The question that sit at the heart for the new show ‘The Ultimatum’ – Marry or Move On?!
There are six real-life couples who put their relationships to the test, issuing ‘The Ultimatum’ to their partner and by the end of the show, the couples need to make the decision for either marriage or the relationship has to end. But if you think that it, well you are very much mistaken as in a messy twist that couples all get thrown in together to find others that catch their eye, and if they both agree then they have the options to live together for three weeks to further explore other relationships that could lead to the demise of the one they entered the show in.
The host is Love Is Blind presenters Nick and Vanessa Lachey (btw they are are married!).The series was billed as a spicier, more provoactive dating show promosing salacious entertainment ad shocking twists – instead, it’s been a deeply depressing watch from start to finish.
Tbh, it’s already really strange for them to suggest that because it worked for them it could work well for others. Nick and Vanessa is trying to mould the show into being about self-discovery and realising true desire, but as soon as the show kicks off, they are all in bikinis and swimming shorts by the pool – sizing up their potential partners.
Instead of choosing to lean into some tongue-in check humour, the show wants to brand itself as deep and meaningful but consistently demonstrates that it’s not. As the show continues to be littered with shallow or arkward moments, Nate proposes to his partner Lauren despite having not resolved the actually issue that she doesn’t want children and he does, and the moments before this grand gesture he was ready to have a three-week trial relationship with Shanique.
April announces loudly at dinner in response to them that “if you guys are not going to be real with yourselves, then why are you here?” Tbh, it’s a very fair question but felt like an increasingly added thing to call out given that the whole show doesn’t seem designed to encourage couples to work on their problems, rather than tease a honeymoon-esque relationship with someone else, more for our entertainment than salvaging any of the original relationships.
Later on, Madlyn after making her point of talking up how attractive he is gets frustrated that Randall won’t sleep with her and goes on a scary drunken rampage, making their relationship seem quite fragile despite them consistently claiming they have a “unique” connection.
The whole show plays up to the “gamification” of dating that many of us in real life are tired of, providing an illusion of choice and a boost to contestant’s egos of being desired by others, without actually helping them do much of the inner working on themselves or their original relationships – very difficult to believe these highly constructed situations are really for the good of the people involved.
Even with the nightmarish picture of relationships the ‘The Ultimatum paints, it’s arguable that we’re living in a renewed era of long-term romance. After two long years of a global pandemic, raising costs of living and we have the climate change crisis looming over our shoulders, all of these have made our lives feel a little lonely and uncertain – real, genuine long-term connections naturally feel like the antidote, a remedy for these precarious times.
TV viewers have been getting their fill of gut-wrenching, can’t live without you romance from seasons of Bridgerton, with it’s aesthetically pleasing period drama and this season swapped it’s rampant, hyperbolic sex scenes with a slow burn, true love style of romance that blooms against all odds. Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton has fast secured his place as his white shirt soaked regency sex symbol; TikTok is littered with parodies of his character yearnings for Kate, and hundreds of women are swooning on social media over his all -encompassing love “the bane of his existence, and the object of all my desires”.
Nick Lachey has admitted from one episode that psychologists don’t think ‘the ultimatum‘ is a healthy way to get someone to do what you want – manipulating someone via an ultimatum into behaving in a certain way, feels like incredibly cynical TV, with conflict and drama being its ultimate goal, not love. It’s clear that the manipulation is not in the issuing of the ultimatum itself but also in the way in which the show has been protrade for its maximum discomfort.
You really can’t help but feel that absolutely non of these people are ready for marriage, ultimatum or not. At a time when we all are craving love and true romance over superficial connections are more than ever, the shallowness and drama-baiting of The Ultimatum just doesn’t cut it.
I hope the we can keep dreaming about real romance that we all deserve and leave the social experiment behind.
