Love Is Blind - My Lazy Opinions.

Like millions of people around the world I tuned in and watched Season 6 of the Netflix dating show “Love is Blind”. I hadn’t watched the show since Season 2 as I needed a break from the hetero hysterics. I can’t recall what in particular made me want to watch Season 6 but I found myself watching the entire thing along with my partner. I said whatever, let’s see what Nick and Vanessa Lachey are cooking up these days.

Drama. They’re still cooking up drama. 

In case you have no idea what this show is about, I’ll provide a brief description. Love Is Blind (which I will abbreviate to L.I.B henceforth) is a reality TV dating show where about twenty singles gather in some home somewhere and go on dates with each other. They do not see the person they are talking to/dating or even sit in the same room with them. Rather they sit in different rooms (pods) and communicate through a wall with the person(s) they’re interested in.

After a few days of giddy and tipsy exchange, the singles are expected to propose to the person they felt most connected and compatible with and only then do they get to see the individual to whom they spilled their guts.

There are ten million blogs, vlogs and think pieces on this show already so I have no intention of stretching this post out. This will by no means be an exhaustive piece covering every little scandal, foible, and cringeworthy moment- that would take forever and I have a life.

So these are my lazy opinions. This will be a one and done thing.

That being said, SPOILER ALERT! If you are in the middle of watching the Season 6 shenanigans or intend to at some point, skip this here post and read something else on my fair little blog. Might I suggest a piece about a flying dutchess or an adventuring boy called Eran, linked right here -

https://www.faraigotora.com/blog

Being single is the expectation for participants of this show because the final objective for participants is a wedding and a bonafide marriage.

Maybe no one said anything about situationships because Trevor was apparently in one at the time he signed up for the show. Guess I’ll start there.

TREVOR.

Trevor is a mountain of a man with a mullet. During the dating stages (in the pods) he connected with a gal named Megan Fox, just kidding! Her name is Chelsea and there’ll be more on her later. Bracelets and I love you’s were exchanged and it seemed for all the world they would end up together.

Alas! Chelsea accepted Jimmy’s proposal and Trevor was left without a match. Sadly, he had to go back to his “not my girlfriend girl friend” out in the real world. Screenshots with texts about this alleged situationship surfaced at some point in the days leading up to the L.I.B Reunion and the Lachey’s grilled him about this.

It really seemed to me that Nick and Vanessa who have quite the little empire going for themselves with these love+lust type shows were very upset at his dishonesty. How could Trevor sign up for a show where marriage is the expected outcome when he still had a thing official or not with someone else? For a cringeworthy five minutes, Trevor gave pathetic explanations and apologies, stating that he was “fucking toxic” and he needed therapy.

Don’t we all…

With his humiliation complete, he was dismissed from the Reunion couch like a sulking kid getting dismissed from the dinner table. For a while on the show Trevor had been seen as this gentle, emotionally aware teddy bear but the scandalous screenshots tanked his stock from sky high to FTX levels overnight.

Moral of the story: you can’t have your L.I.B fiancee and side piece too.

CHELSEA & JIMMY.

I took this picture straight from my TV screen at this exact moment.

Phew.

I honestly could just type that and let it be because if you know, you know. I’m going to discuss these two together because they were together and in some ways were quite similar. Both spoke to and dated other people in the pods but ultimately Jimmy picked Chelsea and proposed to her.

Throughout the dating stages Jimmy had been as mealy-mouthed as they come, saying a whole lot of nothing and not being sure whom he wanted out of the two ladies he was speaking. The choice was made significantly easier when Chelsea slyly brought up the question of celebrity look-a-likes. With golden chalice in hand, she nonchalantly stated that people told her that she resembled “MGK’s girlfriend or wife”. This would be one Megan Fox…

Yes, that Megan Fox.

To my eyes, I see only a faint, faraway dusting of a resemblance between the two women. Chelsea looks like Megan Fox the same way potatoes are vodka. True, vodka is often made from the humble potato; the stuff to make vodka (be it cheap well vodka or the premium, good stuff) exists in potatoes but it’s a stretch to say the two are alike. If my bartender plopped a potato in my glass of cranberry and vodka, I’d be confused and upset.

