When I confessed to you last summer that I had watched and enjoyed a reality TV program centered around dating and relationships, I thought it was a one-off occurrence.
Then recently, when the weather got cold, I accidentally stumbled into Love Island… and there’s no going back now. I can’t even be ashamed about it – yes, I know it’s trashy TV but it is also utterly irresistible winter viewing!
Love Island is an international phenomenon that started in the UK back in 2015 and has since spread to multiple other countries worldwide. I’ve now watched both a US season and an Australia season, and clearly I’m hooked.
The show features a group of single strangers who are picked to live in a vacation villa in a gorgeous locale and forced to couple up in various pairings until they find “the one.” The goal of the show is love, sweet love.
My first exposure to Love Island happened when our 14-year-old daughter randomly started watching season 3 of Love Island U.S. with her boyfriend. I’d hear them laughing, yelling and mock-squabbling while watching TV, and it sounded like fun. When I asked what they were watching, she said “Love Island – and you would LOVE it, Mom!”
I began season 3 of Love Island U.S. that night, and she was right – it is visual candy and totally my jam. Set in a gorgeous tropical location and featuring some of the most physically attractive young humans imaginable, Love Island is a humorous and entertaining feast for the eyes.
It’s easy to see how Love Island has quickly infiltrated into pop culture. If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “A new bombshell has entered the villa,” that’s a Love Island-ism.
Shortly after finishing my U.S. season, I tried watching a season of Love Island Australia and liked it even more. Love Island Australia’s season 6 had everything I liked about the American version but with Aussie accents, slang and mannerisms. It was also a bit naughtier than the US version, which added an extra level of spice and entertainment.
Here are my favorite things about Love Island – along with a few random observations:
- It’s fun to live vicariously by watching others enjoy vacationing in a beautiful location. Seriously, the scenery in Love Island doesn’t miss. Both the US season I watched (filmed in Hawaii) and the Australian season (filmed in Mallorca, Spain) featured crystal blue waters, oceanside cliffs, tropical flowers, sunshine and incredible vacation villas. What better way to stay warm during a cold Ohio winter?
- The human “scenery” isn’t bad, either. I’m not one to objectify others or focus on appearance, but it’s hard not to with Love Island. The contestants, known as islanders, are each more gorgeous and physically fit than the last. They’re always primping, doing their hair, looking at themselves in the mirror and dressing up like life-size dolls. Being stunning also doesn’t happen by accident; they work out a ton and the girls wear gobs of makeup, hair extensions, etc.
- Love Island is a great reminder that looking perfect wouldn’t solve all your problems. These kids are a hot mess express of insecurity, miscommunication, neediness and self-doubt despite their seemingly perfect exteriors. Add to that the unbelievably intense environment of being forced into intimate relationships over and over again with other extremely hot islanders – it’s no wonder there’s so much drama on this show.
- Love Island is an especially fun watch for true believers in romance and real love. Despite the aforementioned stressful scenarios the islanders are thrown into, once in a while we get to witness a spark of real love. I admire the islanders who try to find genuine, authentic connections even in contrived circumstances. It’s fun figuring out who’s truly in it for love and who’s just there to chase clout or get some airtime on national TV. And no, of course I’m not saying that the relationships on Love Island are necessarily healthy or to be emulated in real life.
- There really is NO good way to tell someone that you now like someone else more than you liked them. Rejection is a part of Love Island, but when islanders get rejected, they can act in some very odd ways – from sadness to anger to an immediate quest to recouple with someone else as revenge. Almost no one handles it well, even though they’re all on a show where rejection is inevitable.
- The producers can be absolutely savage. The Australian season I watched was known as “The Year of Tough Love” and that basically meant the producers could be unbelievably unfair to the islanders. Just when a couple is super connected and feeling “loved up,” the producers would force a recoupling by dumping half the pair or adding a new temptation challenge. There are few couples who could withstand the things done to the Aussie season 6 islanders. It was brutal to watch!
- The unseen narrators are hilarious and absolutely make the show. They comedically make fun of the islanders, the setting, reality TV in general, Love Island itself, the glamourous hosts and, of course, themselves. I often laugh out loud at some of the sarcastic, silly and otherwise hilarious comments from the comedic narrators – they are the hidden gems of Love Island.
As Lena Dunham herself once wrote about Love Island UK, “the deeper we go into Love Island, the more likely we are to see ourselves.” I definitely agree. We may not all be scorchingly hot and paid to pair up with other hotties on a tropical island while following bizarro reality TV rules. However, we can still see parts of our own humanity in the trials and tribulations of these tanned and taut young people.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Have you watched Love Island – and do you have a favorite country, episode, pairing or season? I’d love to hear in the comments below or over on Facebook or Instagram.
