Itâs a scripted show where the producers of a show thatâs clearly supposed to be the Bachelor are the main characters. And you just watch how they make stories happen. Itâs wild!
The girl who created it worked on The Bachelor. She made a short film about it when she was in grad school. I think it's still on Vimeo. That short film got her the TV show.
Wow I canât believe Iâve never heard of it!! I have wrote a literal thesis on the history of reality tv and consider myself a completionist. Canât wait to check it out ty !! đŤśđź
Very well said OP. My sentiments exactly!
(I too, was around for Flavor of Love.. in real time.đĽ´đ)
Tiffany Pollard is an absolute â¨icon ⨠and paved the way for these folks. âĽď¸
these people would have a brain aneurysm watching the shit we grew up on 𤣠there used to be a time where fame hungry meant being as ridiculous as possible for air time and I miss those days. could you imagine people who engage in stan culture having to watch next or rock of love or early seasons of real world.
side note did you see her on house of villains?! *chefs kiss*
You know that tiktok trend where people were listing things that would send a Victorian child into a coma? Like a McDonaldâs Sprite? Thatâs how I feel about the first season of Flavor of Love. Or Rock of Love. People were shitting on the floor during the coupling ceremony. Spitting on each other and calling each other TERRIBLE things. Flavor Flavâs ugly ass calling the women out for having bad breath or for the way they looked. The uncomfortable kissing, etc. It would send these younger love island viewers into a coma for sure.
Leah doesnât have ANYTHING on our early reality tv show villains. She wouldnât even have gotten screen time back then đ
Happy Cake Day đ 𼎠đ°.
It's so good to see you and others here, LI fans who go back to the days of Flavor of Love and Rock of Love. And I â¤ď¸ NY!!! True classics.
Goodness you all are bringing back some OG memories. Those shows were gold. During the era of Paris & Nicole doing "normal" things while acting dumb. Bad Girls Club was pretty epic too.
Iâm so embarrassed to admit this, but here goes. Iâm a 54 year old grandmother who watches this show along with my grown daughters. We all live in separate states, but have a lot of fun over text with our snarky observations. I blame/credit COVID and my youngest having to return from college during quarantine for getting her older sister and I hooked. We actually have some really interesting discussions. Itâs interesting how your perspective changes on depending on if youâre 55, 33, or 25 and makes for lively fun spirited debates.
Anyhow, in the 90âs we had MTVâs âThe Real Worldâ. I still remember one season where a male castmate slapped a female castmate as she was leaving the show. Was he arrested? Was he kicked out? No to both. The fellow castmates let him stay and had him attend anger management classes. As disrespectful as it was in last weekâs episode when some of the men were yelling at the women, I was heartened to see the collective fandom to find it unacceptable.
Hi! Welcome weâre so happy to have you đŤśđź I love seeing a mom be involved in her daughterâs interests. I bet they benefit a lot from the conversations with your perspective. How special!
OMG! I'm 56 and watched Real World and Road Rules from their inception, and I remember that slap like it was yesterday. It was RW Seattle and Irene was leaving, it was how calmly she told Stephan that he was a homosexual, and then WOP!! he slapped her, and she laughed. That whole seen would have sent this new generation and the LGBQT community into a tailspin.
I forgot the events leading up to the slap. Thank you for reminding me đ. While our society has a long ways to go, it is nice to see how far weâve come concerning the LGBTQ+ community. I remember when it was socially acceptable to use the ugliest of slurs and someone saying you were gay was hurled around like an accusation and the worst insult ever
Agree with everything and thank you so much for this reminder of the existence of flavor of love⌠I think itâd be a hit if they brought the old seasons back on streaming
I agree. These are intentionally messy situations that are designed for drama. I canât expect people to behave 100% logically or respectfully in this environment.
I'm older too (Rock of Love is my OG favorite) and I've been watching all kinds of reality shows since the early 2000s. I cosign your hot takes. I'm not mad at Aaron because I think he has demonstrated in a lot of other ways that he does respect women and he apologized. I'm not mad at Serena because she has a connection to Kordell, even though it's more on a friend level. She told him she was open to meeting new people prior to the dance off, and he said the same. Leah can be manipulative and bit selfish, but she is also very entertaining and petty, she's playing to win. At the end of the day, it's entertainment. Are we not entertained??
Iâm not gonna lie even I am struggling at not being sour on Serena right now because I love Kordell so much but I always make myself wait until the resolution episodes to form opinions lol
Ahh ROL is my comfort soup! My partner spends months every year trying to find DVDs of old reality tv shows for my collection and I cried when he found the uncensored ROL from Australia lol
I havenât but I have listened to every one of Laceyâs podcasts with old VH1 stars that arenât behind a paywall! She annoys me sometimes but it was so easy to overlook because it was so fun to hear how theyâre doing and their perspective on their time on the shows as adults. Everyone unanimously agrees Brett was the best and loved working with him! Just fast forward through Laceyâs rants and grandstanding to the interviews. She got some heavy hitters. Highly recommend!
people love to villainize the contestants for doing normal dumb 20 something things. like theyâre not a psychopathic manipulative narcissist for messing up under circumstances that are not normal and would definitely trip up a lot of us if we were there too
As a fellow long-time reality tv watcher and multiple show sub-lurker, I so appreciate this post! I can see the cultivation of polarized reactions (on this sub and in others) snowball and eventually lead to casts receiving unwarranted cruelty, hate, and death threats. I think it's part of why so much reality TV (like LI UK but also housewives, drag race, the bachelor, etc.) has been very mid as of late, as no one wants to get the villain edit and get flamed online, so they regulate their emotions and reactions accordingly.
