A guilty pleasure of mine is the reality tv show called “Love Island.” If you haven’t heard of it, here’s a run-down on how it works. Several men and women from, in this case, Australia, live in a villa on the island of Mallorca, Spain. New islanders come in and out all throughout the show and the goal is to find love. The show has a series for the United States, Australia, and the origin of the show, United Kingdom.
A big debate within Love Island is always whether the islanders are there to find love or to just play the game to win the cash prize and fame at the end. One thing I noticed while watching this version, was that there was a lot of talk about people in the house playing the game.
A lot of the islanders in season 1 appeared to be emotionally unavailable, had rumors of having girlfriends on the outside and as other islands often said, were just “playing the game.” This was really unfortunate to watch at times because the whole point of the show is for people to be there for love, not money. I understand that the casting team may have a mission to find some people who are game players to make the season interesting, but there may have been too many on the island this season.
The biggest event that made it apparent there were game players was with winning couple of the season, Grant Crapp and Tayla Damir. Whenever the islanders would play games that involved hearing tweets from the public, there were several that talked about Grant having a live-in girlfriend. After the finale, reports came out that it was on the plane heading back to Australia when Tayla discovered Grant really did have a girlfriend on the outside. In an interview with Australia’s Who Magazine, she said she knew all the love was fake because when you break up with someone you love, you fight for them. Tayla said all she got from Grant was one text.
At the end of the day, it is a game, but I just hope for future seasons of Love Island that they do a better job in trying to stray from the people who are just there for the exposure and money.