Petrus Minor Post #4

 I’m once again admitting to watching a little more reality TV than is probably healthy…

Love is Blind truly lives up to its hype in radically unexpected ways. What fascinates me about it, is its unabashedly biased and comedic editing — setting thrilling soundtracks to reframe romantic gestures as creepy ones (poor Zack), cutaways suggesting major bullying within the female quarters, and hardly coherent conversations edited to frame certain participants in negative light. 

The premier of the recent reunion of cast members, a year after the previous episode, reveals an openly tired, rather frustrated panel of participants who break the forbidden fourth wall of reality TV and openly discuss their unfair portrayals and extrinsic motivations for being on the show. 

Shockingly, resident serial-killer-vibes Zack, actually endears himself in the lesser edited interviews. While previously, he appeared to interact with his women of interest with conversation-halting strangeness, here he appears shockingly normal. He repeatedly refers to the show’s biased editing, and accuses his original match, the drama-starting Irina, of being on the show only “to get famous.”

As I discussed in my presentation during our relaity TV week, with influencer industries there is a direct, and massive, possibility for the generation of profit through reality TV’s quick access to fame. Zack’s accusation references Irina’s performativity, her bullying of other women, poor treatment of Zack, and attempts at meddling with other relationships on the show, a performance — reality participants exploiting the show, and performing within the panopticon. 

More seriously, reports of Love is Blind’s terrible labor conditions lift the veil over the secretive backworkings of reality TV. Poor conditions for participants exist perhaps less to cut costs, and more to stoke drama by exhausting participants. For example, one of Season 4’s highlights is the moment a participant falls asleep while her ‘date’ professes his love — which he interprets as an offense, while reports of inhumane living quarters suggest she fell asleep simply because she was exhausted. 

But more importantly, Couscous: