r/BetterLateThanSingle

is anyone else finding season 2 of better late than single way more entertaining than season 1? 😭

don't get me wrong, i really enjoyed the first season. i actually think it did a better job of introducing the participants, their backgrounds, and watching them experience so many firsts. i also loved seeing the friendships develop, and it felt really wholesome overall.

but if i'm being honest, season 2 has me glued to the screen every episode.

the first season was so straightforward that after a few episodes, you could pretty much predict who would end up liking who. everyone was so shy and awkward, which makes total sense given the premise, but sometimes it made the pacing feel a little slow.

this season feels completely different. every episode has me sitting there thinking, "wait... what's going on?" 😭 the dynamics change constantly, people surprise me, and i genuinely have no idea how the relationships are going to progress. it's way more unpredictable, which makes it so much more bingeable.

the hosts have also been hilarious this season. i feel like they're way more comfortable with each other, and their reactions are half the reason i keep watching.

also, does anyone else get major gwanhee (singles inferno 3) vibes from hyukjoon? 😭 not because they're exactly alike, but because somehow every storyline keeps circling back to him. he somehow ends up at the center of everything, and everyone, including the hosts lol, seems invested in whatever he's going to do next.

i also kind of understand why so many of the girls are drawn to him. he's a good conversationalist and seems to know how to lead a conversation without making it feel forced. for example, comparing suji's conversations with jungyun versus hyukjoon, she seemed much more relaxed, expressive, and engaged with hyukjoon. he asks follow-up questions, keeps the conversation flowing, and makes the other person feel comfortable opening up. i can definitely see why that would be attractive.

i also feel like the editing this season deserves some credit. every episode ends in a way that leaves me wanting the next one immediately, and the conversations and love lines are much harder to predict than they were in season 1.

i still think season 1 had a lot of heart, but season 2 has me constantly anticipating the next episode because i genuinely have no idea how things are going to end.

what does everyone else think? are you liking season 1 or season 2 more so far?

As a guy entering the BLTS dating pool, which girl do you pick and why?

I really don't like how Jaeseo is being treated. Sure he behaved a bit weirdly at times but there is absolutely no reason to laugh at him or answer with contempt every time he opens his mouth. Even his Cupid, who is supposed to help and support him, is turning him into a joke. They make fun of his style, beard, the two times he went after a fly and how he expresses himself. Jaeseo has been more honest about how he feels on the show than any of the other guys but because he isn't seen as attractive as them and none of the female contestants are into him, he just becomes a laughing stock. Seeing the least popular candidate being bullied for no reasons on dating shows is not the funny running joke hosts and producers think it is.

..Not great, I think. It seems that no matter who you are, if you were subjected to the level of scrutiny of this 24/7 surveillance and judgement -- you wouldn't look great. Everyone has their weaknesses and darker sides, especially under stress and pressure. On a show like this, the smallest warts are under the microscope.

Obviously this applies to any reality-tv show, but just saying this because there are so many hot-takes along the lines of 'this guy is autistic' and 'that girls is a liar' and so on -- even the "nice" comments are condescending sometimes, as if these people are somehow worse than you and I.

A little bit of grace would be nice. In this case it's obviously a Korean show and this is an English-language discussion, but in a broader sense, don't you know that all the commentary makes its way back to these real people?

I'm curious how people think they would fare when thrown into the lions den like this. Personally I think I would rather get thrown into a literal lion's den.

Ultimately the whole purpose of reality TV is just to give us the feeling of superiority like "this guy! can you believe this guy?!" Most of the empathy for the participants -- rooting for them to do well -- is drowned by the dynamics of how it plays out, which is never very well.

I’m a dude and never watched this type of shows. Just started season one last year with my gf. And I’m also watching season 2 now.

I used to only watch actions shows or fantasy. But this show and Singles inferno pulled me in. I do like Better late than Single much more.

