Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 8 On Netflix, Where Singles From Minnesota Look For Love In The Pods

Why do we keep watching Love Is Blind? At this point, we’re not 100 percent sure. Yes, there’s lots of intrigue, and surprisingly a good batting average of couples who get married and stay married (though one of the two couples who got married in Season 7 is already on the outs). But it might also be the hope that a couple that would never match on the outside actually finds a true connection in the pods. We haven’t seen it yet, but there’s always hope, right?

LOVE IS BLIND SEASON 8: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Some snowy wedding scenes, to remind the audience that Season 8 of Love Is Blind takes place in Minnesota.

The Gist: Yes, this season of Love Is Blind takes place in Minnesota, but as always, it starts in the pods. As hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey greet the men and the women in their respective quarters, they mention that it’s the largest group ever of singles looking to find someone to get engaged to, sight unseen. Indeed, 16 men and 16 women hit the pods; there’s so much going on that we don’t even get to hear the Lacheys’ tired speech to the singles about what the show is about.

Pretty quickly, some triangles develop. David Bettenburg, who seemingly starts each date out asking negging questions like “What is wrong with you?” quickly tells the women he’s joking and falls into an easygoing rhythm with both Molly Mulaney and Lauren O’Brien. Molly tells her dates that she’s never been in a serious relationship, which seems to intrigue the men instead of raise any flags.

Madison E and Alex Brown, who wears a mock turtleneck straight out of a 1998 Gap ad, hit it off, talking about their respective rough childhoods. She also gets along well with Mason Horacen, a cinematographer. Mason is also excited about his dates with Meg Fink, an oncology nurse. Taylor Haag and Daniel Hastings have a great date, despite Taylor blowing out her voice the previous day. Devin Buckley connects with both Brittany Dodson and Virginia Miller. Monica Danus and the very puppy-like Joey Leveille bond over The Sound Of Music.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Love Is Blind Seasons 1-7.

Our Take: Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised given the location of this season of Love Is Blind, but to this point, the season feels exceedingly monochrome. There doesn’t seem to be any potential interracial pairings, or at the very least Chris Coelen and his colleagues at Kinetic Content have decided not to emphasize that in the first episode. In fact, the pairings aren’t just monochrome, but they’re vanilla. It’s all very pleasant, with no one coming off as fake, performative or even creepy.

It seems that the theme of the first episode is love triangles, given that we see at least three of them. Really, triangles at this stage of the game aren’t unusual; when you’re trying to get to know someone through a wall in a pod, you’re just as likely to connect with more than one person as you would with no one at all. None of these triangles seems to be problematic at this early stage, though there seems to be some moderate intrigue at the end of Episode 1, where Molly tells Lauren that she’s connecting with Dave, but Lauren keeps her mouth shut about their connection.

The intrigue comes in the montage at the beginning of the episode, which shows what is coming up during the season. There seems to be a bombshell that will be dropped where, if we follow the vocals correctly, someone will find out that someone else they previously dated is in the pods, and that other person may or may not have known that she would be there.

Otherwise, though, the only real difference between this season and the others is that there might be some snow and people might drink hot toddies out of their golden goblets once they get back home. Still, we give Kinetic credit for giving us personalities we still want to follow (more on that below).

Sex and Skin: David seems to want to talk sex a lot in the pods, almost a little too much.

Parting Shot: Molly tells Lauren about Dave, and Molly says, “Got it,” and nothing else.

Sleeper Star: Lauren may have some deviousness in her, but for the most part, she seems to be strangely down-to-earth. In fact, most of the people we’re watching to this point aren’t raising any flags for us. Even people that might be a little odd, like Joey, are Minnesota nice. We’re sure that will change, but we’re actually happy with the state of things so far.

Most Pilot-y Line: We love that, since the accusations and lawsuits that accused the show’s producers of mistreatment of the participants came out, they make a point of showing the contestants eating during their time in the pods. In the first episode, there’s a breakfast buffet, and we hear someone talk about how much there is to choose from. Jeez.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We might be getting to the point where we may want a break from Love Is Blind. But, so far, Season 8 is interesting enough to keep watching, even if the first episode felt more generic than what we’ve seen during the past few seasons.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.