“Love is blind” Minneapolis Season Center is more political than ever

After watching our state for a few weeks, there was a moment of limelight, with the season 8 “Love Is Blind” finale debuting on Netflix on Friday. I dared to ask the Minneapolis season of reality TV shows from the farewell at the Bryant Lake Bowl and the Buckhill drama.

Spoilers for those who haven’t tuned yet.

Faithful “Love is Blind” fans remember Season 7 when Ramses Prashad and Marissa George’s difficult conversations about military service and birth control took into account breakups. During the same season, Monica Davis and Stephen Richardson disbanded from allegations of fraud, but also discussed the political differences in the pod, which changed drastically from the previous season.

The first season of the reality TV show was announced just before the February 2020 Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Now, five years from now, the show could be the most political season ever.

Although production for Season 8 took place in early 2024, the presidential primary was still ongoing. During the pod, participants brought up topics such as sexuality, George Floyd murder, Black Live Matter, voting, and religion.

In the end, of the four weddings, only one was happy. The couple, called one couple, stopped at the wedding amid in inadequate connections, but political differences, or surrounding communication, had two couples break things at the altar.

Sarah and Ben

In the finale, Sarah Carton refused to marry Ben Metzenga and said she wanted a partner “on the same wavelength.” She disliked his response to the issues of black lives and protests in Minneapolis following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in the Pod. He said, “I’m not in any way. I’m a bit off of it.”

She also has problems with his apparent lack of acceptance of his church’s LGBTQ+ identity and his stance on vaccines that viewers cannot hear on screen.

In grief, Metzenga said he was surprised when Carton retreated from the wedding. When the two return to Minneapolis, they reassure their family and friends, and their core values ​​match.

Carton said that he agreed when Metzenga told her sister he was “conservative, but liberal social,” and spoke through many “controversial conversations.” This included social media controversy over Mezzenga’s past romantic encounters.

But their various values ​​regarding how to express support for LGBTQ+ people have always been a point of discussion throughout the show, and came to mind on the last day.

Carton, with his strange sisters, emphasized this to Metzenga when they met at the pod. She was deferred to his initial response by referring to “the community,” but when Metzenga said she regretted his wording and shared more heartfelt support for her strange identity, she accepted.

In Minneapolis, on a date with Blackstack Brewing, one of Mezzenga’s friends talked about their strange relationship. However, Carton questioned whether it was enough after she had trouble with the match after finding recorded service from his church and meeting with her sister’s partner.

A few days before their wedding, Carton was thinking about what she always thought she would find a partner to line up with her in all respects. “I want everyone to be loved for who they are,” she said.

Metzenga replies that he is open to finding another church, and repeatedly says that he is on the same page as her, but he also feels that the ongoing conversation is split.

“I know where my opinion is, but I know who’s saying that’s right, who’s going to say that everyone else is wrong, and it’s not my job to persuade someone or tell them I’m right. It’s my job to get excited about everyone,” he said.

After the breakup, Carton tells the car’s sister and mother that Metzenga doesn’t share the same “priority” as her “curiosity” and she wonders whether their relationship is on a surface level.

“At least, we’ll have a conversation with anything you believe,” Carton said. “I didn’t have any curiosity from his side. I always wanted to be with people who were more interested. I’m more interested in my brain and what I think about things. People prove who I am, do you know? Like action, it speaks more eloquent than words. You can say anything you want to do, but show it to me. If he really showed you the priorities, it would have changed everything.”

Virginia and Devin

Virginia Miller and Devin Buckley encountered similar issues. Miller, whose mother is a member of DFL House, said he would like to have a more detailed conversation with Buckley, but he doesn’t seem to be much interested.

“I’m not very big in politics,” he said in a previous episode. “If I’m honest, I don’t have a strong stance on that.”

Miller told Buckley that the political system is flawed, but she often votes for Democrats, just like her family. Reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights are some issues she says are important to her, and she asked if Buckley would vote in the polls as well as her.

Buckley agrees that it would be difficult if they were on the other side of the political spectrum, but his choices depend on racial candidates.

He said his family tends to vote for conservative candidates and asked if her faith was a factor in her votes. She replies that it is and their conversation ends on screen.

“I know that talking about things is healthy, and that’s the only way you can really get through the problem,” concluded Buckley.

After Miller said “no” to the marriage, she said the interaction was offensive.

“There were times when he didn’t want to push me forward,” Miller tells the camera tearfully. “So there was something like the depth of our relationship didn’t reach us. We just didn’t get there… I think we should be there before we decide to spend the rest of our lives together.”

