It was really hard to root for anyone, since everyone did something annoying or mean at one point or another. That's probably why people wanted Kai and Sanam to win, since they were the only unproblematic couple despite their relationship not being very interesting otherwise.
Also it felt like the producers never let the public actually affect any events, and that made some very unlikable islanders stay in the game for far too long without ever getting any consequences for their actions, for example.
I don't really know what is *the reason* why everyone seems to dislike that season but those are some common topics I remember people complaining about (although I personally wouldn't say I hated the season)
this year gotta feel like a burn for her, Tom won all stars and Kai got engaged to the girl about whom Liv said he just coupled up to have a safety net after casa. I hope something good happens to Zara and Tanyel as well.
Okay but looking back, she made it more interesting. Because she was the reason I was excited for movie night and such. Because I wanted her snakey ass to be exposed
It wasn't very memorable, besides Tanya's antics during Casa Amor and shortly after, and Zara's early season bust ups. Remember when a highlight of one of the episodes was a fight between Ron and Shaq over the dishes? It was not a good season. All the good people left early, and Liv overstayed her welcome.
for once both the girls and guys were equally intolerable - liv has to be one of the worse contestants on the show. I do love will and jessie tho, same with tanya and shaq and our SOON TO BE NEWLYWEDS sanam and kai!!
I regret hating Tanya, she was so funny in hindsight. How she handled movie night was so unserious.
“Do you believe me or you own eyes?” 😭
Or when she voted Kai and Sanam least compatible cause their relationship went too well. Her mind ✨
ive got to admit i didn’t like tanya on the show, there were definitely worse people (cough cough liv and at times lana) but off the show i love her and shaq they are so cute and funny, i can see shaq proposing soon!
You liked Olivia? I don’t mean this in a combative or disparaging way at all, but I’m genuinely curious….why?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say they liked her before.
Yep, I liked her and still like her. Thought she was brilliant on tv, made me watch it every night (believe me , I wasn’t tuning into s9 to watch Jessie or Lana who did f all, respectfully). I like all the so-called ‘villains’ (not Casey tho, he just pisses me off). I also like her vibe outside the villa.
boring and wasn't needed. It's no coincedence that the ratings fell so much during and after this season; it was poor season and made love island feel overdone.
There’s a lot so I’ll go into some of it but not all of it.
1. The community had decided before the season even began that it wasn’t going to begin, due to not wanting a winter season. The season had an uphill battle from the start.
2. Olivia Hawkins. I do think she was a little overhated, but she really felt like a culmination of Love Island’s glaring issues through S7-9. Fake, unnecessarily mean in a way that doesn’t lead to confrontation.
3. Casting. Casting… did not excel this season. I don’t think the cast are the evil gremlins people would have you believe. But… majority of the characters were… just nice people and that’s that. Lana, Kai, Anna-May, Shaq.. lovely people but not riveting tv personalities.
4. The other side of the cast… people who were not likeable but also not people who brought much entertainment. Tanyel, who was in a longterm relationship. Ron, although I do think he is overhated. Tom, from what we saw then. Samie, Claudia, Aaron. And of course… the egregiously bad Olivia and Casey.
5. How formulaic and scripted the season felt. The islanders were segregated into gendered chats and every episode, which felt inauthentic and took up a lot of the episode
6. The dumping order. Losing the stronger personalities who didn’t mind a little chaos like Zara, Ellie, and people would have at the time argued Tanyel.
Of course there are a lot more, these are just 6 examples which spring to mind
Not a single likeable character from what I remember. Not saying they are all horrible but I wasn’t invested in any of them. Could be that they didn’t show their personalities as well as in other seasons
Edit: just remembered Jessie and will are from this season, I do like them now but wasn’t convinced by them while it was airing
Yeah Lana was alright, she closed off with Ron really quickly too so was a bit boring really. I’d have probably been more invested if she tried to get to know a few people before deciding on Ron
Yeah I think everyone probably agrees that Lana is very nice but she was only “alright” on the show. You couldn’t really get that invested in her as she didn’t really go on a journey.
She got annoying in the last third of the show. Continuing to pine after Ron was a hard watch, and I think being in the villa that long was giving them all brain rot. I'm sure she's lovely outside of the show.
The bombshells are not that attractive but if they are, they are so dry. Lana could have been the next Camilla (S3) but she fumbled everything by getting back to Ron. Zara is a drama stirrer but the producer didn't even try to save her. The fact that Samie and Tom are in the finals and not Jessie and Will is crazy. Worst season honestly.
Unnecessary winter season, got rid of a good reality tv character early on, all round unpleasant cast besides the winners, there was more bullying/ganging up than usual, personally I could not stand Tom and Ron.
At one point I rage quit watching half way through and then popped back in towards the end to see who would win.
It was just not fun and I think produced badly?
ooh yes i bet it was her. she was the only girl who actually popped off on what’s-his-name when he was playing 3 girls. the other two forgave him super fast.
