u/Awkward-Dog3006

QC was a success; we suspected this was coming; it was highly requested. The producers want to keep the entire Bridgerton franchise going for as long as they can, and they're gonna profit from how they rollout the next few seasons to the final 8th season in order to keep the momentum/drum up excitement.

I think there's very good reason to believe season 6 will be released after Violet/Edmund spinoff; I think there's a real chance that Hyacinth and Gregory's seasons could be the only ones to air after this spinoff. The spinoff serves as a separate hype to the main show, and for fans that maybe are less interested in the two youngest Bridgertons now, the Violet/Edmund spinoff could incite a new sense of excitement for them to tune in.

However I don't really get the intensity behind Eloise, tbh; all the constant discourse surrounding Eloise's future and what people want for her re: being a lesbian or a spinster or with Theo, etc...The writers have told us what/who her endgame are. Now with the fresh announcement of a Violet/Edmund spinoff, which could further delay Eloise's season, the valid disappointment is in full-force. I don't personally subscribe to the simplification that because her character is a fan-favorite, they want to keep people interested in the series by delaying her even longer. They're not holding Eloise off to keep viewers on the line; people who wanted Eloise to be the lesbian or be unmarried forever will be well aware of the plot by then or make themselves miserable by watching. She's going to marry a man, so what would be the anticipation for those same viewers when much of the online reaction is hate?

Violet and Edmund's spinoff doesn't affect Bridgerton's production plans (they've know these behind the scenes preparations and greenlight confirmations in advance). Season 6 is in pre-production. Season 3 was finished filming when QC was released. They're handled by different showrunners. So, the comments about Claudia Jessie "not being young forever" are unnecessary, as much as they are ageist.

Personally, I believe people are allowed to be disappointed about the possible delay of Eloise's season; but the worries aren't gonna change that. I was disappointed when Eloise wasn't season 5, but as soon as Francesca and Michaela were announced, there was nothing I could do.

Personally, I'm excited for Violet and Edmund's story, especially because I liked the way QC was done much better than the main show, and I'm not in agreeance with Jess' vision for a lot of characters' development.

I'm not understanding how KC saying the "Kenzie out the window" line supposedly excuses him from fault. What happened is during Casa, Corbin said, "I'm going back with somebody different, bro". Kenzie (and the girls) hear this on the video; she says, "What did he say [shocked]" ? Someone repeats it. Kenzie gets on confessional and says, "You can't say some ish like that 10 seconds in to seeing some new girl, shaking ass. Like shit, I thought we had an actual connection. But I'm clearly wrong. He's just a f-boy like everyone was saying." (I wanted to upload the actual clip in it's original form, but I don't have a link with this full edited part above).

Continuing, Corbin says, "They about to climb this f*ckin tree." THEN...KC says, "He said, 'Kenzie out the window'" (aka commenting on Corbin's verbalized expression). The hosts on Aftersun and Corbin/Parmida didn't relay this in full, correct context. Corbin/Parmida say that Corbin didn't even say the line the girls were mad about and that it was KC. Tefi and Cierra tell Kenzie this, and of course, she seems shocked. I've seen people arguing about how this game of telephone tracks, but if Kenzie had known Corbin actually did say words, throwing their connection away, she still would've been mad, as proven by the above paragraph... Kenzie left Aftersun, thinking he was innocent. I feel like if Cierra and Tefi are gonna be hosts, they should, at least, give the correct information in full context. What am I not getting for how Corbin is automatically being excused now..? I've seen people on TikTok and some on Reddit agree with them on Aftersun, and still defend Corbin when people have brought this up in context of the clip.

Can someone tell Kayda being together since Day 3 doesn't determine compatibility? At this point, KC and Tierra do look more compatibile than them (they are the same person). Seeing her trash talk other couples in favor of her own was off-putting. She thinks Aniya pursuing a connection later in the game and not picking Carl initially makes her entire journey with Zach more worthy of compatibility. How Kayda can say, "we've only had like 3 fights", while comparing herself to couples who've had none is a joke (and I'm not putting them above, because they have had less time to forsee them in conflict situations)...Kayda and Zach are not worse than Melanie and Sincere, but they're in the same boat as them with the the fights and not seeing eye-to-eye that she uses as the reason they should be above them.