But I do have an a question/observation what’s up with these people and their obsession with a single person? They choose someone from the start and just fixate on that person for way too long, sometimes not even moving on if the person flat out says she or he are not interested.

Sometimes they didn’t even talk to that person at all! Is this a cultural thing? I don’t get it.

I’m not saying be like Hyuk-joon that’s not the way, I kinda hate this guy now. I mean he’s not a bad guy but is validation need just gonna cost him the best girl on the show, Hyun-seo.

Also Jae-seo crying really hit me hard! I never expected to get emotional watching a dating show Jesus, who am I becoming?

I’m currently watching two Korean dating shows that are airing live, this show Better Late Than Single, and Noona Is A Woman To Me. This show is obviously about eternal singles getting their first chance at love, and the Noona show is about older women and younger men trying to match, and I’m not sure either show will produce a single actual couple. Although, apparently it’s been revealed there is a couple still dating after the Noona show finished, we just don’t know who it is yet.

It’s got me wondering, how do you guys feel about watching dating shows that don’t lead to any actual couples? This show is obviously not going to produce any real couples, and the Noona show seems to only have 1 couple that I can imagine genuinely dating, but they have a 12 year age gap and I just don’t know how long that will last. Ultimately I know these shows are just entertainment, and I shouldn’t care that much about what happens afterwards, but watching a dating show that doesn’t lead to any real couples makes it feel a little pointless. Singles Inferno is easily the most popular Korean dating show, but across 5 seasons I think it’s only had 3 real couples come out of it, 2 from the latest season. One of Singles Inferno’s biggest criticisms that I’ve seen online is that it’s a dating show that doesn’t have any real lasting couples, and that most people go on there for attention.

My favourite dating show of all time, Nineteen To Twenty, is about teenagers transitioning into adulthood, and there’s a couple that’s still together today after like 4 years. It just made it more interesting to watch that show knowing that there was a genuine couple that made it out.

Maybe this was the case in the first season too but I don't recall the gap being that big, now you end up with a scenario where most girls don't really have a solid pick mostly because none of the guys are good enough for them.

Let's be real here, there are 2 girls who have actress level visuals, and most of them have a proper jobs, they all communicate fairly well and not socially awkward. While the guys..... well most of them are in college, looking wise, most are average or slighly above average, and communication... let's just stop there.

My partner says in Korea, any guy who are of quality get snatched up early, and you simply will not find any quality guys who are eternal solos at that age range, which can be true, but still, the gap is too evident for this show to be enjoyable, if they do a season 3, they better close the gap.

Like sure I think seeing this opinion once or twice would be fair, but the amount of times I see this opinion on this subreddit is honestly really surprising.

I’m not sure if the majority of these opinions are a nostalgia effect, but after re-watching the first season recently I genuinely thought it fell off very, very hard. MANY contestants on the show got completely sidelined like ofc sang ho after he gave up, seungchan and miji who did the complete opposite of changing the game, and yeomeong. That’s basically a third of the cast. The rest of the cast had to stay in certain storylines to get a few scenes. Like Jae Yun just being Jae Yun, the Ji su plotline with hyunkyu and seung li, or the jeongmok x yido x jiyeon plotline. There weren’t enough conversations that were initiated by the show. The editing, the pace, and the content, especially for the later episodes were just abysmal.

Also I get the criticism of the newer season that it doesn’t seem as natural or the contestants don’t seem as socially awkward (which is weird bc they also shame dudes in s2 for being socially awkward compared to the girls but that was a different post). But without prompting anything from the producers you get a series with barely any interesting content and a lot of the conversations that happened in s1 were either very boring or super hard to watch and uncomfortable. It was like seeing seo yeon and Jae seo times 10 where obviously one person wanted the other in the conversation but the other person didn’t want to be there at all, like all the Jae Yun and yeomeong or jiyeon and Jae Yun or sangho and anyone other than jisu conversations.