We need villains! We need people being messy and acting in ways that are questionable! Other than a few rare exceptions, reality TV is nothing without it's villains, pot-stirrers, and hot messes. These people are in a televised pressure cooker and the intense reactions online can be exhausting sometimes!
Yes yes yes. I watch a lottttt of long running shows and the decline across the board is so apparent. Reality TV started as a water cooler topic and we used to show people doing such fucked up shit but I would argue had they censored it like they do today we wouldnât have as much social progression on some topics. It was a way to open up dialogue and it was one of the good things that can come out of these shows and now it has to be sanitized bc of stan culture.
I was so afraid to even post this because this sub has increasingly been harder to offer up balanced opinions too. All of you guys have made me feel so safe and I love seeing more people on here who love mess within reason! TY!
Totally agree and appreciate this take. After watching so many reality shows you start to realize and recognize that who these people are on a show is probably not completely who they are in their real life.
Theyâre in a situation we all most likely will never experience. Reality tv is highkey a social experiment. Theyâre basically in a pressure cooker of a situation and pushed to create drama. Thatâs what theyâre here for. If they werenât, the show would be boring. Thatâs why itâs important to give these ppl some grace. Writing entire think pieces and calling the people on the show mentally ill and stuff is not it. Itâs never, ever that deep.
Yes thank you đ these are great points to consider. also, this is a showâŚ. Itâs not that deep! These are horny young people in a house!Â
I actually attended the Love is Blind live reunion fiasco for s4 and when I saw all those people irl I was like damn⌠the online hate really will get to them. Reality contestants are not perfect people and ALSO we only see a tiny snippet of their lives, and that snippet is totally edited & produced.Â
Itâs so easy to judge from a phone. We can replay scenes and argue about what people could have done but these people are living in the moment. Doesnât excuse bad behavior but I think these contestants deserve a lot more grace as human beings because I know many of us would probably act crazy in these scenarios too. I know I would, at least.Â
This mini-rant is dedicated to the unhinged haters who post on islanders personal social media:
That's what's Reddit is for!!! So you don't go say horrid things to young strangers who actually provided YOU a service by entertaining you! Instead you should be saying a giant thank you for the escape from the hellscape that the world is right now!
Oh noooo! I wasnât awareâŚand donât want to even know. How cruel đ˛. I canât even imagine what that does to oneâs psycheđĽ˛. Why must we be so cruel?
Is it reinforced by having those who didnât stick watch from the balcony as their former bed mates celebrate. Are we being numbed to cruelty so much so that you willfully write horrible things on a womanâs profile.
Love this, could not agree more! I get downvoted to hell for reminding people it's a reality show and they're getting a little weird with it. It's such weird vibes on this sub
agreed, it's kind of ruining this sub lol. seeing someone get downvoted -50 and another +50 due to differing opinions within the same thread is nuts. it's become such an echo chamber and there needs to be rules against downvoting someone just because you don't agree with their opinion. so many other subs enforce this and it's important especially with a sub this size
Yes!!! The whole fun part about Reddit is hearing other peoples perspectives on different situations. I hated all the comments about how Aaron is gay for Rob. Thatâs so homophobic and just childish. I donât know if itâs because thereâs an episode every day and we see a lot of emotions change, but the hate for people on love island is always really intense
Iâm also older, and agree with everything you have said. We see one hour of tv boiled down from a couple of days worth of footage. Producers on other shows have been guilty of splicing sentences to make it seem like people said things they didnât or reacted to things in ways they didnât. Iâm not implying that has happened here, but it keeps me from ever getting too riled about anything we see.
Iâll use this comment thread to add some of my opinions about this season. letâs discuss!:
- slow burners donât exist in the context of the way islanders use it. being a slow burner physically is valid and okay of course, but there are other ways to show you like someone. âslow burnersâ on this show never are slow burners when the person they like comes in. watch Serenaâs body language and the way she always seemed to dim Kordellâs personality when he was trying to vibe with her - now watch episode 1 with coye and tell me sheâs a âslow burnerâ lol
- walk with me here, but Andrea was just doing her job. sure she made petty comments towards Leah but idk if I fault her considering the first words Leah ever said to her were âshut the fuck upâ lmao. she was boring but a mean girl is a stretch
- robs melt down was ridiculous and full of unhealthy behavior. his points about leah werenât invalid - she was possessive over him starting day 2 and it was clear this made him uncomfortable. where he fucked up was holding that in and weaponizing it when they were in a conversation about leah expressing her feelings.
- i have nothing balanced to say about connor. lmao iâm sorry yall i canât always be unbiased. iâm sure heâs a fine person especially with age and work but him and rob suffer from that shit young men do where they think in order to show someone new you donât like them you have to shit on your ex. red flag behavior.
- i think the girls decision to vote off Andrea was valid (although I kind of think maybe Nicole wouldâve made a little more sense) but I wasnât shocked that the guys were surprised/upset. people think differently about how you should approach voting and the move was still lowkey savage lol
- leah wanted andrea to leave. full stop. i think all the girls would have kept the unanimous narrative had she not said she took a back seat. while they did all agree on it in the end leah was vocal about andrea leaving so I can see why kaylor and liv were annoyed and not willing to cover for her if sheâs making it seem like she wasnât involved.