Kenzie's irritation annoys me, as well. You've been exploring for ¾'s of the time here, and you're mad because Aniya didn't pick Carl when you sidelined to Gal in the process of knowing Dylan...? The hypocrisy is absurd! Kenzie's problem is she views herself as completely justifiable, no matter the correlations to any other islander and situation. With the other islanders...

My thought process is this cast is very hung-up on the idea of how their choices are perceived, rather than following their true desires in the moment. With Kenzie, she genuinely views herself as right in every situation, no matter the callout (up until she has to view herself back on Movie Night). For others, the lack of exploring done by a lot of them partially stems from an attempt of performing committed-people-actions, moreso than natural and genuine behaviors (I believe people like each other; that's not mutually exclusive to this belief). People are too concerned with the optics of if they stay with the bond they've been building from Day 1. Everyone was too caught up in "Married at First Sight Island" for this reason! People are aware to the optics that prioritize how their couple is perceived, even just a little bit. Zach's perspective of going at a slower pace and making steps towards being exclusive to then developing your connection on the outside world vs Bryce speech on the logical gestures of making someone your girlfriend that contributes to how America perceives your intentions are differing..

Feel free to downvote me, just putting that out there before I put this out there.

I remember when u/Athena_14_06 made this post, I was appalled looking at the comments. Many users tried to excuse the obvious microaggression towards Parmida calling her "Parmesan", by saying the nickname "CorbinGPT" was also one towards Corbin's Jamacian background.

The clear difference is one is a microaggression, pretending to lack ability to pronounce a cultural name (it also takes 2 seconds to fix autocorrect, but this reason was already a lie), while "Corbin" is a common known name and the robot memes have always been a joke about AI, rather than anything to do with his culture.

Now that Bryce has called this out with Corbin (and he laughed), many other islanders have pointed out his robotic mannerisms and lack of emotions, and Gabriel talked about how the islanders had a running joke in the villa (even before the post, I'm referencing)....can we stop making excuses to be racist? A lot of you are terrible!

Edit: Even if it autocorrected, y'all standing on & focussing on that is wrong. Again, it doesn't take that long to fix it! It's a microaggression.

Also edit to add: people calling Sincere "Insincere" or any of the other nicknames is born out of commenting on his character. Whether you agree with nicknames for any of the cast or not, it's just factually not a microaggression the same way it is for Parmida. There's history to mispronounciation of her name that is not there for a lot of others. **Add the few misspellings of Titi, I've seen to the microaggression conversation, as well.

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Haven't been too fond of either these last few episodes, however this moment was funny. But more importantly of these lines of dialogue, I think they really put into perspective a big problem with this cast & season:

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*when Guys and Girls were discussing their dumping decisions* --

"Are you all going to pull Caleb for a chat tomorrow and get to know him?" -Zach ("I'm not mad at all, but I'm using your logic," he says later)

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What Zach was saying about keeping Caleb was applying the standard thus far of the bombshells not being given fair chances and coming into Married at First Sight that forces them to remain being single. If the girls thought to keep Caleb, it'd make no sense if they kept giving him the short end of the stick (just as they did with Sol). I honestly understand why both decisions were made. The guys picked Sol, because they didn't see her as having much left to experience under the circumstances & because it was the easiest decision, that wouldn't shift any dynamics (was it spearheaded by Sincere? absolutely; both can be true). They made their decision based on being in the mindset of "Couples' Island" and thought they would shake-up the least amount of present situations. The girls picked Gabriel because they figured he wasn't genuinely trying to get to know people, labeling him as "lustful" and thinking he had too many opportunies without settling down. With that said, I, too, see both decisions as disrespectful in their own ways.

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KC in his confessional says, "You're doing this all because of 'lust'. We kiss each other every fucking day, we slap each other's asses, and we're doing all this stuff, but you're talking about lust. Are we not all lustful in this motherfucker?"

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The point of Love Island is to explore and lock down when you find your best match. The problem with this cast is they have all locked down without giving other connections true chances. The matches don't feel solid to a lot of the viewers because they've explored under a false guise of trying and we haven't seen any deep connection over the surface-level settlement on first bonds. Gabriel was right. KC was right that Gabriel shouldn't be painted as awful for his exploration. Mind you, Gabriel's strongest match got eliminated due to America's vote and Corbin's decision; he was put in his position (so the logic of him having too many chances and being too much of a wanderer doesn't really fit).

