TV review Newlywed with someone you don’t know and then sex on a mountain? « Sorry, joke! »

Event manager Stefan (32) you don’t have to call for sex on a mountain. « I might be too boring for that, » he said in front of the camera when the drive was over. It had been quite a long drive: he behind the wheel, hairdresser Dennis (44) in the passenger seat. They had had it very nice together so far. They had kissed too, and slept in one bed. But little else had happened in that bed. Not that was bad, they only knew each other for a day. And yet: it was intended that it would become more intimate, sooner or later. So Dennis started exploring the possibilities during the drive through Provence. When Stefan suggested that he would like to get off, Dennis replied: « And then? Sex on the mountain? » To which Stefan promptly responded with: « no. »

In such a case you can take a few roads, but you have to decide quickly. Dennis opted for the ‘It was just a joke’ route. Very safe, very understandable. Call it Schrödingers flirting: your attempt to approach is sincere at the same time, to the person you have responded to you. If the reaction is positive, you really thought it; If it is negative, it was a joke*. And in this case it was – forced – a joke. « I don’t know how to deal with that, » Dennis said with the camera during his one-on-one moment. « Normally you get to know someone on … that flat, do you understand? And now it’s all like this … « He lifted his hand, showed the gold around his ring finger. » You already have a ring. It is as if you have skipped a few phases. « 

Skipping phases is inherent to the format of Married at first sight (RTL). Participants put their love life in the hands of a group of couplers, who select a (in theory) suitable marriage candidate for them. The meeting takes place for the altar, then the cameras mercilessly determine how the newlywed couples are doing. For many viewers it will sound like a nightmare to outsource something like that. But it is precisely in that surrender that the dream factor also lies: do not have to search for yourself. Do not have to decorate yourself. Do not have to decide for yourself. Simply trust that others will arrange that for you, and that those others can do that better than you. Although that shortcut is not free: you provide control and privacy for it.

House search

Something similar applies to participants in Buy without watching (RTL). They have a team of professionals look for, buy and renovate. Just like the participants of Married at first sight are the Buy without watching-For various reasons, candidates lose the confidence that they can reach their goal on their own. For example, Kaj and Lieneke, who were the turn of the beginning this week, lived in a three -high rental apartment in IJmuiden with their two small children. Baby James was also sick and needed a lot of extra care, and in combination with the overstrained housing market made the search almost impossible. Now the family finished in a beautifully refurbished owner -occupied house in Almere, but an entire agony preceded that. When the broker briefly let the broker believe that the house search had failed miserably, the cameras showed how Lieneke almost burst into crying. You must tolerate those games for your ready-made living space.

In Married at first sight For his ready-made marriage, Dennis paid mainly in discomfort for the time being. They said that skips, he said on his honeymoon, « we still have to take that. But how, and where? On a mountain at home? In France? I don’t know. We’ll see. » Yes, they see it. And we are watching.

*Except if you do it in your workplace, then it is unfortunately cross -border behavior.

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