As you can easily imagine with the title of the show, this BBC show is reality TV with and for gay men. The concept is interesting. 10 individuals are matched with one another before entering the competition and are matched as a couple. They arrive at this villa and meet their prospective partner with a kiss. In each couple of episodes, there will be an evening kiss-off, with the chance to reject your partner and recouple from the leftovers. Those left alone are sent home.
We meet 10 individuals forming 5 couples starting with a kiss and slowly get to know more about them. Ollie, 27, explains why he's cautious going into relationships, sharing with his cast members an experience of rejection when he took his top off with a date. Josh, 24, speaks about coming out to a very religious community or green-fingered Jake, 27, shared his decision never to share his sexuality with his late grandparents. And more contestants that come with their own personalities, their own stories but still full of entertainment. After every elimination based on the above criteria, slowly 5-6 new wildcard entries are thrown in, to throw off the existing couple off their game. The show lasts for 8 episodes of about 40-45 minutes each.
The guys that were chosen for the show were an eclectic mix. Diversity and inclusivity mattered here, with a variety of body types, experiences and ethnic backgrounds represented via the cast, which consisted of queer men from all corners of the UK. I would say most of them were cute and how can you not be charmed with their varied accents. My favorite, although, did get booted out of the show very quick. Over the course of eight episodes, the cast perfectly captured what it means to be a queer man in the UK in 2023 with non-trauma-related conversations around Grindr and dating, bottoming, topping and fetishes. The host is gorgeous and her camaraderie with contestants is amazing. She knew we’d expect glamour, and she gave it to us every single time! But the show overall did get a bit boring for me after first 3 episodes. It sort of started to go down the same pattern and at one point I couldn't care enough to get deeper into any single person's psyche. It felt a little artificial, the relationships etc, since eventually everyone in it was for money, or for love (if you seriously believe that reality shows are real). Apparently the show is a huge hit in UK and part of me can understand why. But more often that not, reality shows is something I used to like 15 years ago, but at my age now, the superficiality of it all is just to much of rme to handle and all I can do is roll my eyes almost every 5 minutes are the stupidity and absurdity of all still trying to make us believe that the show is 'real'. (4/10)
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