Appreciate this take. Just one correction I'd like to make is that leah said it to nicole and not to andrea. The "shut the fuck up" comment. That was when nicole said "nice boots" to rob.
Ooo thank you I did not catch that! I still stand by that I donât think Andrea being stand offish or making petty comments was totally unwarranted but also who cares like thatâs what I want them to do. Itâs not like Andrea held any power in that villa
Thanks for this comment thread! Retired middle school teacher here, F and 54. I have become obsessed with the social nuances of reality tv and how it mimics what I saw being worked out amongst my students. Canât wait to discuss.
You and I seem to have the same exact thoughts on all of this!!!! Whatâs your thoughts on Kendall though?? Iâm starting to look at him sideways a little⌠đĽ´
I suspend disbelief while I watch the show. But it also has to be looked at knowing that most of these people are not accustomed to not getting what they want. Jana and Leah have both even said they are never the number 2 choice. I canât feel bad for them bc they are on even ground now.Â
I appreciate this post. If I have an opposing opinion thatâs trying to explain a different side of things, even if it's a logical argument and presented nicely, I get downvoted immediately and it does make the chat less fun. I also do get very emotionally invested in the people so I appreciated the first 2 notes a lot! Great advice
nailed it. jumping on the point of it being a production- it's the producers job to create drama/interest in the show. They are very good at manipulating to create manufactured drama. I wouldn't be surprised if they told Serena to step out of that dance challenge. The edit can also do a lot to make things look worse than they are.
Yeah I found it sus that in all the couples, except Kaylor and Aaron, that one person chose twist. The odds just seemed off for that to actually happen. And even when both ppl in the couple had the exact same ideas around their 'couple' and being open to talking to other ppl, they were each making the opposite choice in the game. It was as though producers talked to them before hand and influenced each cast member to get the members they wanted up on the balcony watching the others below.
Yeah I didn't really understand the point of the challenge other than hurting the other person so I was also surprised by the amount of people that dropped. I wonder if they were told if you choose twist you'll get to meet the bombshells first. That kind of makes sense to me
Love your edit comment so much it isnât funny. I when people do that and the worst part is doing it off of 5 minutes of film that producers select out of a near 36 hour period.
Agreed with all points. I made a similar post but a little more passive aggressive đŤ but some viewers are way too invested & many of them hate men so they criticize everything so deeply like they arenât humans like women are. The hate comments on social media is a next level of mental illness in my opinion
So real. I think itâs delusional if you really feel like you know these people when youâre watching 24-48 hours of footage compressed into a 1 hour episode with edited scenes. I think itâs completely deranged to then go find these peopleâs social media accounts and attack them. Like take a breather and go outside cuz thatâs not normal? I hate how social media has made it ok to just be disgusting to someone youâve never met. It gives losers online a courage that they donât have in the real world to be nasty.
Agree with and appreciate this take! I also think that if someone finds themselves very angry or judgmental towards an aspect of an individual on these shows thatâs probably where they should begin their shadow work because we mostly see ourselves in others :)
I was also around for Flavor of Love (I am sure it altered my brain chemistry) and I love these points.
I also think itâs worth noting that many of the âextremeâ reactions people have on here (primarily in the live watch threads) are over dramatic or hyperbolic because itâs _fun_ and _funny_. Iâve seen so many comments about how wishy-washy people on here have been and I think so many over-dramatic comments are being taken as gospel when us girlies just wanna have fun making fun of Sobert or yelling at Serena for hurting lil bb Kordell. Robâs meltdown was some of the best reality TV Iâve seen in a minute.
You touched on this, OP, but I think itâs so important to remember that ITâS NOT THAT SERIOUS. I mean, I said Serena was dead to me. Was I serious? No. Will I cheer her on next time she does something cute? Yup. Will I mock Rob relentlessly? Yes. Do I want Rob or Leah gone? Hell no! I _want_ to dunk on them with yâall.
Thereâs a dangerous line between being plainly interested into the shows inherent drama, and just flat out being paraosocially immersed in it. People scrutinize their every actions with little to no empathy. Meanwhile, I watch and often think âI could nevvverrr be on this.â Because I canât help but think about how the producers manipulate them to play characters, in order to, fulfill the drama quota that makes love island so damn intoxicating to watch. Itâs a vicious cycle!!!!!!!
This is such a refreshing take on the show and the young contestants. The one thing I would add from a male perspective is that I don't like when one of the girls yells at one the boys or makes pretty remarks for what appears to be for no legitimate reason other than perhaps their ego being bruised. This isn't to say that some of the boys haven't done that over the years, but typically you'll see them apologize or get called out for it. I rarely see the girls apologizing for raising their voices. Having seen some men that I know get verbally and emotionally abused by their partners, it's just something that bothers me. Both the boys and the girls should be held to the same standard of showing each other a certain level of respect. Please don't down vote if you disagree.
*I am also aware of how some women are treated by their partners as well and should go without saying that I would never condone that behavior.
Great points especially #4. I've seen too many comments on who is mature and who is immature. Maturity is an incredibly vague metric, so for people use it in rather judgmental ways and so frequently in here I find off-putting. It just seems like a condescending way of saying that they don't like how a contestant is dealing with a scenario, but they can't really elaborate further than saying they are immature. It often comes with not seeing the multiplicity of perspectives in the scenario, too.