Sol got eliminated due to "Couples' Island" being too locked down to make a space for her; Gabriel got eliminated due to "Couples' Island" villianizing him for exploring, and both arguments of "The Boys" and "The Girls" are judgmental based on unfair systems that they set up and hypocritical/a contradiction to the purpose of the entire experience.

Basically the Boys took the easy way out in their vote, while the Girls took the sympathetic (pity) route. No one wants to allow differing approaches to ruffle any feathers of the current villa system (not Sol, who could adjust the established dynamics...not Gabe, being one of the few to actually explore & be a wildcard, where a stronger connection could veer him in a different direction). Let's hope Casa brings a shift in dynamic that sticks.

The Quote: "I feel like if KC didn't put Aniya first and see the connection that they have and want to continue that and pursue it, I don't believe that he would stay in this position if he didn't want to be like with her."

Two Things To Appreciate:

1. Finally Aniya asking another girl for advice, rather than being the therapist!!..Praise Jesus, it was actually met with reception and focusing on her problems (I'm looking at you, Disingenuous).

2. Thank you Trinity! Someone who's both level-headed about the situation and can still validate Aniya's feelings. A wonderful girl-chat on the show!

I feel like Aniya (and some of the fandom)'s stuck on this "safe option" wording, like she's a 'second choice'. Anyone else can figure out KC has a stronger connection with Aniya and weighed the risk of messing with their connection because he doesn't wanna lose that. She's his first choice. He's incapable of deciphering the connection with Sol, and it isn't more worthy of a real pursuit yet (an entirely different dynamic to Sol vs Melanie w/Sincere right before America's vote). KC can want to explore with Sol, but is it valuable to him or worthwhile? (no, at least not at the moment) What has potental?? This is a common crossroads faced in the real world of dating/meeting people. He can be attracted to Sol, but he can be attracted to Aniya and see more compatibility in that connection from his perspective to what he feels at the moment (do I think they're doomed? yeah, but that's not the point). There's a lot of emotions at play with both of them, and many underlayers going on in this couple. KC has been needing to explore because there's going to be resentment from the unknown. Aniya has been needing to be honest with herself, because she'd come to realize their differing desires and ways of communicating aren't fitting to each other, and they'd probably be happier with someone that meets their needs.

I thought this was noticed by now, but I see many attributing it to other reasons, so I feel I want to point out how producers influenced the fan vote in the re-coupling to anyone that doesn't know. The same can be applied to Jen/Gabriel and Caleb/Kenzie, but I'm only gonna speak on Sol/Sincere to show how the producer edit encourages the public to vote a certain way. Sol was shown chatting to Sincere and Gabriel (that's it). We can assume she's having chats with every male based on context clues, yet we're only being shown a fraction of the men to sway us in a certain direction (and we are given an edit with the confessional, where Sol expresses distaste for Gabriel's kiss). The end of the episode presents the option of Sol with every man to vote her with, but sincerely, there's only two options to go with logically, and based on Sol's disinterest towards Gabriel...there is only one that makes sense and aligns with the edit. Comparatively with Corbin, he was shown chatting with nearly every woman whether he had connection with them or not...because there wasn't a vote for that Dumping. (If the bombshells are having chats that are going nowhere with the people that aren't shown, then that's fine, but not seeing them at all creates an image of little exploration and the perception of choice given to viewers gives such a limited viewing to what's really going on, regardless if Sol/Sincere, Caleb/Kenzie, and Jen/Gabriel would've been the strongest connections for the new matchups.)

Ps: In terms of the way the vote went: Why would people think giving Gabriel what he (seemingly) wanted was better...if Sincere being voted with Sol is seen for the same enjoyment of giving him another girl to make out with, while disrespecting the other?

I genuinely think the fans voting which bombshell needs to pair with OGs doesn't work (I don't think the islanders would separate and choose a bombshell), but it especially doesn't with this cast, because they seem extremely latched on to one person and unhappy with the new matchups. The problem during this re-coupling isn't that they are sad to leave their matches (that happens every year); the problem presented in this season is the islanders seem way less interested in the bombshells (minus Kenzie w/Caleb) and there's more forced intrigue (that seemingly forges connections for the sole purpose of kissing). Along with this, the producers' influence on the outcomes makes this elimination extremely unsuspensful; it could've been good, but producer manipulation and lack of real fan power makes for way less shock value + not allowing situations to unfold naturally doesn't create genuine Love Island moments that become unique to each season (Don't mistake this for hope that Melanie be a "crashout" because I've never thought she is, but the commitment to keeping an entertaining O.G. when the fan vote is said to have an effect on the elimination makes the sad speech and the crying shown kind of insignificant when you expect people like Melanie are going to be saved at all costs). P.s. I would really love Disingenuous to go home.

