Is Winter Love Island Flying Too Close To The Sun?

Look, everyone wants to caveat their Love Island viewing by protesting that they can’t believe that they’re here again. That they are somehow being held hostage by ITV 2 every night, and that they’re appalled that they’ve let themselves be sucked into the eight-week cycle of emotional over investment in a revolving cast of sexy singles, situationship flashbacks, and furious tweeting. But there’s truly little else to do in the build up to Spring, so let’s just park our faux distress and get on with it.

The second Winter Love Island was always going to be high stakes, with ITV not wanting to relinquish their cash cow, but also wanting to dodge accusations of “overkill” by launching two seasons within six months of each other. The first outing of Winter Love Island was a snoozefest – its cast struggled to truly capture audience’s attention, and its winners, Finley Tapp and Paige Turley (and I had to Google that), were outrageously bland. Who can remember a single funny, heated, or romantic moment between them?

But what both these Winter editions share in common with each other is the debut of a new host – this time, being the ethereal Maya Jama, who has long been fast casted as the ideal presenter to head up the series. And ITV are certainly selling the series return on her presence – never has a presenter had such an empress’ welcome to the show. In the first episode, she’s filmed walking into the villa a whopping three times and in three different outfits. With contestants often listing her as a “celebrity crush” and the internet raving about her Venus-like beauty, the real risk in having cast her is that she threatens to steal the series and overshadow the contestants. Not that anyone would complain.

The challenge is to accomplish innovation without losing the core ingredients which make Love Island worth tuning into for the best part of two months.

So, on to the show itself. Long haunted by the threat of its own demise, with each new season Love Island takes on a “reform or die” agenda, both on the front of contestant welfare (contestants social media profiles are now inactive during the show, though their friends and family seem to be running stan pages on their behalf regardless…) and innovative format changes. The challenge is to accomplish innovation without losing the core ingredients which make Love Island worth tuning into for the best part of two months.

But the first delivery of change was strange and lacklustre. Before the series began, the public were able to select who the first bombshell to enter the villa; either semi-pro footballer Tom, or business development executive Ellie, with Tom emerging in the first episode’s closing scenes. Whilst it was repeatedly emphasised that this was the “first-time ever” that the public are choosing between bombshells that’s only true on the technicality of it being the first bombshell. In fact, in Season 2, the public were made to choose between Kady McDermott and a blonde girl called Chelsea. We know how history played out, and then Chelsea was never seen, or mentioned again. But it really failed to land this time. Firstly that the first bombshell “twist” has failed to excite, partially because Tom didn’t really have the energy of a dominating lothario (we were spoiled by Davide last season) and also because the majority of us only decide we’re watching Love Island when we panic at 9 p.m. on Monday and realise we might be missing out. As such, I don’t know a single person who “voted” for the first bombshell, so it being placed down to a public vote feels inconsequential.

And also, I can’t help but wonder what happens to Ellie. Is she going to turn up as a bombshell later in the series or in Casa Amor? Has she been made to possibly quit her job, take an 11-hour flight to South Africa, film and take promotional photos for the show’s social media profiles, just to be sent home before a second of screen time due to a public vote barely any of us took part in? Perhaps it will be corrected in future, but for me it feels like a greater disregard for welfare to put a prospective contestant in that position, even if they willingly take the gamble, than to allow friends to post on social media accounts.

But that failure to excite with format changes aside, I have to say I love this new cast. We are always impatient at the beginning. Wondering why no one has turned feral yet, mourning past contestants and quick to say that the new ones can’t live up to them, or are actively trying to copy them (I’ve seen about three women accused of “trying to be the new Ekin-Su”). But most of the islanders are already carrying their weight with drama, and delivering some of the most distinctive cast members we’ve seen in a while. And the real standouts are the female islanders.

We are always impatient at the beginning...

Tanya has quickly emerged as the alpha. Don’t be fooled by the good time gal aura and adorable Scouse accent, she gives me the energy of a woman who can eat a man for breakfast – and I love it. Instantly turning Shaq into a lovesick puppy, she coolly enjoyed the luxury of choice she had been between her original partner and bombshell David, sparking tensions and jealousies between the men, and even heating heads by kissing other men during beer pong. Her scene stealing remark “leave them, they’re boys” when Haris and Shaq have a loud verbal altercation indicates a woman who refuses to be moved by the actions of men, and it’s exactly this kind of dominant, unbothered vibe which makes a woman flourish on Love Island.

North London babe Tanyel is bold in a way that means you’re doing the show right. Unlikely to have won support from the public by splitting up fast fan favourites Ron and Lana through a last minute steal of Ron at the recoupling, potentially the most outrageous first recoupling of all time, the risky move has shot her to the top of my “ones to watch” list for the series. After all, as is commonly said: this is Love Island, not Friend Island. And whilst she arguably should’ve communicated with villa bestie Lana that she had some interest in Ron, it’s far more entertaining to watch the girls step over each other. After all, Anna-May had stolen Kai from her, and Zara had stolen Tom from Olivia.

Speaking of Zara and Olivia, one question persists, why are they pretending not to know each other? A quick glance of their Instagram profiles shows the two commenting on each other’s pictures indicating at best a close friendship or at least some degree of social media familiarity. But they’ve quickly been positioned as each other’s rivals, with divisive Olivia (who absolutely terrifies me by the way) viewing Zara as deliberately attempting to offend her, first by labelling her as two-faced during beer pong, and second by stealing Tom. God knows what the truth behind this rivalry is, maybe they dated the same man outside of the villa, but let’s keep it coming.

And then we get on to what’s dampened such a surprisingly strong start for the series: the introduction of two bombshells straight from the past seasons of Love Island Australia, Aaron and Jessie. Once again, it’s a format change attempting to keep things exciting, and it’s clearly a direct response to (in my opinion, misguided) fan demand for an “All Stars” series of past contestants, which was first trialled with the re-introduction of Adam Collard last season. But come on. Trialling with Adam felt like a fair move, but this is flying too close to the sun. It’s immediately impossible to believe that these Australian bombshells are on here for anything but extending their reality television brand overseas. Who is seriously considering a long distance relationship from Brisbane to Bristol after eight weeks?

And the “twist” also seems to forget what it is that makes Love Island so great. Yes, the show is an international season with many different outputs but at its heart it’s about mixing in a scaffolder from Swansea, a make-up artist from Hartlepool, a personal trainer from London, and a ring girl from Newcastle and saying: make it work! This does not mean contestants’ sole identity has to be British – Italian Davide and Turkish Ekin-Su are two of the most beloved winners of the series ever – but that there has to be a sense of throwing together Britain’s social diversity and watching the chaos emerge. Let’s hope that in the sea of innovation and format changes, Love Island doesn’t forget its essential recipes.