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After a disastrous season of pod ghosting, dramatic breakups and zero “I do’s” at the altar, you would think that “Love Is Blind” would go above and beyond to ensure Season 9’s reunion was a bit more bearable than the couples we torturously watched crash and burn in the show’s most underwhelming installment yet.
But, sadly, no. Wednesday’s Denver cast reunion was just as much, if not even more, of a trainwreck than this entire season — at least when it came to giving fans the updates they actually tuned in for.
As many know by now, none of the final couples on this season of “Love Is Blind” ended up tying the knot (some didn’t even make it down the aisle), a historic first for the series.
Rather than sharing happy post-show updates about the pairs that endured the dreadful dating experiment, reunion hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey instead took a trip down memory lane, rehashing some of the season’s most unnerving moments, but with “little jaw-dropping revelations” that the former promised.
Some of the most anticipated moments of the reunion hardly amounted to much as we watched them play out — from Jordan and “Sparkle Megan” revisiting their engagement split to exes Kalybriah and Edmond still butting heads over their many premarital spats (though they hugged it out) to Patrick and Kacie’s incredibly awkward #ringgate moment, which got even more cringey when Los Angeles Clippers player Chris Paul joined the two out of nowhere to play basketball for their ring.
I wish I were kidding, but that’s just how wacky this reunion got.
Nick Lachey meant it when he said this reunion would be full of surprises, but they were all the wrong ones. The show couldn’t even deliver Megan’s bombshell baby news right because one TikToker and The Sun beat them to it days before the final episode aired.
Sure, we found out where most of the cast members stand with each other and in their current dating lives — save for Ali, who was adamant about keeping her personal life “personal” — but was it worth sitting through over an hour of nonsense and ridiculous gossip of who dated whom after filming wrapped?
Not for as many times as I found myself asking, “What is happening?” while watching the reunion, that’s for sure.
“Love Is Blind” made a lot of interesting choices about how to conduct this reunion of exes — which included kicking it off with a live musical performance (and again, Chris Paul?!) — but none made up for how unwatchable the series has become as of late.
“Love Is Blind” gave us a reason to believe in the show’s unconventional concept five years ago when it introduced us to Lauren and Cameron’s love story and others like it. But several seasons (and a few divorces) later, the show has lost the plot. Finding true love and a life partner doesn’t seem to be the point anymore — and honestly, neither does finding contestants who actually care about the experiment.
Of course, drama is part of what keeps most “Love Is Blind” viewers coming back, despite the show starting to lose its spark, but even that’s been lackluster lately. At some point, the producers must consider whether the show still has a clear purpose. And if the goal is to help people find love, or simply to keep audiences entertained, they need to succeed on at least one of those fronts.
If you ask some viewers, the “Love Is Blind” experiment has become a repeated failure that’s doing little to justify its existence now.
However, series creator Chris Coelen has a much different outlook on the success, or lack thereof, of his social experiment, which he believes is “working better than ever.”
“Remember that the experiment is an experiment,” he told Tudum, “and it’s meant to test two main questions: First, is it possible to fall in love with someone based solely on who they are? And second, if you do fall in love and get engaged, is that love strong enough to overcome the obstacles of the real, material world?”
“In Season 9, at least one member of each couple felt their love was not strong enough to overcome the challenges of the real world, and they chose not to get married,” he continued. “That’s exactly how the experiment is supposed to work.”
But does the audience see it that way? Perhaps Coelen hasn’t seen the latest feedback for Season 9.
Regardless of whether the experiment is “working,” “Love Is Blind” is not. At least, not for the viewers who think the show should take a beat to reevaluate itself before forcing another season on us.
“Love Is Blind” is set to return for a 10th season; however, details on its location and release date are still unknown. Let’s hope for our sakes that the series comes correct the next time it returns to our screens — hopefully, with a less insufferable cast and love stories we can actually root for.
Until then, please, “Love Is Blind,” stop wasting our time.
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