Netflix’s Obsession with Dating Shows Has Got to Stop
Image Courtesy of AOL.
By Ryn Cole
In 2020 when people had nothing to do but make whipped coffee and scroll on TikTok, Netflix had a perfect opportunity to glorify binge-watching. And what is the best thing to watch when you’re lounging around the house all day? Reality television.
Reality TV at its core is easy to watch and almost mindless. This isn’t to say that they aren’t entertaining. In fact, so many people watch reality television that Netflix has made show after show, and they continue to suck in audiences from all around the world. Since the quarantine of 2020, dating shows like Too Hot to Handle (2020 – present), Love is Blind (2020 – present), The Ultimatum (2022 – present), and Sexy Beasts (2015 – present) have been released and received huge amounts of attention. Some of their popular non-dating-focused reality shows also include The Circle (2020 – present) and The Mole (2022 – present).
Netflix’s newest reality show is called Perfect Match (2023 – present), and it is in fact the perfect match of drama, tears, and insanity. Perfect Match follows past members of the aforementioned reality shows. Because the contestants already have experience in past reality shows, they are already aware of how Netflix’s dating shows work. The show follows ten contestants in a luxurious house in Panama City in search to find their “perfect match”. Each day, there is a challenge in order to find the most compatible couple which then gets the power to stir up drama in the house.
Challenges have included tests to get to know one another, guessing games, and even one where each person in the house had to kiss each other and rate their performance, which is not only uncomfortable but downright disrespectful to couples. The winning couple gets to choose two new contestants to bring into the house.
Every other day, the house consists of five guys and seven girls, so the men decide which two girls will not be coupled up and will go home. The next night, the females have the power and choose two guys to go home. This pattern continues to switch back and forth each week, bringing in new people and kicking them out quickly, creating tension in the house as people grapple to stay relevant.
Past contestant of Too Hot to Handle, Izzy Fairthorne, sums up these feelings in episode five when she says, “In this house you make crazy decisions, and you don’t have time to process them.”
Some of the other most well-known contestants of this show include Bartise Bowden and Shane Jansen from Love is Blind, Francessca Farago from Too Hot to Handle, and Joey Sasso from The Circle.
The end goal of the show is for people to fall for each other and for one couple to be voted as the “perfect match” by the rest of the cast, but it is unclear what they actually win other than the title. The premise of this show at the base level is just trying to stir up the most drama possible. None of the current couples have deep, genuine connections, and they switch up their partners almost every week. On top of this, many of the contestants chosen already know each other and/or have had past romantic relationships with each other.
All of the episodes of Perfect Match will have been released on February 28th as they came out in three batches of episodes. Perfect Match fans can look forward to all the drama coming to a conclusion soon. While this show is entertaining because of the amount of absurdity and tears, it is stereotypically showcasing the trashiness of reality television. No real connections are made, and the contestants change far too often for any healthy friendships to develop. Due to these immense flaws, Perfect Match might just be the end of Netflix’s successful reality show run.
