around on dating apps, we might just be missing out on the chance at true love. Because she’s too blonde for us, wears an ill-fitting suit or poses confidently with a dead pike. Actually, love is blind!
As in previous seasons, it doesn’t even take until the end of the first episode for the first red flags to fly. Above all, the villain: Matthew, 36, financial advisor. He has brought a list of 15 questions – from the pragmatic to the heartless – that he poses to each of his blind dates. Number ten: What are your strengths in a relationship? He casts the candidates relatively listlessly (“Question number four has already come up a few times, please choose something else”). Matthew hasn’t yet thought about his own strengths in a relationship and when asked how he’s doing, he doesn’t answer (“That’s my business”). While a candidate answers him question twelve – “What is one of your short-term goals in life?” – and in a trembling voice he explains how difficult it is to make yourself vulnerable in the search for true love, Matthew leaves the dating pod without a word. Here someone has fully accepted the economics of the free market and internalized the rules of the game. In the end, humans too are a product, hopefully without defects.
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