Back in 2001, Fox cemented its reputation as the trashiest broadcast channel with one of its first and most infamous forays into reality television: Temptation Island. Billed as an unconventional dating show, it brought a handful of couples at “turning points” in their relationships to an island full of sexy singles meant to lure them away. It was utter trash—and yet my parents (or at least my mother) and I devoured every episode.
Sadly, the show only lasted four seasons–and the subsequent outings never delivered as much drama as that glorious first season — but it made such an impression, that my mom and I still reminisced about it as recently as summer 2018. You can imagine, then, how thrilled we were to hear that USA Network would revive the series in 2019. After watching the first episode, Temptation Island is just as good as ever.
The pilot begins with four couples at various stages in their relationships. Some, like Nicole and Karl, are fairly new: they’ve only been dating two and a half years. Others, like Kaci and Evan, have been dating off and on for 10 years (5 of them exclusive). Though host Mark Walberg says the point of the show is for these couples to possibly strengthen their relationships by addressing the weaknesses in their connections, it’s pretty clear the show’s goal is to try as hard as possible to break them up. Unfortunately, the contestants don’t seem to fully grasp that.
It’s certainly possible that a couple in a healthy relationship would choose to go on this show just to make themselves feel even better that they’ve found happiness, but that’s clearly not who the show’s producers cast. Nicole and Karl seem solid, but she was dating someone else when they first met and their 6-year age difference is already a concern. 28-year-old Kaci wants a ring before 30 and Evan not only doesn’t see the point in making things official, he doesn’t seem to trust himself to stay faithful because his own father was such a philanderer that he was murdered by the husband of a woman with whom he had an affair.
The other two couples are just as doomed. Kady and John met on Bumble and they both can’t stop talking about the way she constantly questions if he’s “masculine” enough for her. The biggest train wreck of all, though, are Shari and Javen. Though the 25-year-olds have been dating since they were 16, Shari is hesitant to “rush” into marriage after she discovered Javen cheating a few years ago. To varying degrees, each couple’s downfall is already built into their relationship even before they come on the show—and then the singles show up.
As Walberg eventually explains, these people were specifically chosen to tempt the contestants during their nearly month-long separation from their partners and in an absurd scene only reality TV could provide, each single introduces themselves and the couples’ behavior begins to reflect their insecurities. Shari immediately becomes aggressive to the point where the single girls not only begin to comment on her meanness, but she and Javen spend the rest of the episode having fights that feel like precursors to a break up.
Kaci takes the opposite approach, complimenting girls and then gauging Evan’s reaction in a way that seems harmless, but is clearly her way of coping. She may have insisted they do the show so Evan could work out his hang-ups, but she’s clearly not prepared for the possibility she’ll get dumped. It’s painful to watch, but that’s also what makes the series such fun. Temptation Island is, at its basest level, about allowing the audience to engage in harmless schadenfreude. Where The Bachelor is compelling because it allows its audience to be swept up in the glamor of romance, Temptation Island’s appeal is letting the audience revel in the messiness of breaking up.
If there is one flaw in this rebooted version of Temptation Island, it’s that its first episode is too short. Where the UK’s even trashier take on this concept, Love Island, typically begins with at least a (sometimes punishing) 90-minute episode, this is a mere 45 minutes. Still, maybe there’s something clever in giving the audience just a taste. The episode expertly sets up the couples’ dynamics and sows the seeds of their separation in those brief first meetings with the singles. It is perfectly calibrated reality television. Who wouldn’t want to indulge in more?
Rating: 8.5/10