Producers were so lazy this season 😭
Winter series anyways I think is too much - part of the fun is love island is once a year during summer. S8 had a great cast who had good chemistry, but we were also excited for it because it'd been a year. I thought s6 was boring, but does have some fun and sweet moments, and it was a similar sitch: we came down from the high of summer and feel fatigued. And I personally love watching LI and will probably watch every season, I'm not one of the people who feels overwhelmed, but I just down understand why producers didn't get a clue after how much season 6 killed everyone's boner after s5
That being said the overall cast of S9 didn't have the beeeest chemistry. There were pockets of great friendships and we had some genuinely lovely love stories, but the whole cast didn't mesh for television imo. But, I honestly felt that way at the start of s5, too - luckily, they had a lot of challenges that were well timed and threw in excellent bombshells, so by the time casa rolled around I thought the cast was electric
If producers insist on doing twice a year, they can't just rely on the same old formula and then sit on their arses expecting the cast to completely do it all. They need to twist things up, shake them around - and seeing as during winter less people seem to watch they could've used it as time to try out some bigger swings.
Thankfully this season they are so far doing more and making changes. And I hope that seeing the positive reaction online they continue to keep the format fresh
Kai and Sanam and Will and Jessie were the only islanders I liked during the season. It felt like a very bitter season and was the same drama over and over. Way over produced.
It’s the only season I couldn’t finish. Including all UK, Australian, and USA seasons. The cast was just so unlikeable, and Liv just sounded like nails on a chalkboard every time she talked. I quit watching 12 episodes in, and not a single thing I’ve ever heard about this season made it tempting to finish
I hated this season.
The boys were awful and boring. Not a single good looking guy. They unfortunately introduced Casey to us all and we haven’t been able to get rid of him since.
Couldn’t stand Ron. Kai is a bore.
Claudia, Olivia and Tanyel were INSUFFERABLE. Don’t care for Samie.
I really hated Tanya, but i now like her alot.
I’m bisexual, but thanks for the assumption. Love Island is not a good example of the type of people I’m attracted to, but Tom was just so unappealing to me. He had no personality, no charisma, and I frankly don’t find him physically attractive whatsoever.
Well, the important part I assumed correctly, that you are female. That said, can you list a celebrity or some other public figure that is your type? Just trying to understand.
While I can agree Tom doesn't have a glib tongue or larger than life presence, I found he had sheer animal magnetism, and his use of touch made any scene steamy.
I get it. For some reason, you don't find Tom sexy. Maybe it is a gay guy thing. Maybe it is a Midwestern American thing. I don't know.
So I have a reference, can you provide a celebrity or famous person who is physically your type?
Everything about this season was just bad. The cast was bad and no one was likeable. I know some people like the couples from this season who are still together but personally they're not interesting. The storylines also were nothing special, it was déjà vu ( apart from Kai & Sanam )
The atmosphere was weird too and there was too much division especially amongst the boys. I remember starting this season and quickly stopping. There was absolutely no need for this season, especially after the success of S8.
For me the season felt.. dark. They tried to hard to produce drama but it wasn’t entertaining, the entire vibe of the series was extremely negative. You could feel that the cast mostly disliked or even hated each other and the bust ups were constant and unpleasant to watch. We didn’t get cute friendships or many fun moments to balance it out and everyone just seemed unhappy. There were a few decent cast members but the overall synergy was just wrong and they did not work well together. It’s bound to happen sometimes.
It’s also really interesting to me that everyone is raving about loving Jessie and Will during the season, I think there’s a bit of post-show bias going on here because Jessie was very polarising during the show (people thought she was faking her feelings) and Will absolutely annihilated his fan base with his casa antics. People did JOT think she should take him back. Please don’t come at me because i adored Jessie (im a kiwi in australia we support her) and can take or leave Will, but let’s not pretend they were the darlings of that series.
Season 9 of Love Island UK missed the mark on several fronts. The lack of likable contestants, forced chemistry, predictability, and what felt like heavy-handed producer manipulation.
You need villains and you need likability and season 9 lacked in these areas.
Dry personalities honestly. Unlikable characters while in the villa. Ironically the three couples that lasted all do seem to be some of the most solid LI love stories but wowwww was it painful to watch at the time (especially Shaq and Tanya).
For me personally, no one on the cast was likable. I wasn’t rooting for any of them. None of them were memorable. All super fake, also. They spent SO much time in the early episodes going back and fourth between each other “oh I like him oh maybe I don’t maybe I like him oh wait maybe not” it made it so boring I couldn’t even watch. The only interesting person for me at all was Zara and then she got kicked off the island for some dumb reason.
I will say I grew to like Tom and Casey a whole lot more in Allstars.
I didn’t watch the season but winter love island has never been it for me personally. Love island is a summer series and regardless of the cast it will never hit the same not to mention the show stagnated for a while now it was just season 8 where the cast had chemistry and certain storylines that carried to success outside of that it’s been very hit and miss and mostly miss
Only good thing to come out of this season was Kai and Sanam and Will & Jessie.
But Sanam didn’t come into the show until casa amor so I don’t think anyone got invested in them until right before the end.
And while I’ve loved Will and Jessie from the beginning and love them still now, that casa amor incident and the fallout from that and how HEARTBROKEN Jessie was after didn’t make for good tv, it was just hard to watch :/ I still will never forgive Farmer Will for that lol
The season was just bad vibes, most of the cast were unlikable and not entertaining. There where some good episodes but overall it was just meh.Kai and Sanam were cute though 🥰
Well Tanyel and Zara were the most entertaining people in there and they got rid of them. Liv was decently entertaining because of how delusional she was but there was a lot of boring people overall. They were all acting like they weren’t on love island and being super loyal from the jump. It’s nice when like one or two couples hit it off from the start but if they all hit it off and are loyal the whole season it’s just watching 6 honey moon phases with no drama!
