Netflix’s Love On The Spectrum skips the typical dating show drama for two specific reasons
Out of The bachelor franchise on Netflix’s recent success dating shows like love is blind, the romantic subgenre of reality TV, has sometimes been viewed by its viewers as a guilty pleasure and the center of wine nights. These shows are fun, and often not because of the actual love affairs, but because it’s so damn entertaining to watch the contestants go through the process of meeting multiple people on TV with cameras. but Love in the USA spectrum is pleasant for a completely different reason.
love in the spectrum is a dating show, but not really in the traditional sense. Dating happens, but there is no impossible deadline to get married, a random paradise for single men and women to talk in, or explosive fights. As showrunner Cian O’Clery puts it, love in the spectrum is a documentary dating series. He and the other filmmakers behind the scenes coordinate themes, but that’s the way it is not the drama.
When CinemaBlend spoke to O’Clery about the latest series, the showrunner shared why love in the spectrum is different (and way cuter and healthier) than your average dating show. In his words:
There are a couple of reasons I wanted to do the show in the first place, one of the main ones being that it’s important for people to understand a little more about autism and what it means and how diverse it is. One of the reasons was, I agree with you, there are a lot of dating shows out there that are out for conflict and drama and people fights and obviously there’s a place for that and there’s a place for these shows, but I wanted to just doing something that’s really just about people trying to connect, and I felt that if done right, it could still captivate an audience. These shows amplify everything to try and keep the audience watching and sometimes it can be harder to keep a series engaging and people wanting to keep watching without those elements, but hopefully we’ve managed to do that. I don’t know, you tell me, but it’s nice to be able to do something that just feels a little bit where there’s not that element of viciousness.
love in the spectrum follows a handful of autistic people who want to make a real connection with another person. Some of them find that while others walk away from the experience with a new experience that adds to their path to partnership. You know, more like life works?
Cian O’Clery shared that he wants to do more with the Netflix series Raising awareness of the autism community and challenging stereotypes after Hollywood portrayed autistic people in some tropical ways. While he certainly understands the popularity of a show like love is blind (which actually was Step in the right direction for dating shows), he liked the idea of doing a series without that melodramatic element. O’Clery shared how it works:
I did a little whirlwind trip across the country to make sure everyone was on board and understood what they were getting into. We were all aware that this was a team effort. When we talk to people about being on this show, we make it really clear that we’re filming on their terms. We don’t film on our terms. It’s not that we wouldn’t say, ‘You signed up for this and now we’re going to make you do this and that and that at this time’, it’s always about taking people’s schedules into account and stuff to work to make it work for them and we work around them. It’s not one of those series where you have a huge group of people and you’re just filming solidly for a month. We have a sporadic schedule of jumping in and out of people’s stories.
love in the spectrum started as an Australian reality series with seasons coming out in 2019 and 2021 with a Netflix subscription. The latest season is the first to be set in the United States and features people from many walks of life bringing different ideas and experiences to dating. You can watch all six episodes of the popular Netflix series stream now and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more exclusive interviews.