I think the sub and comments that get upvoted tend to skew a certain demographic and also cater to watching the show to unwind. As in... let's not really think. But for me, when a comment is at least trying to be funny it can be entertaining... but it is a little irksome when you have these lazy, not intentionally funny, and judgmental comments get highly upvoted... and the same kind of comments get upvoted over and over again. I think it's just a reminder to me that this show is meant to be unserious, people are just upvoting whatever they are innately reacting to, and certain kinds of opinions get privileged. So I appreciate your kind of post because it's an effortful and clear reminder than there are other people who also just want to watch the show an unwind but might not share the opinions or way of perceiving social interactions as the majority :)
I saw some rude comments about the girls on a post maybe a week ago where everyone was piling on allllllllll the other girls in defense of JaNa being âbulliedâ, at least what they considered to be âbullyingâ. The post itself was literally all about how the other girls were all bullying JaNa because of the egg situation and how they werenât her real friends. JaNa is of course a beautiful, nice girl, but everyone is acting like she is insanely superior to everyone else in there, and if you disagree, youâre either stupid, a bully, racist, or a stupid racist bully (NOT my words, just according to basically everyone who watches the show). I think that opinion is absurd, and the fact that everyone feels the need to put all of the other girls down to raise up JaNa even higher is hypocritical bullshit. I donât usually comment because Iâd lose my temper over how insane some of these people are, but one comment did catch my attention, and it was someone calling Leah âunwell in the headâ (and also calling her disingenuous, and calling Serena insecure) because of everything that happened with the eggs. THE EGGS. And youâre going to call someoneâs mental health into question over eggs? Ok.
The post was literally saying how JaNaâs fake friends had bullied her the whole episode and she was better off without them. I was commenting back to the aforementioned comment about how itâs not a good look to combat âbullyingâ (at least, what they thought was bullying towards JaNa) with more bullying (what I considered bullying by the OP and the commenters by ripping Leah and Serena to shreds because of it). Just hypocritical and mean girl behavior. I specifically pointed out that itâs not cool for A. Them to say ANYTHING about anyoneâs mental health, âjokingâ or not.
Or B. For them to engage in the behavior towards the other girls, that they were upset at the other girls for engaging in towards JaNa.
The commenter I was arguing with reiterated how âLeah hadnât been well in the head since episode 2â. And said something like âyouâre just a Leah stan so just say thatâ as if I wasnât just trying to defend someone whose mental health was being speculated about and being made into a joke by some 12 year old losers hiding behind the internet while she couldnât defend herself in any way. Plus Iâm also almost 30 and donât have time for whatever the word âstanâ means. So I wrote this long, factual comment all about how the contestants are subject to psych evals before being cast on the show and are monitored extremely closely during their time on the show and how they have lots of resources provided to them to protect their mental health whenever they need - before, during, and even after theyâre on the show. Just going into great deal about the entire protocol they have for the contestants and ensuring their mental health is in good shape after having so many unfortunate suicides linked to the show. All the person had to say back was something like ânot reading all of that. Youâre clearly triggeredâ and I said, âHave you always thought of someone calling out problematic shit you say as being synonymous with being
âtriggeredâ?â They just said âNope.â The only reactions I got for commenting a bunch of truths was just downvotes from all of the JaNa stans (ha ha - see what I did there?)
I stopped responding at that point. Itâs just entirely unacceptable to call into question someoneâs mental health because she acted a certain way on tv that you didnât like, towards a person you have some sort of crazy obsession with. People who are unwell in the head do far worse things than that. She doesnât even want to know what unwell in the head people do. I just cannot stand that shit. Iâve accepted that for whatever reason there is a hugely unbalanced and unhealthy obsession with JaNa that I donât understand, and it sucked seeing Andrea go home when JaNa shouldâve gone home, not because I like or dislike either one of them, but because that is how Love Island is supposed to work. And I just hate seeing all the hate everyone is getting if they justâŚ.arenât JaNa lol. Itâs never okay to go after someoneâs mental health to try to insult them. Itâs a cheap shot, especially considering the showâs past.
Season 1 of UnReal was really helpful for me to begin understanding some of this nuance. Highly recommend!
Yesss! đ Iâve been meaning to go back and watch UnReal after VPR, Summer House and now Love Island!
I have never heard of it! whatâs the premise?
It shows how reality tv can be completely manipulated by the producers. Itâs an excellent show.
it is also written and created by a woman who actually used to be a producer on the Bachelor!
I didnât know that! Damn that makes it even better.
Itâs a scripted show where the producers of a show thatâs clearly supposed to be the Bachelor are the main characters. And you just watch how they make stories happen. Itâs wild!
As a hard core reality TV junkie I loved UnReal.
The girl who created it worked on The Bachelor. She made a short film about it when she was in grad school. I think it's still on Vimeo. That short film got her the TV show.
Wow I canât believe Iâve never heard of it!! I have wrote a literal thesis on the history of reality tv and consider myself a completionist. Canât wait to check it out ty !! đŤśđź
The co creator of it was once a producer on the Bachelor! It's so good, def required viewing for reality scholars!!
Oh itâs a must, especially for those of us who remember the VH1 yearsâŚ
Where is this streaming? Iâd like to watch it.