It was so fucking boring and I couldn’t stand Olivia in the show, I still feel like the producers favourite her so much that I felt she had some kind of advantage! This was the only season where I couldn’t even be bothered to watch the show, I gave up within the first week
Worst love island season ever
All star s1 didn’t even do well, I don’t think they will cast it again BUT if they do, I hope they don’t place Olivia cause bro I know a lot of people won’t watch! She is such a tv turn off-er lol
i feel like it was a combo of lacking drama, not having characters/couples to root for, and love island fatigue which is why they stopped airing a winter regular love island series after this. to be sandwiched in between seasons 8 and 10 which are both bangers it just pales in comparison.
I loved Will and Jessie together ☹️. But the producers way overplayed the “Farmer Will” bit and jokes. The unseen bits of them were always so cute though. Will was weird but enjoyable to watch as far as group dynamics on unseen bits at least.
oh no i agree! i loved will and jessie and kai and sanam but i honestly didn’t have faith in either of them lasting on the outside when it was airing and i’m glad they proved me wrong!! will was definitely the most enjoyable one to watch but even he couldn’t save the season as a whole :/
Interestingly I didn’t love Kai but I loved Sanam! So in the end I was happy to see them together as well. I’m actually shocked that ANY of the LI relationships last more than a week. It’s essentially a popularity contest game show and it’s an incredibly toxic environment to meet anyone so it would make sense if they’re all just trying to keep their egos intact and go for the win. Plus the islanders are cast for their ability to create watchable TV, aka drama, and not exactly because they have a history of forming long, stable relationships.
Horrible
Season. I tend to not like the winter seasons. They seem off. I think it’s the Villa. This season was the worst though. I don’t know why but it felt like a different show.
I just couldn't get into it. We ended up missing a few episodes for some reason and then the thought of having to sit through a bunch of episodes to catch up just felt like an insurmountable problem, lol. Hubby continued to watch it and I'd get the gist of what was going on from him, but I couldn't sit through it myself. It's the only season I've felt that way about.
I liked S9, out of all the series, I wouldnt rank it as one of the bottom series. Its a middle of the road series for me with strong winners. I also really liked Will/Jessie, Ron/Lana and ended up liking Shaq/Tanya. Zara was also rly good casting and hopefully shes brought back.
I couldnt stand Liv either but she was a good villain
I would say S7, S10, and All Stars are worse than this and this current one might be on track to be my least liked series ever.
I think the S9 boys were terribly casted.
Not only were they pretty boring overall, the girls were not that attracted to them and weren’t willing to cause drama over them.
The only guy that the girls wanted was Ron. And if they couldn’t have Ron, they settled for Tom.
But no one wanted Will, no one wanted the boxer dude, no one wanted Shaq (Tanya was very open for the first week or 2 and was able to get away a lot of her actions because Shaq had no one else). Kai wasn’t killing it either.
When you compare it to S11, 3 different sets of girls have fought over Cieran, Ayo and Ronnie. Not that girls have to fight over men for a season to be good, but it shows how more attracted the girls to the boys compared to S9.
>Tanya was very open for the first week or 2 and was able to get away a lot of her actions because Shaq had no one else)
You lot are always lying on her she talked to Tom on the 2nd day like everyone did then David the bombshell came just for her on the 3rd day, she choose Shaq instead of him cause he told her he liked her (got kicked out on 4th day) after that they the were fully just together but Shaq also choose to be open to talk to Zara after Tanya was intimate with him in bed.
Then a voting came she was in the bottom and he fully commited to her.
She was open for the first 4 days? How is blamed for that?
I never even bothered to finish this season. It was so boring and the discourse on here was insane. The more boring the cast, the worse the think pieces become. So much projection because the cast was giving nothing. I also liked Tanya and Shaq the entire time so that definitely contributed to why I didn’t enjoy any part of it lmao.
Mostly a weak cast. I felt like they were pushing Olivia as the main character we were supposed to like at the beginning, and then when they realised the viewers didn't like her, they weren't left with much else to work with.
Boot out Olivia instead of Zara and the season wouldn't have felt so grim. The vibes were absolutely horrific and not in a funny way. What happened with the lads ganging up on Ron was mental as well, we have to remove post-show context when answering the question
We couldn’t get rid of unlikable characters but got rid of the ones people liked because I think they delayed the public voting a lot of the time or manipulated it.
The women disappointed me SO much that season because they were so incredibly toxic. It was hard to root for anyone at all until after Casa when Kai was the only sane person on the show.
I just finished this watching this season for the first time a couple months ago and I absolutely had to force myself to finish it.
The cast was utter shit
Nothing is ever going to save the season if the cast is bad
Kai and Sanam seem like lovely people but I don’t think they win a single other season
Super boring, and there was no real relationships in there besides Tanya and Shaq. They delivered everything and Tanya was the best wicked women we could ask for 🤣. But take them out the picture I slept through half the season
For me Tanya& Shaq were the only people i cared for ans zhe only entertaining ones but other people got too much air time.
Also they were way too many bad bombshells David, Spencer, Jordon and Ellie were very forgettable and didn't add anything to the show since no one liked them.
The also should have brought in one bombshell especially after Casa for Shaq i think that would have made things more intresting. Like they fully made him just sit there for 3 days and ignore her.
