Here’s Some Reality TV To Binge

1. The 90 Day Fiance Franchise

90 Day Fiance has several options to choose from

90 Day Fiance is about people who have met people in other countries, either online or in person, and want to marry them, so there’s a whole legal process to apply for and get a marriage visa, then once they get the marriage visa and come to the US they have 90 days to get married before the non-citizen gets deported. So that’s 90 day fiance. Always delivers the drama you crave, not gonna lie it’s easy to understand why a lot of these people have to date someone they don’t have to meet for a long time and doesn’t know any of the same people as them.

To apply for a marriage visa, you have to have met in person before, so couples travel to outside the country to meet their partner before they can apply for the marriage visa. When they visit other countries, it’s 90 Day Fiance: before the 90 days. That’s what’s on now. It’s interesting to see how people coming from the US, conduct themselves when they no longer have the comforts of sleeping in their 800+ thread count sheets. What I would encourage is to try to notice how their privilege often translates into abuse of their partners. They, even as undesirable as they are at home, quickly get a huge superiority complex once they’re in another country especially when they’re in a country occupied by people of color. Suddenly they’re the creme de la creme and expect to be treated as such.

And then there’s 90 day fiancé: The Other Way. That’s where Americans move to another country to marry someone. That’s about to come on in a few weeks. I’ve actually never watched an entire season of this version, but I have seen people with the intent to move to another country on Before The 90 Days. Just as promising as the other shows in the franchise, possibly even higher stakes.

2. Love After Lockup

This is truly one of my favorite reality shows. The idea of the show is that people meet current prison inmates on dating sites made for dating inmates. The show picks up when they are released from prison and start their new lives with their partner. Obviously the main appeal of this show is you get to watch people go through real high stakes situations with actual consequences. This isn’t your basic “I just want to let you know that some people have war in their countries” type situations. The former inmates could literally go back to jail for something they do on the show. Similar to 90 Day Fiance, the person who is reaching out to a vulnerable person to date is the one with serious problems. Love After Lockup promises some of the most explosive arguments you can find in reality tv.

3. Labor of Love

This show is brand new, Fox’s most recent foray into the classic contestant competition dating show. Think The Bachelorette, except instead of getting engaged at the end of the season, the object of the show is to get the star of the show pregnant. Disgusted? Intrigued? This show just premiered, so far there’s only 1 episode, but it already has the sure promise of comedy, drama, and general mess. If you’re still not convinced, the first challenge for the contestants is a test of their sperm counts. Highest sperm count got a vaguely sperm-shaped trophy. I think I’ve made my point.

4. I Wanna Marry Harry

This show is a couple years old, originally aired in 2014. The premise is that 12 American women are put in a lavish English estate, told they’re going to be dating “one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors.” And then a man that looks exactly like Prince Harry shows up. And the gag is? It’s not Prince Harry. It’s Matthew Hicks, a regular guy who’s had a royal makeover. A lot of talk about “the right reasons” and “she doesn’t act like a princess”. Very catty. Would definitely recommend a 1 day binge as the entire series is on YouTube.

5. A Double Shot At Love Season 2

A classic dating show with a twist, a double shot at love is a competition style dating show with two bachelors. Your bachelors for this season are famous partners-in-crime DJ Pauly D and Vinny Guadagnino. Obviously these two reality tv legends will deliver a good season of anything, but the contestants in the show were also the exact right mix of messy, genuine, and unstable. This show aired on MTV in 2019, so you’ll be able to watch it in a quick 1-2 day binge.

6. Escaping Polygamy

A huge departure from the lovey-dovey dating shows, Escaping Polygamy is a docuseries following three women who grew up in the polygamist cult, escaped as teenagers and now help other people escape to live better lives. Many of these people are relatives, some of them as closely related to them as being their younger half siblings. This show has some real heart-wrenching moments because of the abuse these people face, but there’s also some incredibly powerful and triumphant moments when you see people who escape and unlearn the toxic, abusive things they were raised with and go on to live happier lives. If you like drama and high stakes situations, and also emmersing yourself in other people’s trauma, you’ll like Escaping Polygamy.

7. My Super Sweet 16

An absolute classic This show is peak 2000’s. From the French tip press-on nails to the crimped hair to the low cut jeans, oversized polos, and frosted hair. This show absolutely holds up. The entire series is on Hulu right now, so if you want to take a few days to reminisce about simpler times when it was ok to wear bootcut jeans is highly recommend giving this a watch.

8. The Bachelor Season 13

You may have noticed a couple months ago there was a random season of The Bachelor on Netflix. If you haven’t watched it already, it’s season 13, Jason Mesnick’s season. This season is very interesting to watch as someone who’s relatively new to Bachelor Nation. The first season I watched was Nick Viall and we all remember how that turned out. Jason was the blueprint for the type of bachelor’s we’ve seen in the last few years, but surprisingly he is still married to the “winner” of the show, Molly Mesnick. It’s also interesting to see how diverse the Bachelor franchise has become in just the last 5 or 6 seasons. A quick google search will reveal some rather damning information, the Bachelor has a strong history of tokenism, which often looks like having a couple black and brown contestants that are eliminated in the first few weeks, and don’t get much camera time before we say goodbye. However frustrating it is to see such weak diversity, it’s extremely jarring to see just 10 years ago there was a season with only 1 woman of color, who even still was white-passing.

9. Ready To Love

If you’re not familiar with Ready To Love, you need to be. This show airs on OWN in the fall and follows a group of black professionals who are all in their 30s and older dating in real life. It’s not like a classic reality show wherein the singles are trapped in a mansion with no cell phone. They frequently refer to conversations and dates had away from the cameras, which provides a great source of he-said/she-said drama. It’s also very fun to see people in their 30s/40s/50s acting the exact same as 22 year olds.

10. Bad Girls Club

You can’t mention quality reality though without mentioning the legendary Bad Girls Club. The smack downs that took place on this show a decade ago still get passed around on Twitter with all the relevancy in the world. If you’re really looking for a ratchet good time look no further than Bad Girls Club.

Pictures and videos used in this article do not belong to me