Netflix’s ‘Love is Blind’ asks how superficial love is
Courtesy of Women’s Health
“Love is Blind” is Netflix’s first No. 1 show in its new rating system – and for good reason, too. As the 10-part, three-week first season draws to a close with the finale episode “The Weddings” released on Thursday, Feb. 27, the question of whether love is really blind still lingers.
Fifteen men and 15 women are put into an experiment to find love – without seeing each other at all. They talk to one another through “pods,” and the show is fueled with drama, chaos and a whirlwind of emotion from the very start. Putting race, height, appearance, money and everything else aside, married couple Nick and Vanessa Lachey developed this experiment to see if an emotional bond is enough to keep two people together. After talking for 10 days in these pods, often even less, the only way these singles are allowed to meet one another is by getting engaged.
After getting to know each other on deep emotional levels, the couples who did get engaged would move to a retreat in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and eventually return home to meet each other’s families, building up (or breaking down) the connections that they made with one another initially. After 30 days, the couples that were still together would decide the ultimate fate of their relationships – at the altar, proving that love is blind, or parting ways “forever.”
The show grew more intense as it went on and revealed more and more of the contestants’ true selves. But at the same time, with technology, social media and superficiality consuming the dating world, it’s no surprise that this unique take on finding love garnered so much interest. After all, everyone wants to find love, but the emotional connection, to be blunt, is just not all that truly matters in a relationship. After the finale that featured the couples that did end up getting married, the truth came out: Most people can’t rely on an emotional connection alone if the rest doesn’t meet their expectations, but for some, it was enough.
Interestingly enough, all of the couples were really there looking for authentic, genuine relationships, and some were lucky enough to find them. The experiment takes a backward approach to dating and finding love, which, in the end, proves to be just as difficult, if not more complicated, than meeting someone in person or on an app first.
Would you be able to marry someone not only after a mere 30 days, but also after getting engaged before ever meeting face to face? With so much to consider, is it possible to blindly commit to someone for the rest of your life?