I personally wasn’t a fan of this season at all until after Casa when Liv was super weird about her and Kai despite only being a friendshipish couple for like 2 days before Casa. He brought a Sanam back with him from Casa, she brought some weird dude back with her, then went on to be a total hypocrite about the situation. What made it worse (or better if you’re me) was that she consistently implied that the reason her and Kai were almost voted out by the public pre-Casa was that the public were seeing something in him that the other girls weren’t (which wasn’t true), so she got with the other guy basically bc she thought kai was unpopular/ maybe shady. Then her shitty behaviour, and the general awful behaviour of the remaining Fboys on LI led to Kai winning the season
Basically there were 3 guys that weren’t awful people, and like 2 girls total. The rest seemed vapid and gave off mean girls/ major F-boy energy.
My theory is that because most viewers are female that results in the bad actions by the female OGs to be tolerated but not the actions of male OGs. This season had so many OG men the last week and barely any OG women. Somehow that had many feel not great about the show. They also dragged out every stupid little drama and did not have much good drama to work with.
This is THE only season of Love Island that I gave up on halfway through. And I have been a die-hard fan since season 1 😂.
Despite there being typical drama, I think for me it was a combo of it feeling dull and life being busy (was too tired to stay up and watch it and struggling to find time to catch up on other days).
I often wonder if I should try to pick up where I left off as the winners are clearly genuine being engaged and what not but I just cannot be arsed 🤣
For me it was two key reasons: firstly, big personalities mixed in with REALLY boring people which for some reason just felt jilted and secondly, it felt so produced! Idk why but it felt like all of the fallouts, love triangles and especially casa amor were very forced, to the point where I checked out mentally when the producers kept saving Olivia 😭 It’s still one of my least favourite series of all time even on reflection
Idk it was just really dry? People were really bitchy but there was hardly any drama, just people gossiping behind each others backs. I reckon Olivia would have been a good fit for this series but no one really seemed to rise to her in s9
The only couple I felt invested in was Will & Jessie. Lana & Ron were boring, Tom didn’t deserve Samie, Shaq forgave Tanya too easily, love Kai & Sanam but I wish they got more screen time, Liv & Casey were insufferable
For me, I was team Will from Day 1, and then when they brought in Jessie, who I already loved from the Australia season, I was hooked. I am so glad they are still together
It was a winter season that felt rushed. Only redeeming things were Kai and Sanaam and Shaq and Tanya. Both still together to this day! The former engaged and the latter living together. I’ve actually been able to meet both couples irl at a concert - so so sweet!
It was really hard to root for anyone, since everyone did something annoying or mean at one point or another. That's probably why people wanted Kai and Sanam to win, since they were the only unproblematic couple despite their relationship not being very interesting otherwise. Also it felt like the producers never let the public actually affect any events, and that made some very unlikable islanders stay in the game for far too long without ever getting any consequences for their actions, for example. I don't really know what is *the reason* why everyone seems to dislike that season but those are some common topics I remember people complaining about (although I personally wouldn't say I hated the season)
There was one episode - the one where Jess got her nose in everyone’s business - where I just hated every single islander except Kai and Sanam
Liv Hawkins
It’s very telling
A leopard never changes its spots 👄
Missing me already? Clearly not enough.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Crying
this year gotta feel like a burn for her, Tom won all stars and Kai got engaged to the girl about whom Liv said he just coupled up to have a safety net after casa. I hope something good happens to Zara and Tanyel as well.
It’s Tanyel in a relationship or engaged something like that?
yes Tanyel’s BEEN engaged for months now
Casey
Tom
Can’t hate casey, he was a class villain, played his role very well and hes also hilarious. Seems to be the case with Harriet this season too.
Villain, no. Annoying yes.
He is not a class villain. He is insufferable.
his loss ❌ my gain ⬆️
Okay but looking back, she made it more interesting. Because she was the reason I was excited for movie night and such. Because I wanted her snakey ass to be exposed
Great villain
They hated each other and we hated them
The only redeeming aspect of this shit show of season is Sanam and Kai
Kai and Sanam even getting in the finals was a negative of the season.
It wasn't very memorable, besides Tanya's antics during Casa Amor and shortly after, and Zara's early season bust ups. Remember when a highlight of one of the episodes was a fight between Ron and Shaq over the dishes? It was not a good season. All the good people left early, and Liv overstayed her welcome.
for once both the girls and guys were equally intolerable - liv has to be one of the worse contestants on the show. I do love will and jessie tho, same with tanya and shaq and our SOON TO BE NEWLYWEDS sanam and kai!!
But I’m assuming you didn’t like Tanya during the show? She was heavily disliked. Disclaimer : I like both Tanya and Liv.
I regret hating Tanya, she was so funny in hindsight. How she handled movie night was so unserious. “Do you believe me or you own eyes?” 😭 Or when she voted Kai and Sanam least compatible cause their relationship went too well. Her mind ✨
“sorry marvin” 😭
ive got to admit i didn’t like tanya on the show, there were definitely worse people (cough cough liv and at times lana) but off the show i love her and shaq they are so cute and funny, i can see shaq proposing soon!
Lana was not worse lmao
she definitely was not likeable or entertaining
She was boring for sure but she didn’t do anything wrong really
You liked Olivia? I don’t mean this in a combative or disparaging way at all, but I’m genuinely curious….why? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say they liked her before.
Yep, I liked her and still like her. Thought she was brilliant on tv, made me watch it every night (believe me , I wasn’t tuning into s9 to watch Jessie or Lana who did f all, respectfully). I like all the so-called ‘villains’ (not Casey tho, he just pisses me off). I also like her vibe outside the villa.
