u/NegativeBee

Since it's ✨nuanced take season✨ I thought I'd share my thoughts on this season. I'm trying to focus solely on production decisions, not the audience reaction or any personalities.

TLDR: this season was simply too serious to be enjoyable. Some new elements were appreciated, but overall the edit focused too much on islanders' insecurities and petty arguments with the fun levity concentrated in Unseen Bits. People watch this show for its tongue-in-cheek attitude about being a reality dating show, not for a tense soap opera.

Steps forward:

• lack of pointless challenges: the past seasons had too many "short obstacle courses while being sprayed by water, then kiss" challenges, which were massive wastes of air time
• generally diverse casting: the islanders all felt like individuals with little personality or looks overlap (compared to previous turkey teeth men seasons)
• allowing islanders to choose their couple on the first episode was actually a good addition and came up later (Jasmine and Lorenzo talking about having coupled up initially as opposed to being coupled by the audience)
• mini-Casa sleepover was fun as an appetizer for proper Casa
• I don't miss the babies episode
• New challenge concepts, including the return of the Twitter challenge, were appreciated
• Islanders are generally more mature and open about feelings compared to previous seasons, which is probably a generational thing.

Steps back:

• these were very few memorable fun moments from this season outside of Unseen Bits. Some of the most iconic scenes from LIUK are from islanders just chatting, like when Hayley asked about Brexit. We got essentially none of that, including the talent show.
• There was a lot of crying in the edit this season, probably because of the popularity of Toni's drama from last season. It just felt really depressing and uncomfortable.
• conversations between and across couples were obviously forced to cause tension
• there was a huge focus on the Movie Night and Grafties and Podcast revealing islanders' comments about each other or old flirting that never turned into anything. It caused everyone to just lock into one couple because they don't want their failed flirting attempts to be played to the rest of the villa.
• No one used the Hideaway. It collected dust the entire season, except for a hookup between two people who then broke it off literally the next day. Maybe after Casa, the Hideaway can be open to couples who are together if they win Favorite Couple or something.
• casting siblings caused some interesting moments, but ultimately created a dynamic in which Aidan, who never ultimately found anyone in the villa, was able to stay until the final week of the season.
• dumpings are still a bit too early. I would have appreciated more of Robyn.
• dates were seemingly random and not every couple got one?
• no final dates (I understand this was probably for budget cuts)

Bonus suggestion for islanders I think had a lot more potential but were cut short: Robyn, Namibia, Halle, Tommy M, Olivia, Mara, Charleen, and Martha.