Uncertain Jimmy behind the walls heard that one of the girl’s he was considering moving forward with favored Megan Fox and that all but made his mind up. In my opinion, he didn’t seem too thrilled about being a step father to Jess’ kid (Jess was the other potential partner he was talking to in the pods) and so the choice was clear. Megan Fox babe!

The fact that Chelsea had to resort to this conniving tactic, bringing up looks in a show that touts finding love based on other factors besides the physical showed a penchant for manipulation. She tried to downplay this doppelganger debacle at the reunion but it was clear and obvious what she was doing.

And Jimmy fell for it! He proposed and when they saw each other for the first time, his reaction was telling! Oh god his face! He looks dead into the camera while embraced in a hug with his new fiancee and his eyes say BUYERS REMORSE. When she asks if he finds her attractive, he says yes and compliments her teeth. Now teeth are a mighty fine thing to have and hers are nice but except for folks with a dental fetish, teeth aren’t really the things that get most people going in the loin region, if you catch my drift.

The remainder of the season is just a cringe cycle of Chelsea seeking reassurance that Jimmy loves her and finds her attractive while he says everything except what he really feels inside.

This couple does NOT make it down the aisle.The day before the wedding was due to happen, Jimmy takes Chelsea out on a fun date at an amusement park only to break up with her at the end of the day with the ferris wheel watching.

Like I said, PHEW.

AD & CLAY & …MATT?

This couple was Season 6’s offering of black love. During the dating stages, AD had spoken to Matt, a white man of…I’ll say unusual aura. Some on the internet have said Matt “gives off serial killer vibes” but I’ll refrain from saying that unless and until a series of murders are undeniably linked to him.

His behavior was odd, sure but he mentioned that the whole experience was unusual and out of his comfort zone which can understandably make someone come off different from how they are in reality.

(As a side note I want to point out that Jeramy, another participant on L.I.B 6 also had the same serial killer remarks said about him by some people and one of the common denominators was that they were both fairly clean individuals who had organized and regimented lives. This is unfair in my opinion. We can’t simultaneously demonize men for being filthy disgusting wretches who live worse than pigs and also demonize them for being clean and having basic hygiene down. The thing that made Jeramy particularly concerning to me was his ability to tell calculated lies with cool detachment. And Matt was just running the same game on all his dates seemingly without any attachment to the things he was saying. Those are the concerning things in my opinion, not that they showered and did laundry)

But back to AD and Clay…

The pair had a bumpy road in the pods. At one point Clay tried to get insight into how AD looked, which again, was a contradiction of what the show is supposedly about. AD didn’t oblige, wishing to stay true to the purpose of the show.

The other snafu happened when Clay learned that AD was also talking to Matt in the pods. Clay was very upset over this and he let AD know his displeasure. Yet, dating multiple people during the pod stage is the whole point! You’re supposed to go on dates with however many individuals you feel a spark with and eventually narrow the field down to one. Clay hadn’t “locked down” AD yet with a proposal so she was under no obligation to be loyal to him. And besides, these were merely blind dates to get to know if you can even stand the person on the other side of the wall! Clay’s jealous reaction was pretty telling…

Once the pair were engaged, it seemed that not a day went by without Clay expressing this deep set fear of infidelity that stemmed from seeing his own father be a serial cheater during Clay’s childhood. Trauma is valid and I know from personal experience what a parent’s infidelity can do to a child and the family as a whole.

Maybe seeking therapy before signing up to be on a show where commitment and marriage are required and expected was a better move for him. Because the frequency with which it came up was annoying and alarming for me on my couch in Chicago! How much more was it for AD who had to hear it every time he opened his mouth?

My question for Clay in the immortal words of Ms. Joseline Hernandez would be; HO, WHY IS YOU HERE?

This will always be my biggest point of frustration with the participants on the show who end up saying “No” at the wedding. If you’re not sure 48 hours before you’re set to marry someone, are you going to be any more sure fifteen minutes to the wedding? Or when you see them walking down the aisle when it’s seconds to go before “I do”?! It makes no sense to me.

