Washington D.C. is the new city getting the Love Is Blind treatment. Season 7’s trailer for the reality dating experiment shows new people going into the pods hoping to find their wife or husband. They can’t see what the other person looks like as they speed date. People in past seasons have had varying success of finding that person.
Some have lasting marriages, other couples have their first child. But the show has proven every season that appearances, finances, and more can outweigh the connection couples formed in the pods. Season 7 will most likely give us more drama than romance.
‘Love Is Blind’s Last 2 Seasons Had Fewer Stars Finish
The trailer shows multiple professionals dating in the pods. We’ve seen people talk about their political views in the past and that’ll be the case for the political city. “Did you vote in the last election?” Monica Davis asked someone in the pods. The trailer shows the men talking about someone starting drama in their quarters. Leo Braudy asked a woman if she truly loved another man or if that man was the first person to tell her that he loved her. Proposals are teased, but expectations should stay low.
The last few seasons in the United States haven’t shown positive stories. Season 6 had one married couple, Amy Cortés and Johnny McIntyre. Some viewers were able to root for them. But most felt overwhelmed by all the other breakups to enjoy it. Season 5 had the same outcome with James Milton Johnson IV and Lydia Velez Gonzalez being the only ones to get married. It’s OK that the number of marriages per season is declining. After all, quality is better than quantity when it comes to marriages. The process hasn’t changed, and we’re seeing fewer people making it to the aisle in current seasons.
Season 6 had two weddings and the one with the most dramatic ending took up most of the finale. That finale perfectly encapsulates where the franchise is going, with a lot of drama and little romance. Clay Gravesande said no to Amber Desiree “A.D.” Smith after he questioned if he wanted to go to the altar. He did go to the altar because A.D. wanted to see the process through to the end. It was hard to watch their vows because we know Clay wouldn’t have chosen to do them if it wasn’t for that conversation. He said no to A.D., which was predictable and unsatisfying.
Season 7’s trailer doesn’t reassure fans there were any improvements after this decline. Alexandra Byrd talked to her family in a scene. “If you guys don’t like him…” she said to them. Ashley Adion might also have a hard journey. “Two weeks before our wedding…I should’ve known,” she said while crying. Monica Davis cried after this. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered. That means someone cuts things close to the finale again and might not go to the altar.
In fact, we get one scene of an actual wedding with a closeup on Garrett Josemans’ face. Marissa George excitedly looked at herself in the mirror wearing a wedding dress. That’s very little hope given that this season will have some positive stories. There are people with interesting backstories shown in the first couple of episodes of season 7. And there are still people fully trying to follow the spirit of the show with Taylor Krause refusing to give any details that could give away her ethnicity in the pods. However, we’ve seen repeatedly that the pods and following the spirit of the show aren’t great predictors of a successful relationship.
A good Love Is Blind season has a balance of romance and drama. That doesn’t mean half of the cast needs to get married. But hopefully, the love stories we do get shows focus on their love and compatibility as much as they focus on the conflict and incompatibility between struggling couples. Season 6’s reunion also fell short with scolding Trevor Sova for coming onto the show with a woman waiting for him at home. But this was a casting issue, and we shouldn’t hope applicants are being truthful about their relationship status. Alums of the show have also publicly criticized how the show is produced through interviews and lawsuits.
Reevaluating how the process is produced could help with the decline in positive stories in the show. The only change to the casting process that was announced is that Chelsea Griffin from season 4 joined the team in 2023. She previously worked as a pediatric speech-language pathologist. The show needs to make real changes to the process after seven seasons to make it a better experience to film, then there can be hope for a good season.