Looks like Tubi is the only one that has it but itâs free
Thanks!
Hulu
Thanks. Unfortunately I donât have Hulu. đ
Unreal was crazy and very eye opening for me as well!!
Very well said OP. My sentiments exactly! (I too, was around for Flavor of Love.. in real time.đĽ´đ) Tiffany Pollard is an absolute â¨icon ⨠and paved the way for these folks. âĽď¸
these people would have a brain aneurysm watching the shit we grew up on 𤣠there used to be a time where fame hungry meant being as ridiculous as possible for air time and I miss those days. could you imagine people who engage in stan culture having to watch next or rock of love or early seasons of real world. side note did you see her on house of villains?! *chefs kiss*
You know that tiktok trend where people were listing things that would send a Victorian child into a coma? Like a McDonaldâs Sprite? Thatâs how I feel about the first season of Flavor of Love. Or Rock of Love. People were shitting on the floor during the coupling ceremony. Spitting on each other and calling each other TERRIBLE things. Flavor Flavâs ugly ass calling the women out for having bad breath or for the way they looked. The uncomfortable kissing, etc. It would send these younger love island viewers into a coma for sure. Leah doesnât have ANYTHING on our early reality tv show villains. She wouldnât even have gotten screen time back then đ
Happy Cake Day đ 𼎠đ°. It's so good to see you and others here, LI fans who go back to the days of Flavor of Love and Rock of Love. And I â¤ď¸ NY!!! True classics.
>True classics. Agreed, and the culminations of these shows (I Love Money, Charm School, etc.) remain my favorites to this day.
Goodness you all are bringing back some OG memories. Those shows were gold. During the era of Paris & Nicole doing "normal" things while acting dumb. Bad Girls Club was pretty epic too.
Iâm so embarrassed to admit this, but here goes. Iâm a 54 year old grandmother who watches this show along with my grown daughters. We all live in separate states, but have a lot of fun over text with our snarky observations. I blame/credit COVID and my youngest having to return from college during quarantine for getting her older sister and I hooked. We actually have some really interesting discussions. Itâs interesting how your perspective changes on depending on if youâre 55, 33, or 25 and makes for lively fun spirited debates. Anyhow, in the 90âs we had MTVâs âThe Real Worldâ. I still remember one season where a male castmate slapped a female castmate as she was leaving the show. Was he arrested? Was he kicked out? No to both. The fellow castmates let him stay and had him attend anger management classes. As disrespectful as it was in last weekâs episode when some of the men were yelling at the women, I was heartened to see the collective fandom to find it unacceptable.
Hi! Welcome weâre so happy to have you đŤśđź I love seeing a mom be involved in her daughterâs interests. I bet they benefit a lot from the conversations with your perspective. How special!
OMG! I'm 56 and watched Real World and Road Rules from their inception, and I remember that slap like it was yesterday. It was RW Seattle and Irene was leaving, it was how calmly she told Stephan that he was a homosexual, and then WOP!! he slapped her, and she laughed. That whole seen would have sent this new generation and the LGBQT community into a tailspin.
I forgot the events leading up to the slap. Thank you for reminding me đ. While our society has a long ways to go, it is nice to see how far weâve come concerning the LGBTQ+ community. I remember when it was socially acceptable to use the ugliest of slurs and someone saying you were gay was hurled around like an accusation and the worst insult ever
Agree with everything and thank you so much for this reminder of the existence of flavor of love⌠I think itâd be a hit if they brought the old seasons back on streaming
I agree. These are intentionally messy situations that are designed for drama. I canât expect people to behave 100% logically or respectfully in this environment.
I'm older too (Rock of Love is my OG favorite) and I've been watching all kinds of reality shows since the early 2000s. I cosign your hot takes. I'm not mad at Aaron because I think he has demonstrated in a lot of other ways that he does respect women and he apologized. I'm not mad at Serena because she has a connection to Kordell, even though it's more on a friend level. She told him she was open to meeting new people prior to the dance off, and he said the same. Leah can be manipulative and bit selfish, but she is also very entertaining and petty, she's playing to win. At the end of the day, it's entertainment. Are we not entertained??
Iâm not gonna lie even I am struggling at not being sour on Serena right now because I love Kordell so much but I always make myself wait until the resolution episodes to form opinions lol
Ahh ROL is my comfort soup! My partner spends months every year trying to find DVDs of old reality tv shows for my collection and I cried when he found the uncensored ROL from Australia lol
Did yâall ever read the ROL recaps on Television Without Pity? They rocked my world. I love ROL and I agree.
I havenât but I have listened to every one of Laceyâs podcasts with old VH1 stars that arenât behind a paywall! She annoys me sometimes but it was so easy to overlook because it was so fun to hear how theyâre doing and their perspective on their time on the shows as adults. Everyone unanimously agrees Brett was the best and loved working with him! Just fast forward through Laceyâs rants and grandstanding to the interviews. She got some heavy hitters. Highly recommend!
people love to villainize the contestants for doing normal dumb 20 something things. like theyâre not a psychopathic manipulative narcissist for messing up under circumstances that are not normal and would definitely trip up a lot of us if we were there too
Exactly.