Edit: No, producers can't change the vote as that is illegal, but they can edit to influence the audience to vote in the way they want, and showing Sol primarily having interest and good connection with Sincere is producer influence to make you lean in the direction they want you to vote (same for Jen/Gabriel & Caleb/Kenzie); I feel people are misunderstanding this post.

So far this season has not majorly kept my interest. The season feels overly surface-level and it boils down to 4 things for me of producer manipulation and cast actions.

• Making a Toxic Couple The "Main Characters" while Everyone Else Feels Like Supporting Ones

Couples like KC/Aniya and Gabriel/Beatriz have gotten little to show their progression, and the extra content/farewell between Bea/Gabe confirmed it for me last episode. To be fair, they do this every season, but I find it much more exhausting in this one. Yes, drama is needed, but not at the expense of seeing other couples' stories. Producers don't seem to know what we wanna see or how to find a balance with drama and showing connections genuinely building. With Melanie and Sincere, I find it especially boring, because Sincere's just a compulsive liar. Melanie reacts to his shadiness to reveal she's done and then shifts her "ultimatum" 30 seconds later. Rinse, repeat. There's nothing new to unveil about this drama. There's nothing interesting to uncover in these situations for our entertainment. Now, we're expected to sit through at least 1 new love triangle, where Melanie and Sincere don't leave each other alone. This season is just "drama" and I don't feel like I know anything substantial about them or the "supporting characters", which plays into why their couples personally feel convenienced, to me, rather than hopeful & solid (not saying everyone doesn't like each other because I believe they do). We, however, don't see much talk about backstories. I don't really get a sense of anyone's personality...Melanie talks about future hopes w/Sincere, but we haven't seen chats that indicate what would give her that impression. Kenzie & Trinity, themselves, said there's not really much known about Bryce one episode (and that's the entire impression we've gotten as viewers). Trinity has funny one-liners each episode..but that's it.

• Conversions Are Too Surface-level

Same thing I said w/Melanie and Sincere. Kenzie and Corbin also only talk about sex. The rest of the couples are either not shown or keeping things at a shallow-conversational level.

• No One Seems To Genuinely Explore..At All

We have 2 issues here: a) I believe producers aren't showing us enough chats that have happened. b) (but also) The cast seems so uninvested in exploring in a serious manner. Bryce asking Kayda "just to erase all doubts" gave me second-hand embarrassment (whether you believe it was producer influence or not) because it added nothing to the season's trajectory and created no stakes. There's a thing in most pairings where a pretend investment in exploring new connections is going on. Additionally, a lot of the islanders 'rules' of 'you can explore..but not that way' or 'I can do this..but you can't do that ' is dimming the season for me. I wouldn't be opposed to people being committed to their first match if the couples were shown to seem deeper/more solid..(but both the producer editing and the cast attaching to 1 person seem to be at work here)... Exploring can be useful, not only for the islanders creating assurances, but also for our assurances to see if people are good together and erase skeptism.

• The Surface-Level Challenges

This is nothing different from last season (although the focus on sexual challenges seems even more excessive). Having the extent of challenges be focussed on the physical or choosing fellow islanders as "Most Likely To's" to messy questions without really knowing each other (especially as early as the 'Boss Workplace' challenge) is making the journey feel shallow to me (hoping this makes sense). Why does it actually matter 'What Islander Seems the Most Shady" (or whatever quesion they have to answer about each other is) when it's not like 1 person's answer is going to change the person coupled up with them's opinion and most aren't going to separate or take it to heart? It's a lighthearted challenge meant for our entertainment, but it doesn't really progress the season in the way that it's intended.

I haven't seen a couple of the points I'm going to present be stated, exactly, yet, so don't eat me up for saying it's an unpopular opinion. I've said this before KC and Aniya started having their drama that I believed their match was not one that'd be fully compatible and I wished they could both explore but I knew either one of them would get eaten alive if they don't go through this journey 100% committed to each other.

