Four years and already into its seventh season, Love is Blind clearly has a winning formula. Not forgetting its foray into Mexico, Japan, Brazil, and many others. Plus, most recently, Love is Blind UK. As the show returns, I feel like not much time has passed since I last streamed Netflix’s moreish reality dating show. Oh wait, it has. Just under eight months has passed, but it’s back for season 7.
Once again, Love is Blind is carried by its utterly brilliant concept - can singles find love without ever seeing the other person? Relying on their personalities and emotional connection, rather than the physical, they spend time in ‘pods’ dating each other until they potentially, and hopefully, find the one. After a proposal in the pods, they meet for the first time face-to-face in a Blind Date-esque tunnel reveal. Then, it’s time for a honeymoon in Mexico followed by living together back in the destination of that series. For season 7, that’s Washington DC. Then, if they’re lucky, they’ll head down the aisle to see if they can share a mutual ‘I Do’.
While the ins and outs of Love is Blind create an incredibly watchable formula, it’s the singletons that the producers carefully select for each season that truly bring this reality dating show to life. It’s a competitive landscape, but Love is Blind is a social experiment at its core, with love as a prize. And, this season, I’m always somewhat surprised at how day-to-day the men and women are (although there are certainly exceptions to the rule, as I’ll discuss below).
The difference it seems, as season 7 begins, is that the attention has turned, for a fair few, to looks. The shift comes after Megan Fox-gate of Love is Blind season 6 when Chelsea told her match, Jimmy, that she looked like the famous actor, to which viewers and most importantly Jimmy, didn’t agree. It appears now that the hopeful singletons are less trusting in the experiment and more worried about finding out who they’re really getting matched with, despite it being against the show’s whole ethos. That’s not to say everyone is asking though. But, of the couples that will eventually head on honeymoon, really only one didn’t appear to discuss it.
Yet, it’s always refreshing to watch the singles bond over some really earnest and sometimes incredibly emotional conversations. Deep connections seemingly form as they’re willing to hear each other speak rather than judging at face value. One example from this year’s batch is the relationship between real estate agent, Nick and West Virginian, Hannah. When they meet face-to-face, Hannah doesn’t agree with the way Nick described himself in the pods. Yet, as their conversations flow, she begins to remember the way they bonded through words alone.
But, Hannah was also involved in one of the most toxic and hard-to-watch ‘love’ triangles of this season. Leo, an art dealer, who insists on mentioning how much money he has to everyone, develops a relationship with both Hannah and Brittany. Watching Leo share an apparently-equal love, he leads both of them on before Hannag reveals her decision to partner with Nick. It’s the fallout from this revelation to Leo that makes him spiral, beg, and manipulate the conversation to make Hannah feel terrible and, as a viewer, you can only feel for both women. In a weird twist, while Leo and Brittany eventually get engaged, the producers decided not to carry on their ‘love story’ into the the honeymoon phase in Mexico. Stating instead that they had their own trip to Miami and split weeks after the engagement.
It’s a show that you can’t turn away from, but with characters like Leo, you feel almost guilty for watching. Thankfully, I always breathe a sigh of relief when the couples make it through the pods and can move forward out of the competitive dating phase with their ‘one’. It’s hard, much like any reality TV dating show, to not question the motive of the contestants. But, ultimately, you want to believe that love can happen when looks are put aside and this show continues to gives hope to that concept while gifting its viewers an addictive and exciting watch.
While I’ve only watched the first six episodes, Love is Blind season 7 promises to be another season full of tears, the L word, and difficult conversations. Whether they’ll all make it down the aisle, we’ll have to wait and see. Given how previous seasons have gone, it’s not looking too promising. Though as you watch this year’s cast connect on personal struggles and family relationships, you hope that, they can prove that love really can be blind.
Love is Blind season 7 episodes 1-6 are available to stream on Netflix now. New episodes will release weekly throughout October. Episodes 7-9 come on October 9, episodes 10-11 on October 16, episode 12 finale out on October 23, and the reunion on October 30.
