‘Love Is Blind’ Is No Longer The Experiment It Wanted To Be

In its most recent seasons, producers seem to have wandered off course from the show's central thesis.

If ever you forget the central thesis of Netflix’s hit reality dating show, “Love Is Blind,” just watch the pilot.

In the very first moments, as they pull up to the “pods” in the back of limos, contestants air out their frustrations with the modern dating experience. Paramount on their lists of grievances are the emphasis of photos on dating apps, where people can either reject or accept you based solely on adhering to physical categories that they might deem their “type.” At the core of “Love Is Blind” is a simple, replicable premise: Can two people love each other — as host Vanessa Lachey would say, “sight unseen” — without knowing what the other looks like.

In its earliest seasons, the initial pod matches brought the inherent drama of new relationships and engagements, as well as attempting to say something larger about how much physical attraction matters when it comes to love. (The lack of body diversity on the show sometimes undermines that thesis.) In Season 6, that central premise seems to have taken a backseat. Previously, when a contestant such as Shake was too focused on looks, the cast reprimanded him. Now, when Clay asked his eventual fiancé AD about her looks, she lightly chided him and we all moved on.

The sped-up timeline of “Love Is Blind” adds plenty of layers for potential conflict. However, in its most recent outings, producers seem to have wandered off course from its central thesis about a relationship between two people. Now, it’s become downright normal for past podmates to come back and meddle in the couples’ ongoing relationship.

I realized this during a single scene: Laura, half of one of the show’s couples, met up with Jessica, a girl who participated in the experiment but didn’t get engaged. As they giggled at a nondescript Charlotte restaurant, they began to go over the drama unfolding between Jessica’s pod flame Jimmy and his fiancé Chelsea, who famously said she looks like Megan Fox. The scene teased that Jessica might try to intervene in the couple’s romance, an especially tantalizing prospect, given that in that same episode, Jimmy and Chelsea had a major argument.