The Netflix dating series „Love Is Blind,“ in which participants don’t see their matches until they’re engaged, is more revealing, albeit more confusing, if you watch it blind yourself.
I see faces in everything — a slice of Swiss cheese, the front of a sedan, even an electrical outlet. So when I watched “Love Is Blind” with a blanket draped over my television, I didn’t think it would be difficult to imagine what the participants looked like.
I was wrong.
Participants of Netflix’s popular dating series are single people who say they are ready for marriage, and they enter “the experiment,” as the show’s creator Chris Coelen calls it, where they date potential partners through individual “pods,” in which they can speak to each other but cannot see each other. They each aim to find their future husband or wife, and it isn’t until they are already engaged that they see each other. Four weeks later, they say “I do” — assuming all goes well, and it usually doesn’t.
As a devoted fan of the series, I decided to get a taste of the experiment myself with Season 9. I watched the first six episodes, where the participants are blindly dating each other, completely blind myself. Only when the couples revealed themselves to each other did I see them. I call it “Love Is Double Blind.” (Although the trend of watching the show this way has popped up on social media, that moniker has not.)
What I learned from my own experiment is that it’s somewhat easy to see (or rather hear, I suppose) which couples work on a fundamental level and which couples don’t when your judgment is not clouded by appearances. I also realized pretty much everyone looked nothing like what I had pictured, which could be what some participants experience after seeing the person they’re supposed to very quickly marry for the first time.
I diligently took notes as I listened to the early episodes (just like the participants do on their pod dates) and broke down my thoughts episode by episode. From Sparkle Megan’s competing love interests to the dramatic breakups this season, all of the drama and the cringe were still present, even through this unusual viewing experience.
This episode was, by far, the hardest to watch in terms of adjusting to my “blind” experience. I started by blindfolding myself and quickly realized that made my notes incoherent. I opted to swap the blindfold for a blanket covering my TV, which was better, but I cracked the code by the end of this episode. The blanket-on-the-TV method works best if you don’t cover up the lower third of the screen so you can see the participants’ ages, names and occupations. This also helps if you, like me, are reliant on subtitles.
Once I figured out the optimal way to pursue “blind” viewing, it was still difficult to keep track of the participants, but a handful stood out. Patrick Suzuki quickly expressed his insecurities about being Asian American, which made me think he wasn’t quite ready for a show like this where your insecurities can be tested, especially after participants become engaged. (Do I look like what they expected me to look like? Am I their type? Do they still love me in the “real world”?)
I did note that Patrick and Anna Yuan, who also happens to be Asian American, seemed like a great match in their early conversations even before they knew each other’s ethnicity — they later had an open conversation about it.
Megan Walerius, whose opening line for all her pod dates was that she calls herself “Sparkle Megan,” had strong connections with Blake Anderson, Jordan Keltner and Mike Brockway. Early on, Mike seemed like the best match in terms of chemistry but the worst in terms of building a happy, healthy relationship.
Ali Lima and Anton Yarosh were the first couple we saw get engaged, so they were the first couple I saw at all (although they hyped up the reveal in Episode 1, I didn’t get to see them until the top of Episode 2). It felt like we barely got to know them at all before the reveal because there was just too much ground to cover with all the key players. I disliked Anton’s comment about how Ali could have been “twice” her size, but chalked it up to nerves and adrenaline that I imagine would be coursing through him in that moment.
Madison Maidenberg’s honesty about her vision issues and the possibility she could go blind one day was sad to learn, but it was nice to hear her being vulnerable, and it seemed like her match Joe Ferrucci took it well. Edmond Harvey and Kalybriah Haskin appeared to be an unproblematic, strong (albeit unexpected) fit, at least so far. Nick Amato already came off as a player, and I’m not a fan of the spicy talk in the pods. Isn’t your family going to watch this?
With Patrick, the insecurity about his identity and his hesitation to share his ethnicity with Kacie McIntosh was uncomfortable to listen to — I do not envy those who actually watched this scene. Kacie was receptive and open to the conversation, but it still felt like Patrick and Anna made a good match at this point, even if she and Blake also seemed to really work together. So many love triangles!
The bright spot of the episode was Joe’s proposal to Madison, which seemed genuine and heartfelt. The low point was Anna ghosting Patrick. That was unexpected and made me feel terrible for him, but again, I was grateful I didn’t have to watch the cringey moment.
Megan was in a tough spot here. Mike was the guy she says she would typically go for in the real world.