Real people gather and attend these weddings. Real family members buy plane tickets and come from wherever to witness their daughter, sister, friend or son, nephew, brother tie the knot. God knows how much in airfare and Air BnB’s is spent after the Netflix budget is spent only for someone who was always unsure to say “No, I can’t marry you.” Their heartbreak and sadness is real. Their time is definitely wasted. This truly is my biggest pet peeve regarding this show.

On the other hand, was AD in denial about the state of this relationship and her new fiance? He definitely made his fears known more than once. He definitely flashed a couple of red flags in the weeks leading up to their wedding. Was she guilty of wilfully ignoring the flags? If someone repeatedly told me they were not sure they could be faithful to me, I’d like to think I’d at least pause things and discuss. Certainly not walk down the aisle. I’m not judging, I’m sad.

Evenso, they went ahead and told their loved ones to join them for their big day only for AD to say Yes while Clay said No. Picture me shrugging to keep from breaking down. To my absolute horror, AD entertained Clay when he came around some time later to apologize and explain. After such a grand humiliation, I’d personally need some time away from the person responsible for my pain. But I’m not AD and I’m not on Love Is Blind.

The Reunion saw them seated side by side and talk about where things stood at present. From the sounds and looks of it, they aren’t officially and fully back together but I got the sense that a reunion between the two of them wasn’t off the table. AD stated that she had been out with Matt post-show but they aren’t together nor continuing to date. It’s worth noting that Clay looked very uncomfortable as she gave these updates but at the end he said he has no animosity nor ill-feeling towards Matt.

Good. It would be stupid to hold any kind of negative feeling towards AD nor Matt. He said No at the altar. AD is not his to be even a little jealous of.

There was more; so much more in Season 6!

JERAMY & LAURA & SARAH ANN…

Jeramy was/is a sly, liar of a man. He is skilled in sharing half-truths to cover his tracks in a modicum of credibility but it only takes one to zoom out just a little to see through his bullshit.

Love was not blind for him because at the first opportunity to ditch his fiancee, the woman he chose, for Sarah Ann, the other woman he was dating in the pods, Jeramy was gone. At the Reunion he adorned himself in a cloak of cool detachment and defensiveness against the onslaught of questions that were lobbed his way. Like Trevor, Jeramay was also entangled with some other woman on the outside and all of it came to light.

Needless to say Laura, his fiancee for two days or something stupid like that dodged a bullet.

Now was Laura a bit mean about his shirts and some aspects of his personality, yes. But he proposed and made a commitment to her and he could’ve handled that whole sham engagement better and at least came out looking better than he did.

When Jeramy jetskii’ed off into the sunset with Sarah Ann alongside him, he was laughing maniacally, almost as if to convince us and himself that he was so happy. But we all know when you’ve got to ham it up so hard, you’re probably not as happy as you’re trying to make us believe. According to Chelsea and their words and body language at the Reunion, things aren’t great.

Tough shit.

CONCLUSION

There are other couples to discuss and plenty of drama and angles that I haven’t even touched on. This is because I’m tired and just don’t want to haha.

Kenny and Brittany were an interracial pair that went nowhere fast. I feel bad for Brittany because after the vacation portion of the show, Kenny was disengaged and looked like he’d have rather been lost in space than next to her. Fortunately for Kenny’s loved ones, he was only lost in his phone.

Amy and Johnny (was his name Johnny?)…Well this was the only couple that ended up getting married. Though they had their challenges culturally and when it came to baby making, they were able to communicate and liked each other enough to say “I do.” at the end. I wish them well.

As of now I doubt that I’ll watch another installment of this show. Some have argued that love is not and cannot be blind, especially for men. I don’t know if I can wholly agree or even disagree with that. I can say without doubt that physical and sexual attraction is real and cannot always be substituted for emotional or mental connection.

It’s probably in the best interest of anyone intending to go on such shows to be prepared for some rude awakenings or startling reminders. People often like what they like and if your facial and physical arrangements aren’t to your partner’s liking, it may be an uphill climb to get them to feel differently. Sad but true and unfortunate. Vain creatures we are.

That’s that on L.I.B 6 from me at least!

Tah!