“I didn’t like the difference in politics,” she added. “I don’t think it was a contract breaker for me. It was how the communication around me was handled.”

In contrast, happy couples who marry the Married, Taylor Hague and Daniel Hastings, appeared to be based on similar values, especially around their faith. Viewers can see both families coming to the dating experiment, and Hastings is hoping for the blessings of The Hague’s parents. During their wedding vows, both promised to maintain their faith at the core of their marriage.

Viewers respond

Online, several Minnesotans shared the sentiment that divergent views should not be breakers of relationships. They were also grateful to see political diversity on screen.

“Everyone knows Minnesota is lib (sic). Read the comments from one anonymous poster who clashed with others in a Facebook group dedicated to Minneapolis’ “Love Is Blind” update.

There, others criticized the show for highlighting what they saw as more conservative or traditional men in the Minneapolis-centric season.

In the 2024 presidential election, 85% of Minneapolis residents voted for Harris Waltz tickets.

Minneapolis had a stronger liberal base than other major cities. Chicago saw 77% of residents vote for Harris. New York City had 68% and Los Angeles had 70%.

But the discussion between participants this season reflects what people in the Minneapolis dating scene say they’re watching.

Nikki Block is 28 years old in Minneapolis who works in DFL politics. She said that like the guys featured on shows, the men she finds on dating apps often don’t know how they feel about their political affiliation or hedging until later.

“After the election, I went through some of the people I had been discussing recently and asked how they voted. I was surprised that about half of them voted for Trump and about half didn’t vote at all. Few people supported Kamala, but that didn’t come out in the conversation at that point… It’s not about them making super audio or saying things, it’s a little more despicable.”

Brock enjoyed the Minneapolis season as more political, but said he believes that the men in season 8 will represent Minnesota politics, or the politics of men who live in the North Loop area. Brock also, as shown in the show, politics often breaks contracts for liberal women, but not for conservative men.

“I had someone like, ‘You’re a cool liberal chick’, but that’s really interesting if you’re voting for my total opposition. For many women, this is their right. It’s much more personal. And I don’t think some men, especially white men, will always apply their politics to their morals and values, because they don’t have the need for it. ”

A 2020 poll by market research firm Yougov found that 86% of Americans have been finding it harder to date someone from their opposing political parties. In particular, women and Democrats said they were not willing to date people who view them differently.

However, polls from last month only show that 24% of Americans said shared political views are extremely important to success. The biggest factors for most people were trust, integrity, respect and open communication.

Tarkor Zehn is a Liberian-American writer from Brooklyn Park, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and wrote a recent PS comment on how the latest “Love Is Blind” season portrays the difficulty of dating in Twin Cities as a black woman.

Zehn said Carton’s first flexibility in Mezzenga’s values ​​was a familiar scene. She has not seen similar compromises in relations around her on the East Coast, but she has seen her former Minnesota classmates and colleagues take the same approach.

“Women who tend to be more liberal in many cases tend to be more liberal, can be more tolerant of politics, for better or worse, when you’re in a socially conservative environment in the Midwest,” says Zehn. “It’s so wrapped up in the pressure to get married and start a family, just like you do what you have to do when you’re in that environment.”

Zehn was rooting for Virginia Miller and Devin Buckley as they came from her hometown. She said the online dialogue around them generally reflects a very divided political environment and is generally split, but following a bedtime chat with Miller in Episode 10, she hoped that Buckley would dig deeper into his beliefs.

“I don’t think Devin really understood what his political relationships are outside of his family,” Zen said. “And he may have, and he hasn’t completely exposed it. But for me, the scene was a big reflection of how many people tend to grow in certain ways, and that’s how they stay. And your immediate partner seems to have said, “This is how I vote, and this is why it’s important to me.” There seems to be no many interrogations on his side. ”

Zehn said it’s a big deal to be “love blind,” but he showed political conversation this season.

“Like, ‘Is this true? Is this 2025?” But that’s true in the Midwest. That’s true, but I say that even Minnesota is in a state of perceived blue and liberal. ”

Zehn said she felt overall. The season reflected Dei’s efforts, the second Trump administration, and the rewind of “Wives’ Era” politically, where the country was.

She hopes to balance the seasons in the future.

“I hope the next season of ‘Love is Blind’ will be very black. I hope they take us to Memphis, Detroit, Philadelphia, somewhere. Somewhere else. ”