There’s no shortage of red flags among contestants on Love Is Blind Season 3, but few rival the contestant who, upon being rejected for a proposal, whips out a bottle of Visine to fake cry for the camera.
Questionable singles are par for the course on Love Is Blind, a series predicated on getting engaged to someone through a wall, but this season’s men are a particularly sorry bunch.
One dude’s got a chip on his shoulder because his last relationship lasted for 10 years and ended in an affair; another can’t stop flirting with his ex and loves to remind his chosen fiancée that he’d never go for her in the real world. Some of these guys are harmless (like Brennon Lemieux, a soft-spoken water treatment engineer), but they hardly make up for their twerpier contemporaries. After the nightmare that was Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee last season, one would think that the show’s producers might’ve prioritized substance over delusions of grandeur, but alas, here we are.
Last season’s reunion aired with a hasty wrap-up card noting that the two remaining couples had both broken up before the new episodes could air. At this point, only two couples—Season 1’s Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton, and Amber Pike and Matt “Barnett” Barnett—have withstood the test of time. You almost have to laugh when one contestant this season says she feels more confident participating in Love Is Blind “knowing that people have gone through this experience and are still married.” But, hey! May the odds be ever in these crazy kids’ favor.
Stand-out characters this season include Bartise Bowden, a 25-year-old who insists he’s ready to be married with kids but struggles to keep his eyes on one woman; Colleen Reed, a ballet dancer who (metaphorically) catches multiple men’s eyes but feels rejected when not all of them take her seriously; Cole Barnett, whose vibes are unnervingly similar to “Barnett” from Season 1; Zanab Jaffrey, an admittedly “picky” dater; and Andrew Liu, a world traveler who’s very into talking about his experiences—including with transcendental sex.
Three seasons in, Love Is Blind’s rhythm is well-established. Nick and Vanessa Lachey seem to appear as infrequently as possible—at this point, you could be forgiven for forgetting the show even has hosts—and contestants remain quick to proclaim themselves in love and get engaged only to spend the rest of their time trying to regain “what we had in the pods.”
The only distinction between this season and others is a marked increase in body diversity among the women. (Prominent male contestants all remain either trim or swole.) The dynamics that unfold between a couple of these women and their chosen partners, however, can be disheartening. Multiple men seem to hold it over their fiancées’ heads that they’re not their usual “type” physically; one makes it a point to tell his fiancée that another woman is a “10” while she’s a “9,” and one just can’t help but talk to his current partner about what a “smokeshow” one of his exes from the pods is.
If the last two seasons have taught us anything, Love Is Blind isn’t interested in grounded characters or compatibility; it’s about how much spectacle producers can mine from two weirdos until they walk down the aisle and decide they either “do” or “don’t.”
In that regard, this season is a triumph of awkward conversations and dating faux pas. (An actually fun one: When a pilates instructor gets caught working out while the guy on the other side of the wall was sharing a personal story he’d never told anyone before.) Still, the emotional carnage can get a little alienating—especially when one contestant becomes jealously protective of his chosen mate.
Thankfully, there are a couple pairs and characters who break up the season’s nihilistic doldrums. Sikiru “SK” Alagbada, a self-proclaimed “square” from Nigeria, is a refreshing break from the season’s more emotionally stunted subjects, as is Brennan. Fitness maven Raven Ross becomes a refreshing source of clear-eyed commentary as the season wears on.
Having not seen the season finale, I have no idea which of these couples might make it and which will fail—although after a brain-melting marathon viewing, I might have some guesses. For the most part, however, it’s hard to feel invested in these outcomes. With only a couple exceptions, this viewer’s yelling “Dump him!” all the way down.
