When I first came across Married at First Sight I envisioned a concept where two people genuinely searching for love would meet for the first time on their wedding day and the spend the rest of the series getting to know their new spouse and over coming the hurdles and obstacles which were bound to follow.
On one hand this description is spot on whilst also being wholly incomplete at the same time.
The problem with this show is that everything's completely fake, down to the legality of the fake weddings.
Each series opens with all the female and male contestants meeting for supposedly the first time at for a fake hen/stag party. This alone made me begin to question to the authenticity and intentions of this show. No one I know has spent their last night of single life with a bunch of random strangers without a friend or family member in sight. And on the theme of friends and family, other than the wedding day itself, the contestants barely have any contact (that's shown on screen at least) with their relatives or friends. Again, this is a red flag. In a marriage, outside influences of friends and family is huge whether it be positive or negative. After heading off to fake and often melodramatic honeymoon, the couples return not to their homes and normal lives but to apartments designated to them by the producers. This isn't a bad thing in itself and actually makes a lot of sense as the strangers are getting to know each other better. What doesn't make sense is why all the couples suddenly become neighbours, living next door in the same apartment complex and forced to attend endless, tiresome dinner parties. By this point, it's clear the purpose of this show isn't to document the journey of two potential star crossed lovers who've just never met each other yet. It's Channel 4's attempt to create it's own crappy version of Love Island, only a massively slashed budget. However it gets worse.
There's horrible 'commitment ceremonies' where couples are forced to air their dirty laundry infront of each other and receive advice from the self-styled "experts". Many of the cast members love the setup of the show and take as many opportunities as possible to slander their 'spouse' and fellow contestants in true reality TV style. Many of the cast members selected for this show simply put clearly have emotional and physical health issues which in this intense and stressful environment quickly rise to the surface. Bizarrely this behaviour is actually encouraged. Anyone who's quieter and tries to keep their business clean and somewhat discreet is branded a 'control freak', 'fake', and 'emotionally unavailable'. This quite appropriate really, because the whole thing is fake. It's a plastic Love Island without a sexy villa and a slightly old, less attractive cast.
To this day I still suspect parts of this programme are heavily prompted if not lightly scripted. The producers know what their doing, their priorities are to the broadcaster and to views, the cast are basically performing monkeys. Good performers, and not surprising. The experts may appear to do a terrible job at finding matches for the couples (spoiler alert: the matches are designed to be terrible and incompatible), but the contestants are carefully selected and some even have prior experience on reality television. Take April Banbury for example, a star of the most reason series. Prior to her stint on Married at First Sight, she appeared in ITV2's The Cabins in 2020 and Channel 5's The Bachelor where she attempted to seduce Welsh Rugby international Gavin Henson in 2005. It's a ridiculous to suggest that a successful model and Ms. Great Britain winner has been searching for love since 2005 and is still trawling through the dating shows of Britain hoping to get lucky. Banbury could have her pick of any man or woman she wanted and then some. Maybe her 'husband' George was right to an extend to doubt her intentions and sincerity to their relationship. George himself has a garnered a reputation for himself and following his appearance on Married at First Sight has since been arrested for controlling and manipulative treatment of former partners.
For me however the real villains are the producers and the broadcasters who commission this programme.
I get reality television is meant to be entertaining and over dramatic, but I feel Married at First Sight goes too far. In an age where mental health and emotional welfare is a hotter subject than ever, this form of human bear baiting is wrong. Introducing strangers to each other who are obviously incompatible and forcing the development of toxic relationships and a toxic community is clearly distressing for the participants. As a viewer is becomes an uncomfortable watch as it feels we're watching a twisted social experiment with dodgy ethics.
On one hand this description is spot on whilst also being wholly incomplete at the same time.
The problem with this show is that everything's completely fake, down to the legality of the fake weddings.
Each series opens with all the female and male contestants meeting for supposedly the first time at for a fake hen/stag party. This alone made me begin to question to the authenticity and intentions of this show. No one I know has spent their last night of single life with a bunch of random strangers without a friend or family member in sight. And on the theme of friends and family, other than the wedding day itself, the contestants barely have any contact (that's shown on screen at least) with their relatives or friends. Again, this is a red flag. In a marriage, outside influences of friends and family is huge whether it be positive or negative. After heading off to fake and often melodramatic honeymoon, the couples return not to their homes and normal lives but to apartments designated to them by the producers. This isn't a bad thing in itself and actually makes a lot of sense as the strangers are getting to know each other better. What doesn't make sense is why all the couples suddenly become neighbours, living next door in the same apartment complex and forced to attend endless, tiresome dinner parties. By this point, it's clear the purpose of this show isn't to document the journey of two potential star crossed lovers who've just never met each other yet. It's Channel 4's attempt to create it's own crappy version of Love Island, only a massively slashed budget. However it gets worse.
There's horrible 'commitment ceremonies' where couples are forced to air their dirty laundry infront of each other and receive advice from the self-styled "experts". Many of the cast members love the setup of the show and take as many opportunities as possible to slander their 'spouse' and fellow contestants in true reality TV style. Many of the cast members selected for this show simply put clearly have emotional and physical health issues which in this intense and stressful environment quickly rise to the surface. Bizarrely this behaviour is actually encouraged. Anyone who's quieter and tries to keep their business clean and somewhat discreet is branded a 'control freak', 'fake', and 'emotionally unavailable'. This quite appropriate really, because the whole thing is fake. It's a plastic Love Island without a sexy villa and a slightly old, less attractive cast.
To this day I still suspect parts of this programme are heavily prompted if not lightly scripted. The producers know what their doing, their priorities are to the broadcaster and to views, the cast are basically performing monkeys. Good performers, and not surprising. The experts may appear to do a terrible job at finding matches for the couples (spoiler alert: the matches are designed to be terrible and incompatible), but the contestants are carefully selected and some even have prior experience on reality television. Take April Banbury for example, a star of the most reason series. Prior to her stint on Married at First Sight, she appeared in ITV2's The Cabins in 2020 and Channel 5's The Bachelor where she attempted to seduce Welsh Rugby international Gavin Henson in 2005. It's a ridiculous to suggest that a successful model and Ms. Great Britain winner has been searching for love since 2005 and is still trawling through the dating shows of Britain hoping to get lucky. Banbury could have her pick of any man or woman she wanted and then some. Maybe her 'husband' George was right to an extend to doubt her intentions and sincerity to their relationship. George himself has a garnered a reputation for himself and following his appearance on Married at First Sight has since been arrested for controlling and manipulative treatment of former partners.
For me however the real villains are the producers and the broadcasters who commission this programme.
I get reality television is meant to be entertaining and over dramatic, but I feel Married at First Sight goes too far. In an age where mental health and emotional welfare is a hotter subject than ever, this form of human bear baiting is wrong. Introducing strangers to each other who are obviously incompatible and forcing the development of toxic relationships and a toxic community is clearly distressing for the participants. As a viewer is becomes an uncomfortable watch as it feels we're watching a twisted social experiment with dodgy ethics.