People want islanders to not be married to the concept of one person so early on, and yet become irked when they set out to explore (but that's another conversation).

KC can have led Aniya on with false sense of security and it can also be true his speech wasn't deceptive in showing appreciation and physical attraction to Aniya.

Aniya can be hurt and she can have good reason to be.

KC can be attracted to and have a different typical "type" than Aniya's physical appearance and it doesn't mean he also cannot like her and be attracted to her. A lot of these people are 22/23 max and have had 1 girlfriend/boyfriend (as applies to him).

Meanwhile, Aniya was getting blasted a week ago for assumptions that she doesn't ike dark-skin men. So, what are we saying in these takeaways and projections on both of them..? My point is ... Are Aniya and KC not allowed to like different types of people and it still remain true that they like each other and enjoy getting to know each other?

The personal sense I get is KC feeling trapped in an early-connection and personal obligation to be loyal. Is Aniya trapping him? No! That's not what I'm saying. KC can feel a need to live up to expectation and stay in a connection from systems that he set up and it's his own fault & it also doesn't make him a bad person (KC does not have other people picking him, before anyone gets up in arms over this statement). Aniya is not "forcing' anyone to stay with her and her feelings are also valid from what KC did to hurt her.

I feel bad for Aniya (and she has been one of my faves since coming in). The position that dark-skinned Black women are put in on this show with limited options is unfair and uncalled for.

I feel like this whole situation has been blown out of proportion online. Did KC play with his "feeling blessed" comment? Yes. But it also is the typical mishap that happens with people on this show every week, each season and there's people who were making mistakes last week and are now on a new playing field of different choices and changing what they say. KC can be attracted to dark-skin Black women and he can be attracted to lightskin women. KC could be interested in exploring and also have meant his words when he said them. Do I know that? No. None of us can say with 100% certainty if any of the islanders are trustworthy.

Sincere is dishonest and deceptive in what he relays to Melanie...

Melanie is intentionally provoking (she is not just "exploring" the way some ppl have attempted to bring KC into this conversation to propose double standards).

Sincere is toxic and admitted to being a cheater...

Melanie is toxic and has admitted to her preference of doing things to get back at men with pursuit to stay in a dead relationship.

Sincere is withholding of information.

Melanie is emotionally reactive.

Instead it's, "Melanie only did [y] because Sincere did [x], so she's innocent." Or "Sincere needs to be freed." You're both wrong!

Both have shown red flag relationship patterns (and if you can't admit both, you're insincere--no pun intended).

This is a bit of a rant & the title is a bit misleading to my reasonings for writing this (because you're entitled to make whatever takeaways from this show & I have my own but) Can we all admit that The Duffers' open-ended decision with El was not good for a number of reasons? A) What really happened is Matt and Ross had two different visions and they didn't decide on one or the other, thus we got the stupid open-ending lol. B) A point of the storytelling that could have such a simple, non-debatable answer is now going to ignite discourse for as long as the question is hanging in the air. The actors inserting their opinions and siding with El's death are either not interested in the franchise anymore, or wildly confused about the intent of what they filmed. I don't know about these days, but in the beginning when asked about El's fate, some relayed they thought it was unambiguously Mike mentally coping and that lets me assume, The Duffers didn't direct well to let them in on that it is a "choose your own ending" type-of-deal. I think it's stupid the cast is still being asked about this. But ultimately, it was The Duffer's lack of committment to telling El's story (aka lack of giving her an ending) that put them in this uncomfortable position. They are gonna be asked about this til the end of time, so they better get ready. We're stuck, as the fans, hearing people debate about this as we come across it and if we still enjoy any part of any 5 seasons of the show at all.

The Duffers have teased the secrecy of El's outcome as if it is some locked vault info, but it wouldn't be in any way surprising if they don't even have an answer, as they chose the fate based on not being able to agree and went with that lazy conclusion from their conflict. I think people need to accept that aside from maybe the cast members who got stuck with a miserable ending, most of the cast will probably view El as dead because of the fact their characters got out fine. I'm irritated every time one of the cast adds their low-effort thoughts, I'm irritated with The Duffers and I'm irritated that they set this whole system up that requires anyone to have to keep speaking on it. El's ending will be debated for decades, no one will agree, and while I'm sure aiming for conversation is partially what The Duffers intended, the entire setup surrounding the finale's handling of El's fate is not even executed interestingly or inspired. They think they delivered a poetic, head-scratcher of an open ending that'll have people interested for 20 years, but all they did is create the most boring, disappointment of picking if the character went through Door A or B that put them in the same category of underwhelming finales for years to come.