A lot of the social awkwardness vibes they bring up are with Jae Yun and half the time the people who watched the show last year complained about how he shouldn’t have been in the show and felt bad for him because many people would say he either had some form of Asperger’s or autism. I think it’s very fair to say that this season is MUCH better directed, produced, and more content oriented/show relevant contestants. You can also tell by the statistics such as viewer count that this season is leagues better than the first.

TLDR: confused by the number of posts praising the first season over the second season when the second season seems to not only be performing better but also has many factors to back up why it is doing so

I never knew giving a gift could carry so much weight as Hyukjoon is taking it😭he liked the meaningful gift he got from Jeongeun but didn’t like the fact that she gave a gift to her other top 2. I didn’t even realize the first time watching that he crossed Han Ju off as well because she wasn’t the one that got him the Vitamins. I love how he tried playing hard to get with Hyunseo thinking she would be jealous enough to write him a letter and he just came back to an empty mailbox😂

I've seen a lot of people comparing them, so I want to try to contribute to the sub in some way...

Dates:

Regardless of the reality show, I always see the first season as an experiment that serves as a baseline for future improvements... For example, the group date at the ice skating rink right at the beginning was a fiasco; nobody knew each other, and there was no interaction between men and women because everyone was just focused on learning how to skate. On the other hand, in the second season, the first date featured paintball and dancing, and pairs were formed for the activities, which contributed to better interaction among the participants.

The three-person dates (I don’t remember seeing this in the first season) were also a great idea; at least most of them turned out positive.

As for the speed dates, I think they favor extroverts since they only last 10 minutes. For introverts, it relies too heavily on the other person's interest—otherwise, it must just be moments of endless silence. However, I don't see much room for improvement there, and I still think they are worth keeping.

The Singles Cast:

Just like in the first season, I think the female cast contributes much more in terms of attitude and conversation. In fact, the women always seem to be single more because of their career plans or because they aren't very social, and they handle that well. As for the men, career plans and social traits might play a part too, but I notice they are quite insecure and don't know how to handle the pressure of being single and finding someone.

Cupids/Mentors and Season Progress:

I like the mentors; each one has their own personality. Seo In-guk and Kang Han-na have a more similar style, while Lee Eun-ji and Car, the Garden bring a funnier side. I think the difference is that Eun-ji focuses more on advising her participants, whereas Car focuses more on keeping things light. That being said, I wouldn't change anyone so far. However, I do miss having someone like Dex or Hong Jin-kyung.

Regarding how the season unfolded, I think it was positive. I don't think it was worse than the first season (which I liked too), but I don't think it was vastly superior either. I think the show/project evolved well. Maybe some people criticize it because the spotlight ended up on Hyuk-joon, and many developed a dislike for him. I don't agree with his actions, but I don't think he made the show bad or anything like that.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to read this post! I want to share that my favorite participants are Hyun-seo, Soo-hyun, Jin-woo, and Seung-hyun. But overall, I like the whole cast.

I'm really not trying to be crude here, but it truly does smell like genitalia on me, and I was NOT expecting it.

After searching this sub for other people's thoughts on the scent, it's fascinating to see how it's so different on people. Some smell magazine pages and ink, which I can understand. Some say it smells like sour BO, or sweet and gourmand, or plasticky and rubbery like a dentist glove. I just get straight up external genitals.

At least it smells like hygienic, clean, freshly washed genitals on me. But it's just so SKIN heavy, like straight up flesh. And carnal. And I don't think I can wear this out of the house smelling like a crotch.

It also had EXTREME longevity on me. I had it on all day yesterday, and even after showering I could still smell it on me.

You know Marcy Playground's song "Sex and Candy?" Another 13 smelled EXACTLY like that on me...but maybe minus the "candy" part.

I'm gonna start being more careful when I buy animalic fragrances from now on, because wow, lesson learned.

I'm not flaming him, I genuinely don't see why many of the girls think that he's the most attractive/handsome guy. Is it just the V-shape jawline? Fellow viewers, I would love to know which of his physical traits you think are attractive :)

See this as a compliments-zone! I genuinely am interested in seeing your point of view.

