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Kiss Bang, chill….

Smutty? Worst reality show ever? Remain calm, there are other shows on TV with a much darker soul.

KBL group with Jeans and blindfolds.

A quick scan of media articles yesterday was bad news for Seven’s new show Kiss Bang Love.

Branded everything from ‘smutty’ to ‘possibly the worst reality show ever’, they reflected some views on social media that suggested Seven had stooped to new lows.

Perhaps they have all forgotten the show that preceded it, but more on that in a moment…

Here are some of the views expressed, some of which were before the average ratings, and several which followed it:

News Corp  suggested, “Channel Seven debuted its ‘provocative’ new dating show, Kiss Bang Love, on Tuesday night and it was 60 minutes of awkwardness. If ‘boring’ were a synonym for ‘awkward’, that first sentence would be even more accurate.”

The New Daily headline declared it ‘smutty’ noting, “I just felt like a bit of a pervert for watching what should have been an intimate, private moment between two people looking for love.”

A Daily Telegraph column asked if it could be the worst reality show ever? “I think Kiss Bang Love has finally managed to do the impossible and get me to permanently turn off my TV screen at the thought of watching another episode.”

Fairfax wryly asked, “How dare Channel Seven throw the word “bang” in our faces, only to deliver nothing but a whimper?

The Daily Telegraph also noted its “cringe-worthy” moments and “signs that the romance was doomed from the beginning.”

News Corp logged Gogglebox reactions, which were fairly divided from attraction to the single men to describing single Lisa as “a kissing hooker.”

And the Daily Mail managed to offer several recap articles, none of which appeared to arrive at any editorial conclusion.

But not everybody was going for the jugular.

Another Fairfax article noted while it sounded tacky, “Kiss Bang Love is yet another reality dating show, a genre that seems to have spread across our screens lately like a dose of herpes at a 1970s key party. And surprisingly, it is rather sweet.”

While Sunshine Coast Daily noted, “This show oozes talkability and the first episode is sure to generate plenty of social media buzz, but it feels like the producers have cast a bunch of good-looking people whom the participants would have been initially attracted to anyway.”

Despite its provocative title, Kiss Bang Love did not set the ratings on fire as First Dates and Seven Year Switch managed to do. Both of those shows were also launched off the back of My Kitchen Rules. 

And while it is hardly the most sophisticated show on television, KBL is essentially Perfect Match with a Kissing Booth. It’s a dating show in which the individuals put themselves forward in the hope of finding a partner… the very same reason people inexplicably put themselves through a fake wedding on Married at First Sight or the speed dating of China’s wacky If You Are the One.

Kiss Bang Love was however devoid of the emotional abuse and manipulation that drove the conflict on Seven Year Switch.

The only conflict in this one was which guy to choose?

By contrast, Seven Year Switch dressed up swingers as “couples therapy” with counsellors who justified its manipulation. Some couples even put their young children to one side for the duration of filming. Which is sinking to new lows now?

Kiss Bang Love strikes me as pretty harmless. There’s no shaming of overweight people for the drama of weight loss, no targeting of foreigners unable to comprehend signs after a long-haul flight, and no dolled up housewives faking explicit abuse at one another in the name of entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong. I did feel like I had turned into a bit of a TV voyeur. I did think the premise lacked originality after the kisses were done. I did think it was a bit pointless Lisa chose the single her friends had secretly planted. And I did think the ratings were rotten.

But Kiss Bang Love is a dating show, people. If consenting singles want to match up in front of cameras then knock yourselves out. They’ve been doing on TV for generations, now through the prism of a blindfold Kissing Booth.

“There’s always going to be negative comments,” Lisa told News Corp “I’d probably do it again, it was a fun experience.”

3 Responses

  1. This show may look inoffensive, but there are still deeper assumptions that it feeds. Teens watching this show would get the message that relationship is all about physical attraction, that physicality in a relationship should be the first thing rather than the culmination (reinforcing the one-night-stand culture). Kissing, this sort that is, is an incredibly intimate thing to do, and shouldn’t be given away lightly to strangers. That is why kissing like this is a recognised marriage counselling tool.

    But I agree, MAFS and Seven Year switch are much worse.

  2. I’m with you David, this is hardly the most offensive thing reality tv has done. I was much more offended by the manipulation of Seven Year Switch, and the whole premise behind Married at First Sight (I just have an issue with the phrase ‘marriage’ being used, when it is such a political issue at the moment – yep, gay people will ruin the sanctity of marriage but the idea of being ‘married’ at first sight is perfectly fine?!?! ). I didn’t watch it, I’ll be honest, because I just wasn’t that interested. However I did watch some of Seven Year Switch and found the whole thing quite uncomfortable and manipulative.

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