The split in 2 reflects the actual groove: npr

Netflix’s love is blind a few times before in pop culture happy hour. And the very obvious main conclusion we always land is that the real-life dating show “social experiment” is “Is love really… blind?” – not actually the purpose of the show.

But just because the show has failed brilliantly on its own premise doesn’t mean it doesn’t expose any other aspect of the human condition. The latest season set in Minneapolis may have featured an unprecedented bland cohort. The juicy on-screen drama producer was David Bettenburg’s crazy self-mass in his relationship with Lauren O’Brien. What Season 8 lacked in fireworks made up for (almost) the way the show lined up with the dating phenomenon in which it played IRL.

For Sara Carton and Ben Mezzenga, the inconsistency in values ​​was apparent when they were still dating in the “pods.” When she raised interest in social justice, especially the Black Life Matter Movement and George Floyd, murder took place in her hometown – his response was, “I’m just apart from it.” This obviously bothered her, but the red flag on the fire engine was not enough to send a carton that immediately ran in the opposite direction. They got engaged anyway. And as expected, the flag continued to come: Metzenga told LGBTQ people throughout the season that “it looks like they’re open,” but from what Carton could see, its openness was so far – the church seemed to love people despite their strangeness. And when Carton asked him about it, he insisted that he actually didn’t know the attitude of his congregation – he sincerely insisted that his views were similar to Carton’s views.

“I don’t notice” basic human rights bliss — or actually being actively indifferent, was Devin Buckley’s MO. He’s a basketball buddy (unrelatedly) very similar to Keegan Michael’s keys, but similar to hair. In one later episode, his fiancé Virginia Miller similarly attempts to get him to talk about where he stands on issues like abortion. He also advocated neutrality, but his family tends to vote for conservatives, he said. (And while dating in the pod, his reaction to the disclosure of another participant who had dated a woman in the past… was more troublesome than the cold.)

Such fence sitting ultimately destined for both relationships. “I’m really going to be clear about (my opinion),” said Miller at last Sunday’s reunion special. “I support the LGBTQ community 100%, and I believe that women should make a decision to choose whether or not they want to have an abortion, and that a variety of religions should be valued.”

Several observations pop up. For one, love is an essentially conservative purpose in which participants speed dating towards their marriage, and is opposed to the real world where young women tend to be more liberal than young men who may end up dating. Season 8 was reportedly filmed about a year ago before the 2024 election, but this political gap was already a contract-breaker for the women on the show. Looking at this season, at a time when reproductive rights have been eroded for years, federal policies have overturned the lives of trans people, and the federal government has arrested people with no criminal history.

This type of fission has occurred previously. For example, in Season 7, Rams Prashad has had trouble with Marissa George, who doesn’t want to go to birth control pills, and has expressed resistance to wearing condoms. But I can’t remember the breakup of love. For example, in contrast to one of the partners getting an “ICK,” there is a blind relationship like in Season 8 that it is very explicitly tied to political divisions.

It is also worth noting that during the reunion, Sarah Carton suggested that it was unwilling to argue about the politics that simply ended her relationship. “From the pod, it never made progress,” Carton said of Metzenga. “It felt like there was a lack of curiosity on Ben’s part, and that bothered me.”

Reality television was not built to accommodate subtle conversations about social issues. Carton and Miller weren’t built to watch their partners try to be desperately open minded while giving them Dua Lipa levels that don’t do anything to work just to confirm this. But despite what is said to often tell viewers who are looking at Netflix’s editing options and apocalypse to cast members leaks, or despite its fault, that they often say they’re going to tell a lot of things to viewers who are looking anyway. That is, everything is politics, whether we act that way or not.

The quiet part became very loud when I asked co-host Nick Lachie during the reunion whether he intentionally refused to acknowledge the Church’s attitude towards LGBTQ rights. “To be honest, I was honest about things I didn’t remember because I didn’t need to know. It was really related to ‘Metzenga answered before adding defensively’, so there was really no one in my life.

surely.

The film also appeared in NPR’s pop culture happy hour newsletter. Sign up to avoid missing out on our next newsletter. Plus, get weekly recommendations on what makes us happy.

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