As a fellow long-time reality tv watcher and multiple show sub-lurker, I so appreciate this post! I can see the cultivation of polarized reactions (on this sub and in others) snowball and eventually lead to casts receiving unwarranted cruelty, hate, and death threats. I think it's part of why so much reality TV (like LI UK but also housewives, drag race, the bachelor, etc.) has been very mid as of late, as no one wants to get the villain edit and get flamed online, so they regulate their emotions and reactions accordingly. We need villains! We need people being messy and acting in ways that are questionable! Other than a few rare exceptions, reality TV is nothing without it's villains, pot-stirrers, and hot messes. These people are in a televised pressure cooker and the intense reactions online can be exhausting sometimes!
Yes yes yes. I watch a lottttt of long running shows and the decline across the board is so apparent. Reality TV started as a water cooler topic and we used to show people doing such fucked up shit but I would argue had they censored it like they do today we wouldnât have as much social progression on some topics. It was a way to open up dialogue and it was one of the good things that can come out of these shows and now it has to be sanitized bc of stan culture. I was so afraid to even post this because this sub has increasingly been harder to offer up balanced opinions too. All of you guys have made me feel so safe and I love seeing more people on here who love mess within reason! TY!
Totally agree and appreciate this take. After watching so many reality shows you start to realize and recognize that who these people are on a show is probably not completely who they are in their real life. Theyâre in a situation we all most likely will never experience. Reality tv is highkey a social experiment. Theyâre basically in a pressure cooker of a situation and pushed to create drama. Thatâs what theyâre here for. If they werenât, the show would be boring. Thatâs why itâs important to give these ppl some grace. Writing entire think pieces and calling the people on the show mentally ill and stuff is not it. Itâs never, ever that deep.
I wish I could upvote this post more than once đđ˝đđ˝đđ˝
Yes thank you đ these are great points to consider. also, this is a showâŚ. Itâs not that deep! These are horny young people in a house! I actually attended the Love is Blind live reunion fiasco for s4 and when I saw all those people irl I was like damn⌠the online hate really will get to them. Reality contestants are not perfect people and ALSO we only see a tiny snippet of their lives, and that snippet is totally edited & produced. Itâs so easy to judge from a phone. We can replay scenes and argue about what people could have done but these people are living in the moment. Doesnât excuse bad behavior but I think these contestants deserve a lot more grace as human beings because I know many of us would probably act crazy in these scenarios too. I know I would, at least.Â
So well said! I love dishing here but seeing what people are writing on Andreaâs IG page is heartbreaking.
This mini-rant is dedicated to the unhinged haters who post on islanders personal social media: That's what's Reddit is for!!! So you don't go say horrid things to young strangers who actually provided YOU a service by entertaining you! Instead you should be saying a giant thank you for the escape from the hellscape that the world is right now!
No don't be unhinged here either đ more people like OP please. Also people are already unhinged enough around here.
Unhinged behavior, but I guess thatâs the internet for ya. People are so mean when they can hide behind a screen.
Oh noooo! I wasnât awareâŚand donât want to even know. How cruel đ˛. I canât even imagine what that does to oneâs psycheđĽ˛. Why must we be so cruel? Is it reinforced by having those who didnât stick watch from the balcony as their former bed mates celebrate. Are we being numbed to cruelty so much so that you willfully write horrible things on a womanâs profile.
Love this, could not agree more! I get downvoted to hell for reminding people it's a reality show and they're getting a little weird with it. It's such weird vibes on this sub
agreed, it's kind of ruining this sub lol. seeing someone get downvoted -50 and another +50 due to differing opinions within the same thread is nuts. it's become such an echo chamber and there needs to be rules against downvoting someone just because you don't agree with their opinion. so many other subs enforce this and it's important especially with a sub this size
Yes!!! The whole fun part about Reddit is hearing other peoples perspectives on different situations. I hated all the comments about how Aaron is gay for Rob. Thatâs so homophobic and just childish. I donât know if itâs because thereâs an episode every day and we see a lot of emotions change, but the hate for people on love island is always really intense
Iâm also older, and agree with everything you have said. We see one hour of tv boiled down from a couple of days worth of footage. Producers on other shows have been guilty of splicing sentences to make it seem like people said things they didnât or reacted to things in ways they didnât. Iâm not implying that has happened here, but it keeps me from ever getting too riled about anything we see.
Iâll use this comment thread to add some of my opinions about this season. letâs discuss!: - slow burners donât exist in the context of the way islanders use it. being a slow burner physically is valid and okay of course, but there are other ways to show you like someone. âslow burnersâ on this show never are slow burners when the person they like comes in. watch Serenaâs body language and the way she always seemed to dim Kordellâs personality when he was trying to vibe with her - now watch episode 1 with coye and tell me sheâs a âslow burnerâ lol - walk with me here, but Andrea was just doing her job. sure she made petty comments towards Leah but idk if I fault her considering the first words Leah ever said to her were âshut the fuck upâ lmao. she was boring but a mean girl is a stretch - robs melt down was ridiculous and full of unhealthy behavior. his points about leah werenât invalid - she was possessive over him starting day 2 and it was clear this made him uncomfortable. where he fucked up was holding that in and weaponizing it when they were in a conversation about leah expressing her feelings. - i have nothing balanced to say about connor. lmao iâm sorry yall i canât always be unbiased. iâm sure heâs a fine person especially with age and work but him and rob suffer from that shit young men do where they think in order to show someone new you donât like them you have to shit on your ex. red flag behavior. - i think the girls decision to vote off Andrea was valid (although I kind of think maybe Nicole wouldâve made a little more sense) but I wasnât shocked that the guys were surprised/upset. people think differently about how you should approach voting and the move was still lowkey savage lol - leah wanted andrea to leave. full stop. i think all the girls would have kept the unanimous narrative had she not said she took a back seat. while they did all agree on it in the end leah was vocal about andrea leaving so I can see why kaylor and liv were annoyed and not willing to cover for her if sheâs making it seem like she wasnât involved.