The debate on whether El is dead (because, sensibly, that's the easiest outcome to wrap one's head around for realism), or that El is alive (because, sensibly, The Duffers wanna keep their cash cow as a means to go back to) is a waste of time...because the truth is that there is no ending and there never was a thoughtful narrative. And I need us all to recognize that, as The Duffers couldn't agree to one single storytelling avenue. Essentially, there was 1 ending where one of The Duffers wanted her dead; and there was another where the other thought it'd be more hopeful for her to live. They couldn't work through their writing differences, so this is what we got.

If the franchise were to come back with a revisitation of this storyline, we know most would be interested because the public has grown attached to certain characters and the world of Stranger Things has garnered an interest forever no matter how badly The Duffers screwed things up. I'm not holding my breath and I've never been waiting for it in anticipation, especially with a possibility of a 2-decade window, yet this is the reality I think all must acknowledge.

But the main reason to why El's ending is bad is because C) The writing is misogynistic and El's ending is unfair. It's awful no matter what way you lean or put it... *"She's dead"*....you killed the only abused girl (and her sister) for "realism" when everyone else gets to live. *"She's alive"*....but you couldn't just say and make it known..? Either way she has to live in isolation and continue going on with the fear of captivity; she never gets a break. On top of that, you make Mike have to be sad and wonder, getting no closure that he (maybe) could've if she died. If she died, he has to live with the fact that his bomb killed her and then he probably won't be able to get over that. You ruined Hopper and the meaningfulness of his relationship with her...

I don't blame the cast, but I'm tired, from The Duffers to the cast to some of the fans acting like distaste for El's ending is a subjective opinion of 10-year buildup that created inability to move on. People's issue with the ending was not that they have trouble letting go....the issue is that it's bad (no matter what way you put it). It's lazy writing, it's annoying to not be given a single narrative with majority of your characters (that's a whole 'nother topic), and it's sexist. You can call it just fiction or whatever, but it's terrible messaging and misuse of a girl/woman....again...for flimsy storytelling purposes that reduce her to a plot device. It's misogynistic writing (there's no debate on it), because why is it, as The Duffers would say, the "magical" teenager who got 4 years in cabin prison, and the South Asian that was tortured and taken from her friends, who are the only two who must get this ending, whether it's in death or just never feeling safe? (and all of this after Hopper's speech that she gets that feeling of safety... aww man, I'm mad again)

Either way...no matter what way you look at it...the open-ending caused a number of issues, and I can't not see this ending as anything other than bad for these reasons. I can't look at it as if either one of these choices of El's fate is a good option (referring back to the reason for the title), and knowing the backstory of why it most likely came about is a frustrating way to close-off this series, to say the least.

wlw tv and movie suggestions

Between unnecessary rudeness towards others for making a simple post/comment, and the unwillingness to think in certain scenarios...and along with that, poor communication skills, making obvious comments for "points", and acting like a friggin edgelord...I feel so hopeless about the trajectory of some of these people's lives and it is so disappointing for them...

Seeing some of the talk and strong-opinioned commentary about this season, so I might as well air my grievances with this case and get some thoughts off my chest once and for all.

The rollout of this season of Beyond the Villa has seemed to validate conclusions I made and accepted months ago. I wanna put a disclaimer that hating these people, especially 10 months after the villa brings me nothing and that's not why I'm writing this post. I have nothing against the individuals I'm going to mention, and their drama isn't even enticing to me. It's so interesting to me that those currently on BTV include a cast of people who claimed to not care about career opportunities, being content in their previous normal everyday day lives and what they're presenting through verbal word-of-mouth confirmation during the filming of this show is pursuits of entertainment careers 8-10 months after Season 7 has ended. I don't mean that this is surprising to me, as signing up for BTV indicates that very fact, but I'm just surprised that they're admitting it. Bryan, our Love Island Winner, is declaring he has a casual dating fling he's supposedly put off for the purpose of a career in entertainment that he claimed he wasn't wildly interested in, even just a few months ago nor following coming off the show, and Chris, who's claimed to go on many shows to find love, is stating in this press interview that he's forfeited finding love in order to focus on pursuing his career. I don't really care about anyone's choice to pursue their own goal, nor is this a criticism of these 2 men's actions. But the reasoning for mentioning it is to show that their display (and they're just the 2 examples I chose) leads me to an observation I'd picked up on for a long time amongst this cast. I really don't care what opportunities people do or don't get, but what I haven't been really fond of is witnessing this group act like they were/are content in their former everyday lives and then popping up on Beyond the Villa as if they didn't project a sense of pride in their 'lowkey vibes' when some of them weren't doing much or any marketing opportunities nor brand deals...which brings me to my next point...

