Alone With My Thoughts: Love Island UK

I’m Shelby, I live on my own, and I am constantly walking around my apartment talking to myself. I’ve decided it’s time to talk to all of you. Welcome to Alone With My Thoughts, a series of my completely unsolicited opinions on pop culture, media, and life.

There is nothing in this world I wanted to gatekeep more than Love Island UK. But it’s too late for that, so let’s do a complete 180 and talk about how everyone should watch it. I literally have a VPN downloaded on my laptop so I can watch episodes live. I run on Greenwich Mean Time in July and August, my plans revolve around Love Island. (We’re talking strictly UK here, no offense to Love Island USA, but it’s just not the same). The show is so vastly different from any other reality show out there. Its uniqueness is what drew me in and kept me hooked for years. I guess I’m glad so many people enjoy it as much as I do - even though I kinda think that no one loves it as much as I do. Kidding. Kind of.

I started watching Love Island UK in 2018, when the first four seasons became available on Hulu in the U.S. I was going to study abroad in Ireland the following semester, so I was sure this would give me a taste of the “culture”. I’ve also been obsessed with all things British for as long as I can remember (One Direction; Zoella and friends; etc.), and was a fan of the Bachelor franchise. Trash reality TV + British people? Ideal entertainment for me.

Love Island has the superior reality TV format, hands down. If you’re not familiar with how the show is set up, it’s similar to Bachelor in Paradise - hot singles living together in a Villa - but more intense. Everyone “couples up” on the first day, and literally share a bed starting that night. It’s incredible. The show is filmed in real time, so what you’re watching on your TV happened probably a day or two prior. This means the audience, or “the public” as you’ll hear us referred to on the show, can vote and make decisions that affect the Islanders in the Villa. The public can make decisions as simple as who gets to go on a date with a new arrival, or as serious as deciding who gets to stay in the Villa You can only vote if you live in the UK - trust me I’ve tried. Wait did I mention the show is also on every day of the week? One night of TV will never be enough for you again.

Obviously these people are spending a lot of time together. I think we’re used to the Bachelor franchise, where people are really fighting for attention from the person they’re dating, because they’re probably only seeing that person for a couple of hours a week. On Love Island, these people are together 24/7. There is nothing for them to do other than hang out and get to know each other. This makes for more accelerated relationships. We see a lot of these couples becoming “official” after only a few weeks of knowing each other, since they spend literally every hour of the day together.

We all know how involved the producers of these kinds of shows are, and how they’ll do anything for the sake of entertainment. But let me tell you, I have never been more angered by producer interference than I am watching Love Island UK. Like, I think about it for hours after the episode ends. This is definitely one of the bigger criticisms of the show. Producers have gotten a lot of backlash in the past, considering former Islanders have dealt with serious mental health issues after being on the show.

However, the mental health of Islanders is just as important while they are on the show, and I don’t think the producers take into consideration how damaging some of the decisions they make can be. The producers are responsible for how the Islanders are viewed by the public by the way they edit the show. What they decide to air can provoke the audience to send hateful and harmful messages to Islanders. Islanders who don’t have any connection to the outside world while they’re on the show, and have no idea what kind of response they’re walking out into. The show claims to have mental health resources in place, and I’m sure they do, but there is certainly more caution that can be taken.

Another harsh criticism of the show is the lack of diversity. In addition to religiously watching the show live, I also scour the Love Island UK hashtag on Twitter, and many people take issue with the casting. When I first started watching the show, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity in the more recent seasons. While the casting is more diverse than what I am used to seeing on reality TV in the US, discourse from fans in the UK calls for producers to do better.

While Love Island UK certainly has room for improvement, it is still one of the best and most addicting shows on television. And no, I’m not embarrassed to say it’s my favorite show. If you want to get on this incredible ride, I highly recommend all seasons on Hulu. But if you’re unlike me and have a life and no time to watch 7 seasons straight, my favorites are 3, 5 and 7. If you have watched already, we should be friends.