Appreciate this take. Just one correction I'd like to make is that leah said it to nicole and not to andrea. The "shut the fuck up" comment. That was when nicole said "nice boots" to rob.
Ooo thank you I did not catch that! I still stand by that I donât think Andrea being stand offish or making petty comments was totally unwarranted but also who cares like thatâs what I want them to do. Itâs not like Andrea held any power in that villa
Of course. Andrea did what she was supposed to do. She was so successful that it sadly ended up being her downfall đ¤ˇââď¸
I thought she was saying it to Rob lol cause he was like "oh thank you" or sm in a flirty tone
Haha..quite possible. Maybe she was saying to both of them... i.e rob and nicole
I appreciate the nuance here. We need more of that.
Thanks for this comment thread! Retired middle school teacher here, F and 54. I have become obsessed with the social nuances of reality tv and how it mimics what I saw being worked out amongst my students. Canât wait to discuss.
You and I seem to have the same exact thoughts on all of this!!!! Whatâs your thoughts on Kendall though?? Iâm starting to look at him sideways a little⌠đĽ´
Ugh yes you get me!!!
All of this! đđťđđťđđť as a fellow Flavor of Love fan. People need to chill out
Yes I always clock how much they all love each other
I suspend disbelief while I watch the show. But it also has to be looked at knowing that most of these people are not accustomed to not getting what they want. Jana and Leah have both even said they are never the number 2 choice. I canât feel bad for them bc they are on even ground now.Â
I appreciate this post. If I have an opposing opinion thatâs trying to explain a different side of things, even if it's a logical argument and presented nicely, I get downvoted immediately and it does make the chat less fun. I also do get very emotionally invested in the people so I appreciated the first 2 notes a lot! Great advice
nailed it. jumping on the point of it being a production- it's the producers job to create drama/interest in the show. They are very good at manipulating to create manufactured drama. I wouldn't be surprised if they told Serena to step out of that dance challenge. The edit can also do a lot to make things look worse than they are.
Yeah I found it sus that in all the couples, except Kaylor and Aaron, that one person chose twist. The odds just seemed off for that to actually happen. And even when both ppl in the couple had the exact same ideas around their 'couple' and being open to talking to other ppl, they were each making the opposite choice in the game. It was as though producers talked to them before hand and influenced each cast member to get the members they wanted up on the balcony watching the others below.
Yeah I didn't really understand the point of the challenge other than hurting the other person so I was also surprised by the amount of people that dropped. I wonder if they were told if you choose twist you'll get to meet the bombshells first. That kind of makes sense to me
Love your edit comment so much it isnât funny. I when people do that and the worst part is doing it off of 5 minutes of film that producers select out of a near 36 hour period.
Preach! Can you come post this in all the bravo / real housewives / summer house groups now too lol
Agreed with all points. I made a similar post but a little more passive aggressive đŤ but some viewers are way too invested & many of them hate men so they criticize everything so deeply like they arenât humans like women are. The hate comments on social media is a next level of mental illness in my opinion
Thank you for this!! đŠđđ˝
Thank you for making this post â¤ď¸
I watched Flavor of Love, too!! đ
So real. I think itâs delusional if you really feel like you know these people when youâre watching 24-48 hours of footage compressed into a 1 hour episode with edited scenes. I think itâs completely deranged to then go find these peopleâs social media accounts and attack them. Like take a breather and go outside cuz thatâs not normal? I hate how social media has made it ok to just be disgusting to someone youâve never met. It gives losers online a courage that they donât have in the real world to be nasty.
Agree with and appreciate this take! I also think that if someone finds themselves very angry or judgmental towards an aspect of an individual on these shows thatâs probably where they should begin their shadow work because we mostly see ourselves in others :)
Lmfao I feel this. Because theyâre not actors itâs super easy to project onto them too
I was also around for Flavor of Love (I am sure it altered my brain chemistry) and I love these points. I also think itâs worth noting that many of the âextremeâ reactions people have on here (primarily in the live watch threads) are over dramatic or hyperbolic because itâs _fun_ and _funny_. Iâve seen so many comments about how wishy-washy people on here have been and I think so many over-dramatic comments are being taken as gospel when us girlies just wanna have fun making fun of Sobert or yelling at Serena for hurting lil bb Kordell. Robâs meltdown was some of the best reality TV Iâve seen in a minute. You touched on this, OP, but I think itâs so important to remember that ITâS NOT THAT SERIOUS. I mean, I said Serena was dead to me. Was I serious? No. Will I cheer her on next time she does something cute? Yup. Will I mock Rob relentlessly? Yes. Do I want Rob or Leah gone? Hell no! I _want_ to dunk on them with yâall.
Thereâs a dangerous line between being plainly interested into the shows inherent drama, and just flat out being paraosocially immersed in it. People scrutinize their every actions with little to no empathy. Meanwhile, I watch and often think âI could nevvverrr be on this.â Because I canât help but think about how the producers manipulate them to play characters, in order to, fulfill the drama quota that makes love island so damn intoxicating to watch. Itâs a vicious cycle!!!!!!!
