Going by the Rules or Playing for Personal Gains? The Game Against The Rules in Netflix’ Love Is Blind

Playing with people’s feelings; perhaps it is, but admittedly it does make good television, or in this case streaming series. Love is Blind from Netflix now has its second season out and many of its partakers have been the source of ridicule on social media platforms across the internet, mostly for their odd, misogynistic, or outright dishonest behaviour.

The concept of the series is that people are on a quest to find their future husband or wife and are taking part in this “social experiment” (which is what the producers want the programme to be called) where they are placed in a room and are supposed to chat with another person in another room without ever seeing them. People circulate talking to several people and are to never see them unless they decide to propose to them and decide to get married. The idea is that love would truly be blind, and people could fall in love without seeing their future spouse.

But of course, some people have decided that they are smarter than the concept and start to play the social experiment as if it was a game. Every person in the game has their own motives and a way to act in the show, and therefore have their own strategies and games they play. These two people are some of the most notable “gamers” of the show and whose actions affected the other players the most:

First, there is Shake, a man in his thirties working as a veterinarian. To him physical beauty is a priority. Some might ask, what is he doing in this programme in the first place, and honestly, I have no idea. The basic setting is that while chatting in their rooms, many questions are asked to find out more about the person they are talking with. Obviously, for most people these questions are about what the other person likes, what do they do in life, and overall try to find out about common interests and their personalities. Shake being the sly person that he is, many of his seemingly sincere questions are just disguised opportunities to find out the looks of the other person, for instance if they were to go to a rock concert together, would he be able to carry her on his shoulders. Yes, not discrete at all and the women he was talking to sensed his intentions immediately. He is playing against the idea of the game, not well, but playing, nonetheless. The core idea of his game: find a woman as good-looking as possible and a great personality is a plus.

Another one of our master-gamers is Shane. His antics are not as well-thought out as Shake’s, and his masterplan is to play a likeable playful character with specific flattering answers as part of his interaction with women in the show. His cheesy delivery still has some similar ulterior motives as Shake: he does ask a lot about what the women are wearing, as it is possible that in his world certain looking women wear certain looking clothes. Shane playing around leads to him hitting on two women, as part of his game plan is to gather as much attention from the women as possible. Too bad that he did not think of the fact that the women are living in the same quarters during the experiment and talk to each other’s, so obviously they found out that he has been playing his game with them.

The series is not a game show nor is it a playable event, but because the stakes are high and the opportunities exist, people are going to create their own strategies for selfish purposes. This is not the only reality series where people develop their own tactics to come on top – most relationship reality shows have people trying to stir up drama with other people to their own benefit even though there are no official gameshow elements present.

As the series progresses it becomes evident that some of the couples that became to be in the show do not want to get married or even be together. There is a possibility that since the people who did not get engaged in the first part of the show in the single rooms talking to a wall, these people think that if they ended the relationship, they would get considerably less screen time or even be cut from the show. The reason some people attend these reality shows is that they want the possible minor celebrity status that it brings and the benefits that come with it such as a social media influencer status. Therefore, strategizing having a façade relationship until the ceremony brings the most attention. What makes this behaviour questionable is that there absolutely are people who truly want to find love or want to experience the format, and having people going after fame by playing their own game might hurt these people, and in the end the strategies unfold on these people’s expense.

Having a tactic or a strategy does not automatically count as playing or a game. Executing them in a manner where the wanted result is nothing but individual gains or entertainment might very well count as one. These people are very clearly playing with other people’s emotions to their own benefit, and it is often not subtle.

Title: Love Is Blind

Available: Netflix

Production company: Kinetic Content

Genre: Reality

Header image: Joshua Humphrey (https://flic.kr/p/y5EBfH)

Article image: Kim Siever (https://flic.kr/p/cDeyRm)

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