One of the strategies Netflix employed to achieve its impressive market share was selling all kinds of content. This is how the streaming service wound up offering remakes of ’60s sitcoms such as The Munsters next to solemn, slice-of-life documentaries and binge-worthy historical dramas such as The Last Kingdom alongside lowest common denominator action thrillers.

There’s also its extensive strand of reality TV series, which have latterly included an impressive variety of dating shows, such as Indian Matchmaking and The Ultimatum. The pick of these was undoubtedly Too Hot To Handle, now on its fourth season, which featured a group of serially casual daters who were forbidden from kissing, heavy petting, or being intimate, with the show’s prize money being reduced every time someone broke a rule.

Now Netflix has followed up with Dated and Related, which dropped earlier this month, and features singletons put up in the luxurious environs of the Villa Julia in France. But is it a masterpiece or a dating disaster? Here’s the lowdown.

An Interesting Twist on Dating Shows?

     Netflix

Strange as it may seem, we have not yet scraped the bottom of the barrel when it comes to reality TV dating shows. Dated and Related seeks to distinguish itself from the bevy of similar series by dint of the family aspect: it turns out that the participants, who are out for love, all have their brothers or sisters (or, in one case, a cousin) along for the ride.

The idea is for each pair to go after their desired ones with their sibling as wingman or woman, a concept that is not at all peculiar or creepy – if we’re being generous. Of course, there’s no judgment here. The law of probability dictates there must be at least some brothers and sisters out there who are happy to accompany each other on their respective dates. Still, if the almost universally creeped-out reaction to the show is anything to go by, there aren’t many of them.

There is a further, slightly icky detail. On Dated and Related, the brothers and sisters are required to sleep next to each other. They are not put in double beds, and the show is quick to point out that the two mattresses are at different levels. But the adult siblings are sleeping next to one another, ready to comfort each other as the inevitable eliminations begin.

A Unique Selling Point That Is Also a Drawback

So, is Dated and Related the success Netflix has been looking for in the reality TV dating genre, or is it destined to fail? As is invariably the case with such shows, the series’ success comes down to the personalities involved. Dyman and younger brother Deyon from Florida come across as down-to-earth. At the same time, Londoner Kaz Bishop’s easygoing manner won him many friends in the villa and among the viewing public alike, even as the love triangles (and rectangles, and pentagons) began to form.

However, Dated and Related’s unique selling point is the show’s quirky, counterintuitive take on the premise of the long-running dating show Love Island. This may also be its major drawback. For all that it pushes the “family in the room” angle, the distance from Dated to Related to Love Island is not all that great. Even the location – the show is based in Cannes in the south of France, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea – resembles that of the older series. But seriously, how many reality TV series featuring toned, ripped, impossibly beautiful twenty-somethings sunning themselves on the grounds of a luxury villa do we have time for?

‘Awkward. As. Hell.’ Or Not?

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Dated and Related is how nice many of the contestants are. Aside from the obvious discomfort several participants showed while watching their brother or sister cozy up to their would-be lovers, the “awkward as hell” billing Netflix touted at the beginning can hardly be doubted. There is the faux pas that comes with meeting strangers from different places and cultures for the first time. But still, there are lots of genuinely nice people on the show. Whether the eventual winners (naming no names) find true and enduring love remains to be seen, but host Melinda Berry (an Instagram influencer and herself a former contestant on Too Hot To Handle) was sanguine about their prospects.

With the show only available for streaming since the first week of September, no decision has yet been reached on whether Dated and Related will receive a second series. Still, once the month’s viewing figures are in, a decision on commissioning can be expected fairly swiftly. All ten episodes of season one are now available on Netflix.