School’s out, the sun is blazing, and our group chat is buzzing with one question: “Did you watch last night’s Love Island Episode?” With summer break, we have so much free time that we often turn to the big screen in our house. “Just one episode” turns into 5, and just like that, you’re hooked. So what is it that keeps us glued to our seats?
Like all reality TV, Love Island is known for its drama, and even if you say you hate drama, it’s always entertaining when you’re not the one involved. In the past, shows like Dance Moms have drawn huge attention, even though many of the young cast members experienced lifelong trauma. This comes from schadenfreude (feeling joy from someone else’s misfortune). You watch someone having a mental breakdown, and you think to yourself, “Well, at least that’s not me”. In addition to that, any form of media can help us with catharsis (releasing repressed emotions, achieving a sense of relief)–someone who just got cheated on might watch a person get dumped from the villa because their couple chose somebody else and be able to connect with them and release their emotions through watching it all go down.
Another tool Love Island utilizes that most reality television doesn’t is letting the audience choose the islanders’ fates. So if you can’t stand somebody on the show, you can vote them off. This gives us a feeling of control that you might not have on your own love life, just adding fuel to the villa fire. Similarly, with the Islanders not having access to their phones, it makes the audience feel like they can say whatever they want online.
Multiple Love Island cast members have reported them or their families receiving death threats while in the villa and after. Situations like this allow us to keep the story going once they leave the villa by forming parasocial attachments to these real people and feeding into follow-up shows like “Beyond the Villa”. The islanders feel like characters to us because they are so far away, and we criticize them as if they aren’t real people who make mistakes and have emotions, which are heightened by the show. Even though this is incredibly unhealthy, it all comes together to make the show a big hit.
But ultimately, what keeps the TV light on is the realness of these people. They all catch feelings, make mistakes, and have personalities. We form these one-sided bonds with the Islanders because every one of them reminds us of a person on our own Islands. We all know men who do nothing but lie like Sincere, or a strong girl who faces adversity bravely with self-confidence like Beatriz. This makes it so easy to root for a certain person or, on the other hand, hate them with every fiber of our being. And even if you don’t think you could ever be on the show, I’m sure there’s at least one Islander that you see yourself in.
