If you’re getting annoyed by the fact that there are so many ‘Love Is Blind’ references now, trust me when I say that I’m getting annoyed by it myself. I feel like my IQ level has gone down bit by bit. But the show has been in the news non-stop lately, and it’s juicy. So it was only natural that I’d create content out of it, especially as it relates to what The Graceful Boon is all about.
This next reference to the show is actually a heartbreaking one. This post will be discussing serious subject matters such as suicide, so if this is something that triggers you, this post might not be for you. But we have three ‘Love Is Blind’ related posts previously published, so go right ahead and check them out if you’re obsessed with reality TV, and BAD reality TV, might I add! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, all 4 seasons of the show are now available to stream on Netflix, though I don’t recommend you waste your precious time watching it. Here I tell you why.
The first season of the show was promising. Its premise had good intentions. Its premise is all about love and falling in love. It’s a social experiment to understand whether or not men and women in their 20’s and thirties can fall in love without ever seeing each other. My personal take on the matter, especially after watching all 4 seasons of the show and following up with some of the contestants’ lives post-show, including Amber and Barnett from season 1, Danielle and Nick from season 2, as well as Raven, Alexa and Brennen from season 3, is that people can fall in love with one another without seeing each other. However, it’s all an illusion and it doesn’t work out most of the time.
When I think of an illusion while analyzing the show, I immediately think of Raven and her relationship with SK. Raven ended up with SK on the show’. They didn’t get married in the season 3 finale – she said yes, whereas he said no. They got back together by the time the reunion episode aired. They weren’t married, but rather in a long distance relationship. Season 3’s ‘After The Alter’ arc showed Raven and SK happy and steady in their relationship, and even showed the couple getting engaged. Their engagement was short lived as Raven made a home video that was shown at the very end of the last episode, where she told viewers that she and SK broke up after he cheated her. In an interview that she did, Raven hinted that she experienced emotional and mental abuse in her relationship with SK. The good thing about Raven being on the show is that it got her promotion for her Pilates business. I think it’s very well deserved, especially considering what she’d endured. It’s a lot more than I can say about Irina’s failed attempt to promote herself and her business venture.
Season 2 of the show had 100% failure to the show’s experiment. The two couples that did get married ended up getting divorced within a short amount of time. One of the two couples was Danielle and Nick. Their divorce didn’t seem amicable. There seemed to be some back and forth he said, she said fiasco between them. It was also reported that they initially separated long before they announced the new development in their relationship, but couldn’t go through with the divorce due to their contracts with ‘Love Is Blind.’ But as new developments about the show come into play practically everyday, Danielle and Nick seem to be like a united front.
Danielle was one of the many former constants who opened up about the show’s negative light on how contestants are actually being treated while being part of the show. It all started when a former contestant from season 2 sued the show for the production’s treatment towards contestants before, during and after filming. The news of the show being sued fizzled until very recently when more former contestants opened up about their own experiences with the show. Danielle opened up about her experience, and personally, I was absolutely shocked that she was accepted to be included on the show in the first place. She was surprised as well. But then again, why the f*ck are we surprised? People’s traumas create content, and content creates profit.
Producers probably looked at her life and saw her as an opportunity to make profit. And that they did. Danielle recently opened up about her and Nick’s time in Mexico where producers wouldn’t allow her to stop filming and wouldn’t allow her and Nick to leave the resort without breaching their contracts. The producers even tricked Nick into filming scenes when Danielle was hiding in her bedroom closet to avoid being seen because her mental health took a toll. When he realized what was done, he took his mic off and threw it at his producer. Nick backed up her story on Tiktok, and since then, he started a non-profit organization where he encourages his fans to donate money in the aim of protecting future contestants from ever going through what he and Danielle went through during their time on the show.
Nick Viall, who was a contestant on ‘The Bachelor’ years ago, had a lot to say about the matter on his podcast. He basically said that it was ridiculous that Nick Thompson would ask others to donate money to such a cause when there are more important things going on in the world and people who aren’t in his position are struggling to even get by in such tough times. He also said that people who sign up to be on the show don’t forcefully sign up, and instead of complaining about their experiences, they should monetize from it. Nick and Danielle didn’t take it very well and made their responses known. Danielle even went as far as accusing Nick Viall of poking fun at suicide.
So here’s my take on the matter….
If you look at Raven, for instance, she’s the absolute perfect example of how she monetized from her experience of being a contestant on ‘Love Is Blind.’ It’s not known if she had mental health struggles due to the show’s production as she didn’t open up about that part of her experience, but she did suffer greatly from her relationship with the person she chose to spend the rest of her life with. Not only did he leave her heartbroken, but he publicly humiliated her as well. She took that pain and turned it into an opportunity to promote herself and her Pilates business to the next level.
Danielle, however, is someone that’s very different from Raven. Even though she has a lot of followers on Instagram and is verified on the platform, she still works at her full-time jobs. There are some sponsored posts on her platform, but mostly, her Instagram is 95% about her personal life. When she opened up about her experience while filming the show, she did say that she was forced to take a leave of absence from work for sometime due to the stress being on the show had caused her.
With that being said, all parties have good points. Nick Viall perfectly described what Raven had done with her platform after being on the show. Nick and Danielle described their pain while not having that platform to begin with. As contestants, you begin to get the Instagram following once the show airs, which is a year AFTER filming is complete. People who come on the show have the good intention of finding their perfect someone. They are regular people with regular lives when they sign up to be a part of the show. But the contracts are brutal. The working conditions are brutal. They work 20 hours a day, they have limited access to food and water, but have all access in the world to alcohol. For a contestant to leave the show early, they’d have to pay a $50,000 fine for damages. Case and point, if you want to understand what the behind-the-scenes looks like for this type of show, you should watch ‘UnREAL’, a TV show that perfectly showcases exactly what Nick and Danielle described.
Nick’s (and Danielle’s) aim through his non-profit is to help those contestants will have to go through what he and Danielle went through. He and Danielle have used both their platforms to promote the non-profit organization already by opening up to their followers what their experience was like on the show. They were regular people trying to find love. They didn’t come to the show and expected to be living under such conditions for weeks on end. They had regular jobs. They suffered greatly and didn’t have a way out. They didn’t have $50,000 (each) to pay for damages to leave. Hence, with good intentions, the non-profit with the good intentions of future contestants to have the $50,000 (each) to leave the show early if they wish without sacrificing their mental health. And who’s to say that no one will find the heart to donate for such a cause anyway?
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