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A Gay Season of Netflix Dating Show “The Ultimatum” Coming Soon

A woman wants marriage, The Ultimatum teaser.

Before Netflix’s The Ultimatum debuted its first season in April, it had already been renewed for a second season featuring no heterosexual couples. Love is Blind and Married at First Sight’s producer, Kinetic Content, as well as creator Chris Coelen, ride the popularized reality dating show steam train with another series aimed to test human relationships. We loooove the idea of more lesbian reality tv, but we have our reservations about this one.

The series follows six couples ready for marriage. Well, one love is ready and the other is a bit unsure, hence the ultimatum. “The pairs have eight weeks to either commit to marriage or move on from each other. During that time, they’ll each choose a new potential partner from a different couple and then move in with that person for three weeks. Through the “Temptation Island”-like process, the individuals will get a glimpse of what life could look like apart,” reports Variety.

I can think of a couple of ways to fix relationship issues and/or incompatibilities, and none of them involve millions of people watching with delight.

Dating shows, while feeding my reality tv addiction, can be cruel, but this one just hits different. If this is reality, if it’s not a set full of actors — if these couples are real — then what are the ethics behind luring long-term couples with money and fame, in exchange for their relationship and self-esteem? 

Is the series about manipulating somebody who doesn’t want to get married into doing so? It seems so. “The 10-episode first season will show relationships getting put to the ultimate test with the hopes that each person will walk away engaged to the person they are meant to be with.”

How ethical is that? “The only thing scarier than losing you right now would be to marry you,” one woman says to her partner on the show. 

“It’s based in a very real relatable conversation and situation for for many, many people — either you’ve been in that situation or you’ve known people who are in that situation,” Coelen tells Variety of the premise. “What’s fascinating is when you actually look at the reasons that people give for not being ready, there are a multitude of reasons — ‘I come from a family background of bad relationships. I don’t want to repeat my past’ or ‘I’m not ready, I’m too young’ or ‘I need to be financially stable.’ There may be some validity to some of those reasons, but the real reason is that they’re not sure that they want to marry this person that they’re with. Most of those things that they say are our excuses, and it’s very common.”

“We allow them to choose another partner that they think has qualities of someone that they would want to potentially marry and get an opportunity to live out a trial marriage with that person,” he explains. “They have two trial marriages: one with the person they choose and one with their partner that they come in with.”

Yep, tempting the couples with somebody new is definitely about salvaging the relationships, not sabotaging for views.

Surely an experiment like this can’t strengthen a relationship. Married at First Sight has its issues, sure, but those couples wouldn’t have met without the show. They’re gifted a reportedly compatible partner in exchange for their time and faith. The Ultimatum, on the other hand, threatens pre-existing partnerships.

How meaningful are these relationships, if you’re willing to subject them to cruelty? Then again, how ethical is tantalizing anybody to do something they don’t want to, to do something that will probably cause long-term negative effects, with a wad of cash? That seems to be capitalism’s schtick, doesn’t it?

Having an all-gay season carries with it its own problems. Firstly, are our relationships going to be puppeteered as entertaining zoo animals for the homophobic straight masses? Secondly, who wants to bet a spicy polyamorous straight couple makes the cut in “our” season?

The second, gay-focused season, will mostly feature women. Is that a representation win or a sign that the producers are relying on the fetishistic, lesbophobic male gaze to cop viewers?

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