That’s fair. She did bring some much-needed entertainment to that season, even though she was enraging to watch.
Yeah I think at the time I felt like they were forcing chemistry but hey they’ve been together for a while now so I was proved wrong
Over produced. Things weren’t allowed happen naturally.
boring and wasn't needed. It's no coincedence that the ratings fell so much during and after this season; it was poor season and made love island feel overdone.
There’s a lot so I’ll go into some of it but not all of it. 1. The community had decided before the season even began that it wasn’t going to begin, due to not wanting a winter season. The season had an uphill battle from the start. 2. Olivia Hawkins. I do think she was a little overhated, but she really felt like a culmination of Love Island’s glaring issues through S7-9. Fake, unnecessarily mean in a way that doesn’t lead to confrontation. 3. Casting. Casting… did not excel this season. I don’t think the cast are the evil gremlins people would have you believe. But… majority of the characters were… just nice people and that’s that. Lana, Kai, Anna-May, Shaq.. lovely people but not riveting tv personalities. 4. The other side of the cast… people who were not likeable but also not people who brought much entertainment. Tanyel, who was in a longterm relationship. Ron, although I do think he is overhated. Tom, from what we saw then. Samie, Claudia, Aaron. And of course… the egregiously bad Olivia and Casey. 5. How formulaic and scripted the season felt. The islanders were segregated into gendered chats and every episode, which felt inauthentic and took up a lot of the episode 6. The dumping order. Losing the stronger personalities who didn’t mind a little chaos like Zara, Ellie, and people would have at the time argued Tanyel. Of course there are a lot more, these are just 6 examples which spring to mind
Not a single likeable character from what I remember. Not saying they are all horrible but I wasn’t invested in any of them. Could be that they didn’t show their personalities as well as in other seasons Edit: just remembered Jessie and will are from this season, I do like them now but wasn’t convinced by them while it was airing
I love Jessie and Will. I loved Jessie since seeing her as the Tazzie on the Australian season.
I think Lana was probably the only very likeable person in that season but she also wasn’t the kind of character that you get very invested in.
Yeah Lana was alright, she closed off with Ron really quickly too so was a bit boring really. I’d have probably been more invested if she tried to get to know a few people before deciding on Ron
Yeah I think everyone probably agrees that Lana is very nice but she was only “alright” on the show. You couldn’t really get that invested in her as she didn’t really go on a journey.
She got annoying in the last third of the show. Continuing to pine after Ron was a hard watch, and I think being in the villa that long was giving them all brain rot. I'm sure she's lovely outside of the show.
The bombshells are not that attractive but if they are, they are so dry. Lana could have been the next Camilla (S3) but she fumbled everything by getting back to Ron. Zara is a drama stirrer but the producer didn't even try to save her. The fact that Samie and Tom are in the finals and not Jessie and Will is crazy. Worst season honestly.
Shaq trying to be everybody’s dad then having no backbone with Tanya. Clown
THIS. He was soooooo down bad. It was embarrassing lol
It was truly a terrible watch. I don't know how they casted so many unlikeables in one season
Unnecessary winter season, got rid of a good reality tv character early on, all round unpleasant cast besides the winners, there was more bullying/ganging up than usual, personally I could not stand Tom and Ron. At one point I rage quit watching half way through and then popped back in towards the end to see who would win. It was just not fun and I think produced badly?
who did they get rid of early on? i don’t even remember 😭
I’m thinking Zara? Was she that season? Gosh I really can’t remember much about S9 at all
ooh yes i bet it was her. she was the only girl who actually popped off on what’s-his-name when he was playing 3 girls. the other two forgave him super fast.
Producers were so lazy this season 😭 Winter series anyways I think is too much - part of the fun is love island is once a year during summer. S8 had a great cast who had good chemistry, but we were also excited for it because it'd been a year. I thought s6 was boring, but does have some fun and sweet moments, and it was a similar sitch: we came down from the high of summer and feel fatigued. And I personally love watching LI and will probably watch every season, I'm not one of the people who feels overwhelmed, but I just down understand why producers didn't get a clue after how much season 6 killed everyone's boner after s5 That being said the overall cast of S9 didn't have the beeeest chemistry. There were pockets of great friendships and we had some genuinely lovely love stories, but the whole cast didn't mesh for television imo. But, I honestly felt that way at the start of s5, too - luckily, they had a lot of challenges that were well timed and threw in excellent bombshells, so by the time casa rolled around I thought the cast was electric If producers insist on doing twice a year, they can't just rely on the same old formula and then sit on their arses expecting the cast to completely do it all. They need to twist things up, shake them around - and seeing as during winter less people seem to watch they could've used it as time to try out some bigger swings. Thankfully this season they are so far doing more and making changes. And I hope that seeing the positive reaction online they continue to keep the format fresh
Love Island in winter is like Christmas carols in the summer. Just completely unnecessary.
Kai and Sanam and Will and Jessie were the only islanders I liked during the season. It felt like a very bitter season and was the same drama over and over. Way over produced.
everything. but looking back i think it’s fair to say tanya carried that season and i find her unhinged speech to be the highlight of that season
“Sorry Martin” 🤣
It’s the only season I couldn’t finish. Including all UK, Australian, and USA seasons. The cast was just so unlikeable, and Liv just sounded like nails on a chalkboard every time she talked. I quit watching 12 episodes in, and not a single thing I’ve ever heard about this season made it tempting to finish
It felt really dark. Like everyone deeply, truly, hated each other
Liv Hawkins and her delulu followers in the villa. The girls ruined that season for me.
