It doesn't help that in recent years the show has placed more emphasis on its least believable couples. Danielle and Mohamed, who first appeared in season two of the series, were cast in two seasons of Happily Ever After? despite breaking up at the end of their original season; the current season of What Now? follows Danielle as she attempts to sue Mohamed for the money she spent bringing him to the States. Nicole and Azan, another couple whose relationship is implied to be a con, have appeared on two seasons of 90 Day Fiancé as well as one season of Happily Ever After? Next week, TLC will air a one-hour special devoted to their wedding. The show's main promo shot on the network's website is of Jorge and Anfisa, a Russian native who has openly admitted she is with her husband for his money and whom other cast members have referred to as a "mail-order bride."

In the past, it was easier to explain away fascination with these couples—"How can someone be so oblivious?" "Are they that desperate for love?"—by focusing on the show's "real" couples who were clearly in love and the odds they had to overcome to be together. "It's not exploitative," I'd tell myself. "It's educational!"

And yet the couple whose story has convinced me to quit watching isn’t one of the fakes. Chantel met Pedro on a trip to the Dominican Republic, and over the course of their three seasons (one on 90 Day Fiancé and two on Happily Ever After?), her family's cultural insensitivity and wild conspiracy theories about Pedro's family—that his mother runs a marriage ring to "harvest the American dollar," that his sister is actually his girlfriend, etc.—have left them trapped in a modern-day Romeo and Juliet scenario and contemplating divorce.

Chantel and Pedro

The show paints Chantel's family as not exactly the brightest people (her mother is responsible for that "more stupider" quote), but never specifically calls out their ignorance. This gives their baseless concerns the same weight as those with a legitimate reason to believe their family member is being taken for a ride. All of their conflicts stem from miscommunications that could've easily been cleared up (Pedro's sister Nicole emphasizes a point by saying "punto," meaning "period," and Chantel hears "puta," thus setting off a multiseason "Pedro's sister called me a whore" arc) or their refusal to open themselves up to another culture (they're offended when Pedro's mother serves them chicken feet; after his grandmother spends all day cooking for them, they refuse to get out of the car after seeing her modest home). And yet the disagreements are presented as two-sided because Pedro's family doesn't take kindly to that disrespect.