I think being reflective is important. How else are we able to take stock of where we are in life without taking a step back and assessing where you are. Where life has taken you. What the future has in store for you. Yet, many of us are too afraid to take that step back. Some of us even believe the only direction is forward. These are the people who are afraid to ask some of life’s biggest questions. Why am I here? Am I happy? Will I find love? What is my cat thinking? What’s for dinner tonight? And most importantly, what does my life look like now that Love Is Blind is over?

By now most of you know that for three weeks Love Is Blind ripped through most of the pop culture conversation like Jessica taking on Mark’s emotions after a on full bender. We found ourselves in a world where we asked if Barnett was taking too big of a risk marrying Amber, her debt, and any priors she brought to the table like stabbing schiesty bitches for example. We pined for the forty-day love and marriage of Lauren and Cameron. We wondered how Gigi’s mud stain on her wedding dress vanished mere scenes later. And we collectively all turned on Jessica for her many, and I mean many, affronts on the human race. Seriously, someone take that dog away from her!

Now it’s over. 

We’ve gotten the weddings episode and watched as Jessica strutted down the aisle with the unearned confidence of someone who has burnt every bridge she’s ever crossed. Seriously, where is the gif of this I need to use it on the daily. We watched Kenny, the world’s nicest guy, get friend-zoned by Kelly who, if not for Jessica, would get my vote for worst person on the show. Yeah, I said it. She set my man up and gave zero indications that he was friend-zoned but told everyone else how sexually unattractive she found him. Then she had the audacity to walk into that lame-ass reunion show clearly with the hidden agenda of getting back together with him only to find Kenny was in a relationship. Good for you Kenny! You politely put that monster on blast sir! 

We learned that Nick Lachey, obviously or not, and his wife served little to no purpose all season long. Their “job”, a term I’m using super loosely, as hosts was minimum at best and when it came to the reunion show I felt they were one of the biggest hindrances. Outside of the whole Carlton with a proposal apology, that included a ring, a bent knee, and a clearly terrified Diamond. Like, what the hell was that?! Why did it last ten minutes? Who thought this would be a good idea? How much Jessica content got cut for two people I forgot were on the show until they showed up on the reunion? And the whole time Vanessa Lachey sat there nodding vacantly like this was compelling stuff, holding hands, inexplicitly crying once, or speaking for contestants and the emotions they felt. The whole thing was preposterous and certainly didn’t deliver on the promised drama. All while Nick just repeated everything his wife said with this dead look in his eyes that said “I used to be married to a woman who thought tuna fish was an underwater chicken and now I’m doing this.” 

In its wake, Love Is Blind has introduced us to a world where people date in pods and with the way we’re treating the coronavirus like Captain Trips, we might not be far removed from pod dating. But what is the lasting impression of Love Is Blind? It has to be more than learning that stomach butterflies develop, leave, and return on a whim. It has to be more than getting a helicopter date as easily as a cup of coffee. It has to be more than believing that two people can fall in love, move in together, rap in front of one’s mother, get married, and adopt a dog together in forty days. Forty days. I’ve had pairs of jeans I didn’t know if I liked after forty days let alone if I wanted to wear them for the. Rest. Of. My. Life.

Then again, what if there isn’t more. What if this is the show’s lasting legacy?

Is that so bad? If Love Is Blind has taught me anything it’s that not everything I watch has to be the caliber of Breaking Bad or The Office. That sometimes it’s okay to watch something mindless and ridiculous because it’s fun. Say what you will about Love Is Blind, and there is plenty to be said, but Netflix found something here. They didn’t reinvent the wheel as far as reality television goes but it certainly provided a welcome distraction from elections and viruses.  And perhaps Netflix will learn something as well. The release schedule for Love Is Blind was perfect and kept the show in the conversation all month. This is something I would love to see them apply to shows like Stranger Things or pretty much anything else. The longer it’s relevant the more likely I’m going to talk/write about it. 

Here’s the thing, I miss Love Is Blind. I really do. For every episode of Better Call Saul or The Outsider I watch a secret part of me wishes for a new episode of Love Is Blind to follow like ice cream after a terrific meal. Something I can put on and laugh at the absurdity with my wife. I miss the texts and social threads, that blew up my phone, breaking down the decisions of strangers who just so happen to be on tv. If we’re wondering what life after Love Is Blind is, it’s the long wait for season two where we can do this all over again. Where we can be one with the pod people.