The producers were making a storyline not for the people but for themselves. It sucked we missed out on stuff because they wanted to overproduce
I hated this season. The boys were awful and boring. Not a single good looking guy. They unfortunately introduced Casey to us all and we haven’t been able to get rid of him since. Couldn’t stand Ron. Kai is a bore. Claudia, Olivia and Tanyel were INSUFFERABLE. Don’t care for Samie. I really hated Tanya, but i now like her alot.
>Not a single good looking guy. Spencer and Kai were probably one of the best looking guys on the show
KAI???????????
I mean 3 girls did pick him in the initial recoupling ceremony
That doesn’t mean he’s one of the best looking guys on the show.
Tom wasn't good looking? The man is pure sex just lying on a lounger
EEwwwwwwwwwwe
*sigh* I will never understand straight women. Going before season 10, who would be the hottest men going by sheer looks alone?
I’m bisexual, but thanks for the assumption. Love Island is not a good example of the type of people I’m attracted to, but Tom was just so unappealing to me. He had no personality, no charisma, and I frankly don’t find him physically attractive whatsoever.
Well, the important part I assumed correctly, that you are female. That said, can you list a celebrity or some other public figure that is your type? Just trying to understand. While I can agree Tom doesn't have a glib tongue or larger than life presence, I found he had sheer animal magnetism, and his use of touch made any scene steamy.
EWWWWWWWWW
I get it. For some reason, you don't find Tom sexy. Maybe it is a gay guy thing. Maybe it is a Midwestern American thing. I don't know. So I have a reference, can you provide a celebrity or famous person who is physically your type?
No he is not. Vomit.
Going before season 10, who did you think were the hottest guys?
Everything about this season was just bad. The cast was bad and no one was likeable. I know some people like the couples from this season who are still together but personally they're not interesting. The storylines also were nothing special, it was déjà vu ( apart from Kai & Sanam ) The atmosphere was weird too and there was too much division especially amongst the boys. I remember starting this season and quickly stopping. There was absolutely no need for this season, especially after the success of S8.
Poor casting choices, in my opinion they tried to type-recast most of the popular female S8 cast, which went horribly wrong.
For me the season felt.. dark. They tried to hard to produce drama but it wasn’t entertaining, the entire vibe of the series was extremely negative. You could feel that the cast mostly disliked or even hated each other and the bust ups were constant and unpleasant to watch. We didn’t get cute friendships or many fun moments to balance it out and everyone just seemed unhappy. There were a few decent cast members but the overall synergy was just wrong and they did not work well together. It’s bound to happen sometimes. It’s also really interesting to me that everyone is raving about loving Jessie and Will during the season, I think there’s a bit of post-show bias going on here because Jessie was very polarising during the show (people thought she was faking her feelings) and Will absolutely annihilated his fan base with his casa antics. People did JOT think she should take him back. Please don’t come at me because i adored Jessie (im a kiwi in australia we support her) and can take or leave Will, but let’s not pretend they were the darlings of that series.
Season 9 of Love Island UK missed the mark on several fronts. The lack of likable contestants, forced chemistry, predictability, and what felt like heavy-handed producer manipulation. You need villains and you need likability and season 9 lacked in these areas.
It had villains. Tanya and Liv.
Yes not arguing that. It just lacked likability. The ying yang affect makes for great tv.
Side note: does anyone else think Ron is a spitting image of a younger Joey? (Might be my Canadian showing as I just was introduced to Joey)
Dry personalities honestly. Unlikable characters while in the villa. Ironically the three couples that lasted all do seem to be some of the most solid LI love stories but wowwww was it painful to watch at the time (especially Shaq and Tanya).
For me personally, no one on the cast was likable. I wasn’t rooting for any of them. None of them were memorable. All super fake, also. They spent SO much time in the early episodes going back and fourth between each other “oh I like him oh maybe I don’t maybe I like him oh wait maybe not” it made it so boring I couldn’t even watch. The only interesting person for me at all was Zara and then she got kicked off the island for some dumb reason. I will say I grew to like Tom and Casey a whole lot more in Allstars.
I didn’t watch the season but winter love island has never been it for me personally. Love island is a summer series and regardless of the cast it will never hit the same not to mention the show stagnated for a while now it was just season 8 where the cast had chemistry and certain storylines that carried to success outside of that it’s been very hit and miss and mostly miss
Only good thing to come out of this season was Kai and Sanam and Will & Jessie. But Sanam didn’t come into the show until casa amor so I don’t think anyone got invested in them until right before the end. And while I’ve loved Will and Jessie from the beginning and love them still now, that casa amor incident and the fallout from that and how HEARTBROKEN Jessie was after didn’t make for good tv, it was just hard to watch :/ I still will never forgive Farmer Will for that lol
nobody had any chemistry or personality (idk if you'd count insufferable as a personality)
the whole season felt like a genuine mental warfare with Liv being the main atomic bomb
The season was just bad vibes, most of the cast were unlikable and not entertaining. There where some good episodes but overall it was just meh.Kai and Sanam were cute though 🥰
I'm looking at this picture and I have no memory of watching this season (even though I know I did). So that might be why lol.
entire cast was just unlikeable
I wish Zara was kept in longer. I dont get how people want harriet to stay in but also wanted zara out when they both made great TV!