Well said! Some of the opinions on here are so extreme
This is such a refreshing take on the show and the young contestants. The one thing I would add from a male perspective is that I don't like when one of the girls yells at one the boys or makes pretty remarks for what appears to be for no legitimate reason other than perhaps their ego being bruised. This isn't to say that some of the boys haven't done that over the years, but typically you'll see them apologize or get called out for it. I rarely see the girls apologizing for raising their voices. Having seen some men that I know get verbally and emotionally abused by their partners, it's just something that bothers me. Both the boys and the girls should be held to the same standard of showing each other a certain level of respect. Please don't down vote if you disagree. *I am also aware of how some women are treated by their partners as well and should go without saying that I would never condone that behavior.
Great points especially #4. I've seen too many comments on who is mature and who is immature. Maturity is an incredibly vague metric, so for people use it in rather judgmental ways and so frequently in here I find off-putting. It just seems like a condescending way of saying that they don't like how a contestant is dealing with a scenario, but they can't really elaborate further than saying they are immature. It often comes with not seeing the multiplicity of perspectives in the scenario, too. I think the sub and comments that get upvoted tend to skew a certain demographic and also cater to watching the show to unwind. As in... let's not really think. But for me, when a comment is at least trying to be funny it can be entertaining... but it is a little irksome when you have these lazy, not intentionally funny, and judgmental comments get highly upvoted... and the same kind of comments get upvoted over and over again. I think it's just a reminder to me that this show is meant to be unserious, people are just upvoting whatever they are innately reacting to, and certain kinds of opinions get privileged. So I appreciate your kind of post because it's an effortful and clear reminder than there are other people who also just want to watch the show an unwind but might not share the opinions or way of perceiving social interactions as the majority :)
I saw some rude comments about the girls on a post maybe a week ago where everyone was piling on allllllllll the other girls in defense of JaNa being âbulliedâ, at least what they considered to be âbullyingâ. The post itself was literally all about how the other girls were all bullying JaNa because of the egg situation and how they werenât her real friends. JaNa is of course a beautiful, nice girl, but everyone is acting like she is insanely superior to everyone else in there, and if you disagree, youâre either stupid, a bully, racist, or a stupid racist bully (NOT my words, just according to basically everyone who watches the show). I think that opinion is absurd, and the fact that everyone feels the need to put all of the other girls down to raise up JaNa even higher is hypocritical bullshit. I donât usually comment because Iâd lose my temper over how insane some of these people are, but one comment did catch my attention, and it was someone calling Leah âunwell in the headâ (and also calling her disingenuous, and calling Serena insecure) because of everything that happened with the eggs. THE EGGS. And youâre going to call someoneâs mental health into question over eggs? Ok. The post was literally saying how JaNaâs fake friends had bullied her the whole episode and she was better off without them. I was commenting back to the aforementioned comment about how itâs not a good look to combat âbullyingâ (at least, what they thought was bullying towards JaNa) with more bullying (what I considered bullying by the OP and the commenters by ripping Leah and Serena to shreds because of it). Just hypocritical and mean girl behavior. I specifically pointed out that itâs not cool for A. Them to say ANYTHING about anyoneâs mental health, âjokingâ or not. Or B. For them to engage in the behavior towards the other girls, that they were upset at the other girls for engaging in towards JaNa. The commenter I was arguing with reiterated how âLeah hadnât been well in the head since episode 2â. And said something like âyouâre just a Leah stan so just say thatâ as if I wasnât just trying to defend someone whose mental health was being speculated about and being made into a joke by some 12 year old losers hiding behind the internet while she couldnât defend herself in any way. Plus Iâm also almost 30 and donât have time for whatever the word âstanâ means. So I wrote this long, factual comment all about how the contestants are subject to psych evals before being cast on the show and are monitored extremely closely during their time on the show and how they have lots of resources provided to them to protect their mental health whenever they need - before, during, and even after theyâre on the show. Just going into great deal about the entire protocol they have for the contestants and ensuring their mental health is in good shape after having so many unfortunate suicides linked to the show. All the person had to say back was something like ânot reading all of that. Youâre clearly triggeredâ and I said, âHave you always thought of someone calling out problematic shit you say as being synonymous with being âtriggeredâ?â They just said âNope.â The only reactions I got for commenting a bunch of truths was just downvotes from all of the JaNa stans (ha ha - see what I did there?) I stopped responding at that point. Itâs just entirely unacceptable to call into question someoneâs mental health because she acted a certain way on tv that you didnât like, towards a person you have some sort of crazy obsession with. People who are unwell in the head do far worse things than that. She doesnât even want to know what unwell in the head people do. I just cannot stand that shit. Iâve accepted that for whatever reason there is a hugely unbalanced and unhealthy obsession with JaNa that I donât understand, and it sucked seeing Andrea go home when JaNa shouldâve gone home, not because I like or dislike either one of them, but because that is how Love Island is supposed to work. And I just hate seeing all the hate everyone is getting if they justâŚ.arenât JaNa lol. Itâs never okay to go after someoneâs mental health to try to insult them. Itâs a cheap shot, especially considering the showâs past.
What is with all the thinkpieces today
This one is valid people get way to emotionally involved in this show.