This January marks the beginning of the UK’s Winter Love Island 2023, where the villa relocates to South Africa for its second season. The winter edition always feels like a weaker version of the original – whether because the social media hype is more muted, or because the production team neglects the winter version in favor of the more popular summer season. And yet, I simply can’t stop watching. Despite its flaws, Love Island is and has always been highly watchable. It is endlessly intriguing to observe how the islanders handle their romantic escapades, and with daily updates, it's impossible not to get fully invested in the drama.

'Love Island' Certainly Has Its Problems

Any fan of the show must admit to its frankly glaring flaws. Even at their best, the episodes are borderline mind-numbing with their lack of action and endless poolside small talk. The show is crammed full of manufactured, over-edited content, where a dramatic soundtrack only highlights the absence of any real action. Even worse, the contestants all fit a certain Ken and Barbie body type, with little to no variation. Each version of the show has repeatedly failed to deliver anything close to a realistic beauty standard, which leaves many viewers feeling alienated. I know this to be wrong, and yet along with millions of viewers, I surrender my critical thinking skills for weeks on end to devour the show’s nonsense. In some way, the unreality of the contestants adds to the entertainment value. There is something almost cartoonish in their “perfection,” which invites an immersion into a world where bizarre foam challenges and an endless dissection of dry conversations suddenly make sense.

Eventually, all this makes for an interesting watch, where it becomes a fishtank study of constructed gender roles and social interaction. The girls all want a tall, muscular guy with "good chat" (good conversational skills, for those not familiar) and good teeth. The guys want a “pocket rocket,” a girl with “something about her,” or as of the current season, a girl with demonstrably small feet. Of course, many claim to not have a type, but it helps that everyone who comes into the villa inevitably fits societal beauty standards, and is happy to conform to heteronormative gender roles. This is similar to Love Is Blind, where the contestants all necessarily adhere to a certain standard of good looks, which certainly helps with the face reveal moment.

'Love Island' Is a Study in Human Nature

Love Island succeeds because it takes something we are all familiar with – dating, love, relationships – and turns a microscope on it, where the contestants can’t really talk or think about anything else. It’s a social experiment disguised as a villa holiday in the sun. The men and women split into their gendered friendship groups to debrief morning and night over the day’s relationship progress. The women have their own make-up and dressing room where mutual reassurance and compliments are shared, whilst the men profess their self-assured banter in the main bedroom before the evening’s activities. Territories are quickly drawn up, where it takes only a few days of conversation and bed sharing for the couples who actually like each other to become co-dependent. Of course, they repeat that it’s only “early days,” but this premise goes out the window when a new “bombshell” tries it on with an established islander. Attachment theories are performed onscreen as contestants profess their despair when a partner’s head “swivels” after only 24 hours.

So why do viewers enjoy this particular brand of reality television? If you look past what it means for society, and feminism, the predictability of this manufactured dating drama makes for a very enjoyable watch. Love Island is clearly a bad show, but it consistently provides bingeable episodes of amusing content. With a thorough understanding of its own niche, the show is the perfect example of a watchable guilty pleasure.

Daily Episodes Demand We Become Invested

The show is undoubtedly shallow, something Iain Stirling’s sarcastic voice-over is very aware of as he depreciates the ridiculous content as it unfolds. But, somewhat unbelievably, all this manufactured drama will eventually cause you to root for your favorite contestants. The first few weeks of the show always seem to drag, but this is because viewers have not had time yet to get properly invested in the emotional journeys of the couples. It helps that the show airs daily, as you really do get every detail of their budding romances onscreen. The all-day surveillance means that every high and low is captured – from the initial seemingly insignificant conversation to the first stolen kiss on the balcony.

Viewers quickly empathize with the onscreen plight of these couples. Like many others, I was moved to tears over Amy and Curtis’s break-up in 2019’s Season 5, and I was fully invested in Tasha and Andrew making it to the end, despite not securing the win, in Season 8. And when a long-lasting couple stays together or ends things in the real world, I do genuinely care. Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury, for instance, have captured the attention of the UK public, where millions have followed their journey from day one on the show, all the way through to their pregnancy announcement late last year. Maybe it’s nice to see a couple make it against all the odds – even if these difficult circumstances are created by the very show that brought them together. It seems that genuine feelings can and do grow from cheesy dates and silly challenges. And maybe this is the show’s winning secret – amidst all the phoniness, there can be moments of authenticity and even love.

All of this means that the show is incredibly addictive. Once you break through your natural resistance to hours of contentless drivel, this stuff is truly enthralling. The show fuels its own narratives of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal over several weeks. And although the day-to-day drama seems small, these are the grand themes it all adds up to.

Ultimately Love Island has its problems, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. But plow through the nonsense and you might just find a glimmer of emotional sincerity to keep you watching.