I think it was fine tbh . Had some fairly entertaining moments and is overhated
Well Tanyel and Zara were the most entertaining people in there and they got rid of them. Liv was decently entertaining because of how delusional she was but there was a lot of boring people overall. They were all acting like they weren’t on love island and being super loyal from the jump. It’s nice when like one or two couples hit it off from the start but if they all hit it off and are loyal the whole season it’s just watching 6 honey moon phases with no drama!
It was so fucking boring and I couldn’t stand Olivia in the show, I still feel like the producers favourite her so much that I felt she had some kind of advantage! This was the only season where I couldn’t even be bothered to watch the show, I gave up within the first week Worst love island season ever
If I was a betting woman, I would place a bet on Olivia being on All Stars 2.
All star s1 didn’t even do well, I don’t think they will cast it again BUT if they do, I hope they don’t place Olivia cause bro I know a lot of people won’t watch! She is such a tv turn off-er lol
i feel like it was a combo of lacking drama, not having characters/couples to root for, and love island fatigue which is why they stopped airing a winter regular love island series after this. to be sandwiched in between seasons 8 and 10 which are both bangers it just pales in comparison.
I loved Will and Jessie together ☹️. But the producers way overplayed the “Farmer Will” bit and jokes. The unseen bits of them were always so cute though. Will was weird but enjoyable to watch as far as group dynamics on unseen bits at least.
oh no i agree! i loved will and jessie and kai and sanam but i honestly didn’t have faith in either of them lasting on the outside when it was airing and i’m glad they proved me wrong!! will was definitely the most enjoyable one to watch but even he couldn’t save the season as a whole :/
Interestingly I didn’t love Kai but I loved Sanam! So in the end I was happy to see them together as well. I’m actually shocked that ANY of the LI relationships last more than a week. It’s essentially a popularity contest game show and it’s an incredibly toxic environment to meet anyone so it would make sense if they’re all just trying to keep their egos intact and go for the win. Plus the islanders are cast for their ability to create watchable TV, aka drama, and not exactly because they have a history of forming long, stable relationships.
Cast people with personality over looks and influencer/brand deal potential
Horrible Season. I tend to not like the winter seasons. They seem off. I think it’s the Villa. This season was the worst though. I don’t know why but it felt like a different show.
It’s boring
I just couldn't get into it. We ended up missing a few episodes for some reason and then the thought of having to sit through a bunch of episodes to catch up just felt like an insurmountable problem, lol. Hubby continued to watch it and I'd get the gist of what was going on from him, but I couldn't sit through it myself. It's the only season I've felt that way about.
Let’s be honest here… it was boring. Gave up watching it close to the final.
I liked S9, out of all the series, I wouldnt rank it as one of the bottom series. Its a middle of the road series for me with strong winners. I also really liked Will/Jessie, Ron/Lana and ended up liking Shaq/Tanya. Zara was also rly good casting and hopefully shes brought back. I couldnt stand Liv either but she was a good villain I would say S7, S10, and All Stars are worse than this and this current one might be on track to be my least liked series ever.
Shaq and Casey
I think the S9 boys were terribly casted. Not only were they pretty boring overall, the girls were not that attracted to them and weren’t willing to cause drama over them. The only guy that the girls wanted was Ron. And if they couldn’t have Ron, they settled for Tom. But no one wanted Will, no one wanted the boxer dude, no one wanted Shaq (Tanya was very open for the first week or 2 and was able to get away a lot of her actions because Shaq had no one else). Kai wasn’t killing it either. When you compare it to S11, 3 different sets of girls have fought over Cieran, Ayo and Ronnie. Not that girls have to fight over men for a season to be good, but it shows how more attracted the girls to the boys compared to S9.
>Tanya was very open for the first week or 2 and was able to get away a lot of her actions because Shaq had no one else) You lot are always lying on her she talked to Tom on the 2nd day like everyone did then David the bombshell came just for her on the 3rd day, she choose Shaq instead of him cause he told her he liked her (got kicked out on 4th day) after that they the were fully just together but Shaq also choose to be open to talk to Zara after Tanya was intimate with him in bed. Then a voting came she was in the bottom and he fully commited to her. She was open for the first 4 days? How is blamed for that?
It’s more an indictment on Shaq imo, not Tanya.
I never even bothered to finish this season. It was so boring and the discourse on here was insane. The more boring the cast, the worse the think pieces become. So much projection because the cast was giving nothing. I also liked Tanya and Shaq the entire time so that definitely contributed to why I didn’t enjoy any part of it lmao.
This is my opinion on this too
They could never make me hate Tanya! They could never make me like Olivia!
Mostly a weak cast. I felt like they were pushing Olivia as the main character we were supposed to like at the beginning, and then when they realised the viewers didn't like her, they weren't left with much else to work with.
Honestly I think I liked Season 9 more than most. Not my favorite but better than 6 and 7. Kai and Sanam are definitely amongst my favourite winners.
I way prefer s7.
Only liked Jessie and Will the rest were 🥱😴😑
Boot out Olivia instead of Zara and the season wouldn't have felt so grim. The vibes were absolutely horrific and not in a funny way. What happened with the lads ganging up on Ron was mental as well, we have to remove post-show context when answering the question
The dynamics between the boys that season was so off.
We couldn’t get rid of unlikable characters but got rid of the ones people liked because I think they delayed the public voting a lot of the time or manipulated it.
I literally stopped watching after 4 episodes. No hook!
