Netflix’s ‘The Ultimatum’ Is the Ultimate Dating Reality Show Chaos

Move over Love is blind, there’s a new devil dating show in town—and this show is somehow even messier than its predecessor. In Finally: Marry or Continue, Nick and Vanessa Lachey return to our screens as the hosts of an even more sinister plan.

Formula: Six couples, with one partner wanting to get engaged and the other hesitant, agree to speed up their dating time together. After that, each new couple will begin their three-week trial marriage. (Yes, you read that correctly; no, they can’t text their exes for the time being.) And then? Time to move in with their long-term partners for three dry weeks of their own. In the end, each person has to choose: stay in the old relationship or pursue a new one.

Result? A mess could send both Mary Poppins and her talking umbrella flying over a hill and chanting in unison, “No, no, no”; Communication clashes feel the equivalent of a pickup truck overturning on an interstate and crushing at least five midsize sedans; an emotional roller coaster for all of us at home wondering, over and over, “Are any of these people going to be like… okay?”

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating — a little. But if you think Chris Coelen’s pod-based dating show is surreal, rest assured that you haven’t known the chaos. This. This is chaos.

The casting parameters for this show appear to be similar to most other Netflix reality shows: while the mix is ​​much less uniform in white than, Bachelor, people’s characteristics are still 1.) straight and 2.) thin and generally good-looking. No heels like Love is blindAbhishek “Shake” Chatterjee, but there are definitely a few suspicious guys on the team.

A heavily ruffled character? Colby Kiss, an avid 25-year-old cowboy in a cowboy hat, who issued an ultimatum to his girlfriend of one and a half years, 24-year-old Madlyn Ballatori. Over the course of the season, Colby found himself at odds with a few cast members, including Madlyn – though it’s hard to think of any pairing that could make it through this show or even the first episode without a bit of a stir. which mix.

Other notables among the cast include 24-year-old Rae Williams and 25-year-old Zay Wilson, known collectively as “Rae and Zay,” and Jake Cunningham (26) and April Marie (23). Rae is mild-mannered and somewhat secretive about his feelings; Zay is more volatile. April is perhaps the most energetic of the cast — and most likely to explode when provoked. Jake, meanwhile, has almost the same energy as an Ed Sheeran song. Both couples have been together for two and a half years. Rae and April issued ultimatums to their respective partners, both of whom said they felt they needed better communication to move forward.

The series premiered its first eight episodes on April 6, with the remaining two episodes – the epilogue and the reunion – set for the following week on April 13. And much like that. Love is blind, Ultimatum go down quickly. Viewers are sure to re-watch every bit of the drama from the first eight episodes and return eager to see more.

That said, the pacing can feel a bit rushed, especially in the beginning. The speed dating part, in particular, is like a fully unexplored recipe for chaos. Consider Are you one?, in which housemates move from relationship to relationship in search of their Person. When Ultimatum without even trying to match (which can be a fun twist!), it can still be fun to watch these couples fish around in the dating pool. small longer than the program’s allotted week.

But Coelen and his crew came up with a particularly sinister idea. Throughout the series, men and women reunite in groups — and sometimes all together. These mixologists are sure to be a real celebration — the cast listens in tense silence as their partners name the person they most want to connect with, the women navigate how to talk about it. Their budding relationship with each other’s boyfriends and the boys insists on switching places to prevent violence from erupting.

At the same time, some of the more personal couples’ arguments can be hard to watch – even for those of us who are already well-trained in the eye-popping art of reality TV. In a number of cases, we witnessed forceful flirting, proverbial fighting, in which one party’s conduct became difficult to track. Undoubtedly, it also leaves a slightly sour aftertaste.