Social Experiment | Tranquil Dreams

Love is Blind (Season 1, 2020)

Hosts: Nick Lachey, Vanessa Lachey

Singles who want to be loved for who they are, rather than what they look like, have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating. – IMDB

Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, Love is Blind is a dating series and social experiment that aims to prove whether love is blind. How it all works is that a group of men and women who live separately date through these pods separated by an opaque glass over 10 days. During the process, they get to know each other without any physical contact or seeing each other and if and when they fall in love, they can propose. If agreed, they can see each other the next day. After the course of 10 days, the successful engaged couples move onto the next phase to a Mexico resort trip to further their relationship before moving onto the next phase of meeting reality as they move in together into a complex and share the news of their upcoming marriage to family and friends as well as prepare for their marriage in a few weeks. On the day they get married, they get to decide at the altar whether to say I do or I don’t. All this happens over a course of 6 or 8 weeks or something like that. I can’t remember the exact time frame.

In some ways, Love is Blind is kind of taking the dating experience and doing it backwards while taking a blind date for its literal meaning. In that sense, the most intriguing part of this entire experiment is the interaction in the pods. After the couples meet each other, it turns back into a dating reality show where the love is blind element is put more in the background as it starts to depend on the physical attraction as well as the personality of each of these people whether they are ready for marriage. The love developed in the pods might not be enough to get them to the next phase. Watching couples and reality TV, if its your thing, is all about the drama and dilemma and such that the people go through and for this, the couple they have here have them in spades and its riveting TV to say the least, if not for some nice fluffy guilty pleasure TV.

Thing is, my biggest issue with Love is Blind is that in the back of my mind, its a show that somehow sits on the fence of being good and bad. Sure, its guilty pleasure TV and dating reality shows tend to have that. In some ways, its also more grounded because its not like a bunch of girls or a bunch of guys going after one person. Its concept works to a certain extend if not a backwards dating process where they commit to engagement before heading towards marriage. On the dating reality show element, it ticks a lot of the boxes but as the social experiment that it claims to be, I’m not sure it actually proves anything because love may be blind but whether it all works out depends on each individual and each couple.

As a final note, to myself, the last episode being the reunion episode may have turned me off the show and was slightly unnecessary. It felt to a certain extent a lesson on what each one of them learned and then resolving conflicts on the show and bringing up certain conflicts. Some made sense to resolve and some just felt petty to dissect even more. Overall, Love is Blind is fun as a dating reality series but there are some elements here in execution and tagging on the social experiment that felt like it missed the mark. Pushing all that aside, for what it is, its still decent enough entertainment if you are into these kind of shows. What I am curious to see is whether this manages to land itself a second season.

The Circle (Season 1, 2020)

Host: Michelle Buteau

The Circle is a 3 week limited series social media competition with a social experiment central focus as different contestants living in apartments in one building communicate through social media only and try to gain popularity to get the top spot in the end to win $100,000. In the process, the lowest ranked players are at risk of being blocked where new players will enter to take their place. At the same time, players can enter as themselves or as catfish.

There are so many angles to look at this show. I’m not going to lie that going into this and watching a bunch of different people interact through social media is something of a cringey feeling as you never know who these people are. However, if The Circle does do anything well, its that every contestant (whether intentional or not) proves a few important points about the world interacting through a screen: the level of trust, the easily misinterpreted messages due to lack of interaction and of course, the judgement of a first impression/appearances and photos. Sure, its only 12 episodes and like 12 days or something that these people are together if they were the surviving initial group that makes it to the end and its not enough to truly know who these people actually are in real life but the fact that the show, as the audience observes them and their reactions in their own space, some of the people will change initial opinions.

The first angle of the show is obviously what everyone goes into this for: entertainment. Its a competition so there will be tension especially as the viewers find their players that they want to win this and in the face of ratings amongst themselves and who gets eliminated, it builds fairly well. The Circle feels natural enough especially as the show goes on and the players settle in. The best moments are probably those where there are shocking moments of player reveals, especially for the catfishes. Plus, watching people react to what others say is pretty fun overall. Sure, some of the players have some big personalities and might even seem a bit annoying in the beginning but its funny how things change in the course of the game.

If you look at this on the social experiment angle on what social media does to the society and how it builds up an image of what others feel is more accepted regarding appearances or even personality and other preset thoughts and prejudices that people build, it turns into a rather deep contemplation at the end as to whether what the catfishes were proving is a bad thing or whether if you connect with a catfish and its only the appearance that is fake means that it was all a lie in the first place.

Its interesting how we view social media and online interaction at times and for that, I’d say that on some levels, The Circle actually gives some room for contemplation of how online interaction does subconsciously and they did pick out a good group of players that showed a lot of angles of how people can view them or why they picked their catfish alias. If anything, The Circle has proved that the convenience of online interaction has both its pros and cons and highlights some stereotypes that people generally have. The Circle is a surprisingly interesting look at this through a rather entertaining game/competition.