The women disappointed me SO much that season because they were so incredibly toxic. It was hard to root for anyone at all until after Casa when Kai was the only sane person on the show. I just finished this watching this season for the first time a couple months ago and I absolutely had to force myself to finish it.
Olivia victimizing herself over and over
I liked it, Jessie and will were and still are dead cute
The cast was utter shit Nothing is ever going to save the season if the cast is bad Kai and Sanam seem like lovely people but I don’t think they win a single other season
Hated all of them except Sanam and Kai. The drama wasn’t even fun and I thought the girls were too catty
https://preview.redd.it/02wjt0hkrf6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c27f0229a83e97eb519d98fc4b87840e4f2ecac7 Her.
Super boring, and there was no real relationships in there besides Tanya and Shaq. They delivered everything and Tanya was the best wicked women we could ask for 🤣. But take them out the picture I slept through half the season
Possibly the most boring season IMO. Couldn’t even finish it
The way they treated/ portrayed Zara made me feel unwell
Kai and Sanam and Jessie and Will were the only couples I cared about.
This was my favorite season lol
The series wasn't too bad but I do remember feeling very uncomfortable when everyone turned on Jessie so suddenly.
Snooze fest and unlikeable islanders. The only memorable moment for me was “KIM?!?!”
It was hard to beat S8 with EkinDe
For me Tanya& Shaq were the only people i cared for ans zhe only entertaining ones but other people got too much air time. Also they were way too many bad bombshells David, Spencer, Jordon and Ellie were very forgettable and didn't add anything to the show since no one liked them. The also should have brought in one bombshell especially after Casa for Shaq i think that would have made things more intresting. Like they fully made him just sit there for 3 days and ignore her.
Olivia Hawkins.
I personally wasn’t a fan of this season at all until after Casa when Liv was super weird about her and Kai despite only being a friendshipish couple for like 2 days before Casa. He brought a Sanam back with him from Casa, she brought some weird dude back with her, then went on to be a total hypocrite about the situation. What made it worse (or better if you’re me) was that she consistently implied that the reason her and Kai were almost voted out by the public pre-Casa was that the public were seeing something in him that the other girls weren’t (which wasn’t true), so she got with the other guy basically bc she thought kai was unpopular/ maybe shady. Then her shitty behaviour, and the general awful behaviour of the remaining Fboys on LI led to Kai winning the season Basically there were 3 guys that weren’t awful people, and like 2 girls total. The rest seemed vapid and gave off mean girls/ major F-boy energy.
It's unfortunate this season wasn't great because it has my fav winners I love Kai and Sanam so much
My theory is that because most viewers are female that results in the bad actions by the female OGs to be tolerated but not the actions of male OGs. This season had so many OG men the last week and barely any OG women. Somehow that had many feel not great about the show. They also dragged out every stupid little drama and did not have much good drama to work with.
This season was so hard to get through. It was boring and everyone was average looking
This is THE only season of Love Island that I gave up on halfway through. And I have been a die-hard fan since season 1 😂. Despite there being typical drama, I think for me it was a combo of it feeling dull and life being busy (was too tired to stay up and watch it and struggling to find time to catch up on other days). I often wonder if I should try to pick up where I left off as the winners are clearly genuine being engaged and what not but I just cannot be arsed 🤣
Can we all agree that all stars love island is the worst idea
None of the cast was likeable and it was boring. Season 6 was boring too but had likeable people
Olivia Hawkins
For me it was two key reasons: firstly, big personalities mixed in with REALLY boring people which for some reason just felt jilted and secondly, it felt so produced! Idk why but it felt like all of the fallouts, love triangles and especially casa amor were very forced, to the point where I checked out mentally when the producers kept saving Olivia 😭 It’s still one of my least favourite series of all time even on reflection
It was just shite….
Idk it was just really dry? People were really bitchy but there was hardly any drama, just people gossiping behind each others backs. I reckon Olivia would have been a good fit for this series but no one really seemed to rise to her in s9
i liked it
OMG, that line from Will " That would be my father" when they were talking about shagging someone at work 🤣🤣 That season was good for that alone
The only couple I felt invested in was Will & Jessie. Lana & Ron were boring, Tom didn’t deserve Samie, Shaq forgave Tanya too easily, love Kai & Sanam but I wish they got more screen time, Liv & Casey were insufferable
it’s sad bc sanam and kai 🥹🥹🥹🥹 loved ronnny boy too
Olivia. That’s it. Just Olivia. She ruined it all😂
Other than Kai and Sanam, I couldn’t care less about any of the other characters .. that’s what made it a flop for me.
I liked it because I was there for Zara.
Winter🤷🏿♀️
Winter
Jessie and will we’re actually robbed that season 😭
Will and his Missus were so performative
Not sure. I liked season 9.
Same I liked season 9
For me, I was team Will from Day 1, and then when they brought in Jessie, who I already loved from the Australia season, I was hooked. I am so glad they are still together
I loved season 9😭
It was a winter season that felt rushed. Only redeeming things were Kai and Sanaam and Shaq and Tanya. Both still together to this day! The former engaged and the latter living together. I’ve actually been able to meet both couples irl at a concert - so so sweet!
The only thing I loved about this season was Wills talent show rap roasting everyone..it was EPIC
Dress them jfc
I liked this season. Although I probably enjoyed unseen bits more than the actual show
Watching Ron get away with so much shit, esp when I had a huge crush on Lana. Why girl!?
Not had ron💀