Pop Culture Confessions: Love Island

A new (truth) bombshell has entered the villa.

Sadly, we’ve (mostly) said goodbye to the feel-good holiday entertainment that kept us smiling through much of November and December. As much as I’d like to carry the Hallmark Countdown to Christmas (and all of my mixed feelings about it) into the rest of 2024, I also know that a major part of why I (hate to) love it is that it’s meant to be enjoyed within a limited window. I do, of course, reserve the right to throw myself back into all things Hallmark coziness at any point, but in the meantime, we are resetting our entertainment diet over here.

And that means… Love Island.

I’ve been a Love Island viewer for the last year or so, and in that time, I’ve clocked dramatically different reactions to this admission when I’ve shared it. I can’t think of a better reason for a new installment of Pop Culture Confessions.

As a reminder, Pop Culture Confessions is a place where I break down the media I love but feel weird (or worse) about. I’ll give myself the space to fangirl while also being transparent about my ambivalence (or worse) and how I might be able to untangle it.

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My mom was the first person in my life to sing the praises of Love Island. For years, we’ve shared a love of reality TV, but I’ll be honest—I was a little judgemental of her newfound obsession with a show that seemed focused solely on half-naked hotties jockeying for positions in various full-sized beds. I’m far from prude and think that consenting half-naked (or fully nude) adult hotties should be given the latitude to snuggle up in any bed they choose, but the show just seemed… boring. Plus, there were so many episodes! I didn’t know where to start.

About a year and a half ago, however, I decided to give up my allegiance to The Bachelor franchise. For a long time, the shows had been must-see TV for me, but I felt like they were getting stale and occupying too many hours every week. I’m happy to report that I don’t miss being a member of Bachelor Nation (though The Golden Bachelor does have a spot on my maternity leave watch-list), but I did feel a gap in my reality television rotation. In the interest of having something mindless on TV during a workout at some point in early 2023, I decided to follow my mom’s lead and pop on the first episode of a random season of Love Island.

The rest—as you probably know if you’ve ever watched the show—was bound to be history.

Speaking of history, let’s chat a bit about Love Island’s roots. (For my bibliography, see Wikipedia. Very academic stuff.)

Love Island as we currently know it—and that’s the iteration of the show without any other letters or locations behind the title—premiered on Britain’s ITV2 in 2015. A show of the same name aired in 2005 and 2006, but this revival has been significantly more successful… and not only because of its popularity in the UK. Over the past eight years, Love Island has also inspired 22 other versions internationally, among them Love Island Australia and Love Island USA. A handful of these versions have made it to popular streamers, making them easily accessible to viewers who live outside their countries of origin. I, personally, have Hulu to thank for my addiction to the show(s).

It’s worth noting that Love Island’s incredible success—and the overnight fame it offers its contestants—has made things complicated… and sometimes worse. Stories abound about the serious hit that many participants have taken to their mental health after their involvement with the show. Several Islanders—and even one of the show’s hosts—have died by suicide. It’s deeply upsetting—and a sobering reminder of just how real the impacts of one’s involvement in reality TV can become, despite questions from the viewing public about how “real” the on-screen antics are.

On the other hand, it would appear that a not insignificant number of the relationships that have started on Love Island are “real.” I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I’m willing to bet that the success rate of the franchise as a whole is higher than that of The Bachelor and its spin-offs. I love following my favorite enduring Love Island couples on social media. Many of them have kids and homes and pets and—in spite of their fame—what seems to be a fairly normal life.

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Currently Reading: The Daydreams by Laura Hankin

I literally (literally) just started this book this morning, but I have high hopes for it! Several people have recommended it to me based on my reading and pop culture interests and as soon as I read the synopsis, I knew it deserved a spot on my TBR. Plus, I’m a big fan of Laura Hankin and A Special Place for Women. I got to interview Laura on the podcast a few years ago and it was such a treat—which makes me that much more excited to grab her latest novel!

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For the uninitiated, a word about the format of Love Island… each season opens with a group of (for lack of a better word) hotties arriving to a luxurious (and tacky in a neon-signs-everywhere sort of way) villa. The singles are split into couples based only on initial attraction—but fear not! While these couples represent the first “teams” of the season, there are seemingly infinite opportunities to shake things up. Over the course of the weeks that the Islanders spend in the villa, new “bombshells” are introduced to challenge the existing relationships and, yes, to cause drama. When participants aren’t lounging in the sun or doing their makeup in “the glam room” (which is what they do most of the time), they are playing hilariously cheesy games and soberly attending recoupling ceremonies. Oh, and they talk a lot of shit.

Something that really sets Love Island apart from other reality TV shows is the sheer number of episodes packed into each season. If I had to name the single most common objection I get from folks after I’ve recommended the show to them, it would easily be this! And I get it… it looks a little daunting to see that longggggg episode list on-screen. It’s a commitment! The opening episodes of the seasons can also feel a little clunky, which makes it hard to fully buy in right away. But there are good reasons for all of this! As I understand it, when a fresh season of Love Island is airing, multiple episodes are released per week in the season’s country of origin—and in near real-time. This creates space for audience participation and voting à la American Idol. It also means that production has a tight turnaround and is limited in their ability to edit and direct the story.

Now that I’ve bored (or perhaps intrigued) you with my thesis about Love Island, let’s talk about why we’re actually here: the confession of it all.

In no particular order, here are some of the reasons I don’t necessarily feel the best about being a fan of Love Island…

• Per my note above, you don’t have to dig too deep to find proof that the show—like other reality programming—has had a negative (to put it lightly) impact on people who’ve been associated with it. It’s icky to sit with the knowledge that, as a viewer, I’m fueling that machine in any way. Still, I think you could argue that this is a commentary on the reality TV genre, more broadly… and that’s certainly a bigger subject for another day.

• While there have been a few cases of Islanders choosing to pair up in same-gender couples, the show is primarily heteronormative in nature. Plus, while queer couplings seem “allowed” within the world of the villa more than they are in, say, the Bachelor Mansion, they don’t usually result in relationships with staying power. Some of them have felt played for drama and have even been fetishized by other Islanders. Can we call this a one-step-forward-two-steps-back scenario? Perhaps.