🙌 For those who just want to point out unattractive traits or bash him: this thread is not for you. I won't appreciate you sh¡tting on an insecure person.

After watching the 8 episodes available so far and analyzing it coldly, I believe it's being a bit of a disappointing season. Honestly, at the beginning of the season, I was excited and had high expectations, but as the episodes went on, I won't say it became uninteresting, but it wasn't something that hooked me or made me root for a participant or a couple like in the first season.

I think the turning point was when the focus shifted to HJ who, to me as someone who watches Single's Inferno, seemed like a male version of Min-Su—shooting in every direction and every man for himself. That being said, I hope Hyun-Seo gives up on him, because in my view, it would be embarrassing for her to choose him after everything.As for the hosts, I think there should be some changes for the next season, if there is a third season... In-guk and Han-na know how to add value to the show, the other woman maybe one last chance, but the bearded guy... his advice and jokes are bad.It bothers me that they have practically a week to get to know each other and make their decisions, especially since we are dealing with people who have absolutely no relationship experience...

The "game-changer", just like in the first season, were very modest. Even Su-ji, who has a protagonist arc, did very little; if it weren't for her looks, I don't know if the men would have approached her.

I forgot to mention that the outings were boring—except for the group trip to the amusement park, the others left a lot to be desired; in fact, especially the paintball outing, which I personally thought was terrible... anyway, I don't know if the last two episodes will make something magical happen and save the season in my eyes.

I've been reading a lot of the discussion here, and honestly, I'm surprised by how confidently people assume the worst about the cast.

Whether it's claiming "SJ faked being scared on the rollercoaster to get HJ's attention" or confidently explaining and hating on HJ's sudden change of heart and treatment towards HS, people often treat speculation as if it's established fact. We see a heavily edited TV show, not these people's inner thoughts.

The irony is that many viewers criticize the cast for being judgmental or immature while doing exactly the same thing themselves. Every facial expression, every word and every awkward interaction gets analyzed under a microscope, and anonymous commenters jump straight to conclusions, convinced of their beliefs. At some point, those assumptions say more about the person making them than about the cast. Its a lack of empathy.

I've also noticed that some contestants receive far harsher treatment than others, especially the more popular ones like HJ and SJ. It's as if being popular makes people hold them to a different standard. Perhaps it's human nature, people who stand out or receive the most attention often end up attracting disproportionate criticism as well. They're frequently labeled as arrogant, manipulative, fake, or selfish over things that, objectively, aren't even all that serious....They didn't cheat on anyone. They didn't emotionally or physically abuse anyone. Most of the outrage comes from the cast saying something viewers disagree with or doing something they didn't want them to do. Or, in some cases (f.e. the hate on SJ) jealousy.. what do i know?

Of course, it's fine to discuss the show and criticize the contestants. That's part of watching reality TV. But, it's a show about people who've been chronically single, not relationship experts. Who would've guessed they'd be awkward, make mistakes, or sometimes handle romantic situations poorly? Ironically, from an outside perspective, some of the comments on this subreddit come across worse than the contestants worst moments...at least to me. If we're criticizing people for lacking empathy or maturity, we should hold ourselves to the same standard. A little more humility would make the discussions a lot more enjoyable.

I know this probably won't change everyone's mind, but I felt like it needed to be said...

Jin Woo and Jeong Eun seem like the only actual and real couple that is potentially going to come out of this show.

Hyuk Joon is just a mess so whoever he goes with in the end is not going to last or be an actual couple. Han Ju, Hyeun Seo, and Su Ji are included in this as their main focus is Hyuk Joon.

The Tae Hoon and Soo Hyun couple is probably not going to work as Tae Hoon doesn't seem interested.

Jung Yun is probably not going to get with su ji, and even if he does, I do not see them working out.

Then the rest are likely not going to get with anyone.

What do other people think on the couples right now?