Netflix original dating reality shows have become a staple of the programming platform, but how much they are really changing the game? The spectators have flocked to Netflix of the shows in the last few years, looking for new twists on the genre, and Netflix has delivered, with a handful of completely original shows as well as the transmission of rights to a variety of preproduced series from all over the world. Are popular and buzzed about, but in an effort to become a hub for the reality dating TV, Netflix still often lacks the courage to break the mold.
On the surface, Netflix dating shows seem to be a little more diverse and have a lot more fun than the traditional Bachelor’s degree-style of the sample or the outrageousness of the programs such as the TLC 90 Day Fiance. His most recent success, Love Is Blindfor example, included a mixed cast something The Bachelor’s Degree In it is now starting to catch up and The Appointments Of All (without a doubt the best of the original from Netflix) includes LGBTQ+ members of the cast, as well as racial diversity. Shows as Too Hot to Handle challenge the old notion that dating shows should be about the contestants work towards marriage; it is playful in its tongue-in-cheek “not sex” concept.
Despite all these superficial differences, however, the basic format and concept remain largely similar across each show. Single people meet, it has a TV-ready drama, and try to form a long-term romantic connection, once in a while with other incentives like prize money in the game or in other turns, such as not being able to meet in person or not being allowed to touch. The “real world” dating the timeline is accelerated astronomically, the meaning of things, as if to say “I love you” or having sex become part of the game, no matter how much the producers might try to mask it. Commitments often end of the sample or, at least, are part of a meeting or “where are they now” special. Netflix of the shows do not seem to strive more to have more visible diversity of their counterparts of diffusion, but there is still an uncomfortable emphasis on the physical attraction, conventional standards of beauty, and of a very narrow range of body types featured.
Netflix has an ace in the sleeve, despite the fact that: The Appointments Of All. It is probably the least animated of your sample — that is, in itself, a whole conversation to be had — but it is by far the most attentive. The “competition” factor, as well as the format that revolves around a single person going on several first dates, and choose who to see again, but the dates are not mixed up for the dull competition. Instead, the show focuses on the protagonist’s feelings and the universal, the awkwardness of the first dates that don’t (or do) gel.
In place of epic places, dates happen in places where dates happen in the real world; instead of a bunch of straight white protagonists, people of various backgrounds take center stage. The first season had two of the six episodes focus on LGBTQ+ leads, as well as episodes dedicated to a Punjabi-American divorcée in her late 30s and, most surprising of all, one centered at 70 years, a widower. Season two maintained the diversity, with leads including an LGBTQ+ Black woman, a Filipino man, and more, including the body of the diversity among the contestants. It is hard to imagine something so realistic, diverse, and low-profile in the TELEVISION network, due to the lack of the “OMG!” factor that seems to be a need for anything that are not on streaming. Netflix would do well to take advantage of that, instead of trying to mimic and recall the scandal factor.
On the positive side, Netflix may be moving in that direction sooner than we thought. Variety the reports that the platform has greenlit a couple of quotes off the cuff, shows for its debut this summer, both of which focus specifically on various dating experiences. India Matchmakingget the 16 of July, in the following manner to the pairs that are linked by an Indigenous elite matchmaker, while Love on the Spectrum the (July 22) in the following manner to the young adults on the autism spectrum through your dating life. None of these programs is so marketed as the “sexiest” titles as Love Is Blind or Too Hot to Handlealthough, suggesting that Netflix, like other networks, is still convinced that the most popular titles will be the most traditional and the most scandalous ones. Perhaps in time, more different dating shows will be big hits. After all, love, in all the different ways in which it is expressed, it is for everyone, isn’t it?
