Love is Blind in the UK & Other Shows That Have Me Hooked

I watched Love is Blind UK in quite the same fashion that I watch it’s US counterparts — I fast-forwarded through the bulk of it. But what I did catch just so happened to be kind of good. I mean, the communication, the emotional and actual intelligence (of some of the participants), and the ways that they navigate social situations was starkly different from how we do things in the United States. Let’s talk about it!

Insecurity

Insecurity was discussed a lot during this season and, in many settings, it was discussed in a healthy way. There were only certain instances where the discussion of insecurity was used as a tool of war instead of a beacon towards change (and we’ll get to that). But for the most part, there was a full acknowledgment of insecurities, an open dialogue about those insecurities and somewhat of an action plan for the couples to move forward with so that the party not suffering from the insecurities didn’t also have to suffer from the fallout of those insecurities.

I totally believe that it’s fine to have your issues and be working through them, but when your issues/work become debilitating to someone near your orbit/existence, you’re “working on your problem” incorrectly. That was a lot of words to say, “keep your stuff, your stuff”.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t turn to your friends and talk about it. This doesn’t mean that you have to ignore and override at all. It just means that, the same way that we don’t want someone with a cold breathing all over the people around them, we want you to take similar precautions with personal issues. As adults, this is a very reasonable and possible ask, absent extreme circumstances.

Can We Talk About The Fact That These People Also Had Jobs?

Many of these participants were employed and employed within good positions (whether they reported accurately or not is beyond my view). They were managers, directors, owners, doctors… THESE PEOPLE WERE EMPLOYED, OKAY! And to me, the big picture of this is absultely beautiful.

On it’s face, it looks like these individuals worked towards their own personal successes before deciding that they were ready to settle down and/or actively seek love and marriage.

It just looks so responsible. It’s such a big difference from what we usually get from these shows!

The fact that these participants had jobs and an ability to communicate effectively, consistently certainly made this the superior season and cast for me! I enjoyed watching them the little bit that I allowed myself to watch them.

There’s Always One That Reminds Me Of Home.

You decide whether this is a good thing or not, but sheesh, Catherine. You remind me of the States… Congrats.

Where are the mirrors that aren’t meant for looking at the superficial outside stuff? Where’s the substance? Where’s the rest of it? Catherine was 80-parts toxic, 10-parts lacking self-awareness, 5-parts entitlement and 5-parts delusion (measurements vary and shift between posted options on any given day). She was very hard to watch.

To this day, I’m sure she doesn’t actually see why her behavior throughout the show was unacceptable, but she did what everyone who goes into all of these shows and acts a hot mess does — she brought out the “I’ve been in therapy and I’m working on myself and I realize that blah blah blah”. It’s so unoriginal and people seem to forget that the best way to showcase “working on yourself” is within the differences in the way you act today!

Now, whether you change or grow is never our business. We don’t have to interact with you! So again, no accountability actually necessary, but sheesh! Next to some of the other cast members emotional and social intelligence differences were just stark with Catherine and Jasmine. The crazy thing with Jasmine was that you could see the huge difference in her social abilities and emotional regulation from how she was throughout the season to how she was at the time of the reunion (about a year later). She showed actual growth.

It’s always interesting to watch the ways that we, as viewers, enjoy seeing people completely come undone on television and then praise the bad behavior. Or worse… mimic it. Anyway, I remain a viewer of these mindless television shows and, of course, love a play at love so I say all of this as a skeptical viewer just looking for episodic escapes…

Speaking of which:

CBS’ SHOW, SEAL TEAM, IS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

I originally started this show because I was desperate for a new serial show to get lost in (the processes of grief). Upon starting the show I was so upset because I thought that the acting was simply not good, but as I got deeper into the characters I realized that they’re just very guarded characters. The writers and creator of this show gave us the necessary bits and pieces at all phases and arcs of the show and it really helped with loving the characters more.

I can imagine them starting out with simple ideas of who the characters would be using simple one-liners: Jason is the goal and the glue; Ray is the reason; Spenser is the know-it-all (for now); Sunny is the jokester, etc.

Simply starting there and placing them all under the umbrella of a shared goal and proximity got us to the parts of the show that made us absolutely love the team that they created and the individual characters that made up the team.

Everything about the show is good! The pacing, the characters, the casting, the story lines and even the things that I’ve hated about the show. Spoilers incoming: I hated that Sunny couldn’t just have the stable love that he’d wanted. He was a team guy through-and-through, a simple man who just wanted the group-love-team dynamic that he felt with his brothers to be felt with a romantic love outside of the mission.

I also completely hate the way that they did Clay. Wow! But, in all honesty, it’s a real story that happens more than we’d think, sad as it may be.

If you haven’t checked this show out, you certainly should! I’m currently re-watching it, but mostly because I refuse to watch season 7 for reasons that I won’t state here. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been watching! Hope you enjoyed a peak into my sitting room!

Best [viewing],
Bree