The forced drama...I know that reality tv shows manufacture conflict, but you can tell amongst many in this group that the cast is creating some of their own gripes with people, taking it to podcasts, and teasing the drama (which is expected...however if it turns out to be minor, well...)

Another Disclaimer: I do not care for Pepe. I also fully believe he's lying about hooking up *I haven't keep up with any second-source information that the fans like to drive online, so if there's any evidence one way or another, I'm not aware; it's just the show I'm aware of as I'm writing this* However if Pepe didn't do one of the worst possible things he could do to live up to Hannah's allegations...she is gonna look so bad (along with Iris saying nothing to step up and clarify). Onto the next issue: The problem is if Iris and Pepe weren't exclusive, if they were pr or whtevr...if Pepe hooked up with someone and she knows they were faking it for career opportunities, her claim of cheating doesn't hold up...the other problem is Iris is trying to "both sides" this. Allegedly, she was so hurt at Pepe cheating, but she also always wanted TJ (as they paired up first). Pepe dries up "vulnerable girl's" tears (I can't remember the exact quote), yet is that not exactly what TJ 'swooped in' to do, since Hannah said Iris was sobbing from the situation with Pepe...Either TJ is the second choice or Hannah, Iris, and TJ are dragging it to extreme levels. She's allowed to address her feelings even in a relationship with TJ, but...I mean could they have at least told us what he did? Saying Iris was "terrified" in all caps and leaving it to sit for...5...(maybe more) episodes is where this potentially presents a problem called into questioning them. Pepe and Iris have been done since the reunion; there's been time before BTV to call out what he did.

Lastly, a bit disconnected from the rest of the post, but I wanna address it. Backlash on reality tv contestants is never superprising. People are going to form opinions due to the content they consume, but one thing I disagree with is the outraged formed-opinions that some viewers have conveyed on certain islanders having a shocking, drastic, changed behavior. Hannah has not changed; Jeremiah has not changed; Amaya has not changed (maybe they and other cast members have become more attention-seeking, that's up for debate), but when I remember that in sharing my opinion on multiple events from the season how I called Hannah dramatic with her tears as she folded over, after 3 days of knowing men and got backlash while being told she would be "perfect" for BTV, I have to think back and laugh. Whether you like her behavior and any of the next islanders I mention is a preference, but to say that Hannah's changed when upon coming out of the villa she talked bad about guys she had paired up with (I don't remember the show; not sure every person she paired up with but...) She changed her tune on Charlie after leaving the villa and indicated shade towards him including on her sm account (not saying it wasn't justified for the reason that we know). A few weeks or months ago she was blacking out Pepe's photo on a billboard, along with Jeremiah and Iris, and she's been commenting/shady on multiple accounts towards him (not saying because of what he allegedly did, it's not justified). My point is this has been her behavior. Amaya strikes me as an anxious person and while the differences of her villa behavior to now are more plausible to call into question, I've picked up on her seeming like she's forcing iconic moments and one-liners since she won, and she's always had that awkward delivery, even in the villa. Her "Stand On Business" interrogation was literally about her being "too much" and now people are saying she is "doing too much" and it is shocking; yet some of the same people who are forthcoming that they voted for her say they hate this personality she displays now. On another order of business, people have always called out Amaya being a hypocrite (that is not a new complaint; whether you think she is or isn't doesn't change the narrative that's always been there). Jeremiah has always been a nomadic cast member, accused of being a follower and clout chaser. He's also going to look bad if he went on a press run to build up Pepe's fault and it turns out to be lackluster. Taylor's never gone under the radar for or escaped accusations of immaturity; he's also always had that deadpan delivery style (what you make of it is your own opinion). In my opinion, and you can disagree, the way that majority, if not all, of the cast members are acting on BTV is not new to them. This is how they've always been.