IRL: In Real Love is a reality TV series hosted by Rannvijay Singha and Gauahar Khan and has 10 episodes, each with a runtime of around 40 minutes. Raghu Ram acts as the director and showrunner of the show.
– IRL: In Real Love Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Is it weird that Netflix constantly comes up with these “experimental” dating shows wherein the company does “never before attempted” stuff to showcase to millions of people how vile, uninteresting and cringy people can be? Be it Love is Blind or Too Hot to Handle (or the myriad other shows of the genre), there’s nothing good that comes out of these shows.
In Real Love is the newest cringy addition to the Indian reality TV series, the first of its kind. I don’t know what you should take out of it or whether this stands as something of a social commentary of some weird sort (it doesn’t), but this show is now out in the world… so you know, do with it what you must.
Anyway, In Real Love starts as a desi version of Too Hot to Handle and is an odd mix of that show and The Circle and a little bit of Love is Blind. Contestants go on real and online dates to test out which water is sweeter in their need to find genuine connections and go forward with long-lasting relationships. But as it is with all dating reality shows on Netflix, this one is also quite unnecessarily silly and unbelievable to the point that the women’s rooms look like a 5-year-old’s wildest fantasy.
There’s nothing genuine about these connections, some people get into the most awkward and unnecessary sexting on-camera that made me throw up a little in my mouth. Their offline interactions are also quite surface level without any depth or anything interesting, fleeting from one shallow topic to another. As I said above, it’s an odd remake of Too Hot to Handle wherein the contestants are less horny on the outside but mimic the contestants from that show in more ways than one.
Let’s be honest, if someone messaged any of us in the way that these people converse in, we’d probably block them. Of course, editing plays a huge role in shows such as these. But even with the worst editing possible, portraying these characters in the worst possible light, the contestants are just plain bland wannabes who don’t really have anything worthwhile to offer to our drama-stricken, cold, dead hearts.
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Of course, there’s some drama; how can there not be? But, the drama feels a little stale and overdone at some points, considering most of the people in the drama act sort of sketchy themselves, to begin with. The entire situation is a bit awkward and odd as well, with people living in different quarters waiting to be picked and chosen. It just feels cruel and looks kinda wrong at some points. So, sometimes you might end up feeling a little bit of an ick in the back of your mind when you see potential love interests waiting there in hopes of going on dates and whatnot.
I think it would’ve been more entertaining and dramatic if all of them lived in the same building but in different rooms. That would’ve been an interesting twist and resulted in more worthwhile reality TV.
IRL: In Real Love Review: Final Thoughts
The social experiment silliness really needs to stop with Netflix. We don’t want drama in the name of love and social experimentation, and you definitely can have a reality TV show that focuses on love but also showcases genuine connections and conversations in an interesting and entertaining way. IRL: In Real Love is unfortunately not that.
IRL: In Real Love is streaming on Netflix.
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