Courtesy of Netflix Nick and Vanessa Lachey in Love Is Blind.

Even by the standards of reality television shows, the premise of the new Netflix program Love Is Blind is annoyingly faux deep. Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, the show purports to be an experiment, exploring whether couples can fall in love without the distraction of appearances and/or the real world. “Everyone wants to be loved for who they are,” Vanessa Lachey tells the contestants early on, “not for their looks, their race, their background, or their income." Thus the participants have to connect without seeing each other (they’re ensconced in little rooms called pods) and get engaged on that basis. They’re then shipped off to a couples retreat, or as Nick Lachey puts it — enunciating like a lecturing chemistry professor — they are "exposed to the physical realities of the material world.” In the episodes out today, they meet the parents, and in the final episodes dropping next week, they get married (or not). The show is part of Netflix’s bigger foray into unscripted series. This has resulted in critical successes like Cheer, a documentary about a cheerleading team’s championship season, and Dating Around, a romantic and charmingly straightforward throwback to blind date shows. There have been more mixed results as well, like The Circle, a snoozeworthy mashup of Big Brother and Catfish for the social media age. Similarly, Love Is Blind throws a bunch of successful reality TV formulas into the blender: a bit of The Bachelor (with the dating and sharing of backstories), some 90 Day Fiancé (the moving in together), and a dash of Say Yes to the Dress. But the show seems confused about whether it wants to lean into the shticks or be a quasi–cinema verité show in the vein of Dating Around. Ultimately, with five couples and so many phases, it never goes deep enough — or stays shallow enough — to be fully satisfying.

Courtesy of Netflix / Via screenshot Carlton and Diamond

The most surprising and revealing part of Love Is Blind is the initial episodes that dropped last week. The contestants, segregated by gender (the show is deeply cis-hetero), can only hear each other as they chat in rooms divided by a single wall, which they call “pods.” The white guys in particular can’t quite go along with the show setup. “What are you looking for in a woman?” one is asked. “In-shape and beautiful,” he replies, completely oblivious. Another one tells a contestant without being asked: “If I had to guess, I’d say you’re African American.” The show zeroes in on particular couples, as the contestants share their backstories and get to know each other through the pods. Some of the pairs are especially thoughtful about the kinds of gendered (and racial) scripts they’re grappling with.

Ultimately, with five couples and so many phases, the show never goes deep enough — or stays shallow enough — to be fully satisfying.

One of the most interesting pairings involves Carlton, a 34-year-old in social media marketing, and Diamond, 28, a professional basketball dancer. They open up about past relationships. She talks about having to be strong her whole life, and he speaks about his difficulty being vulnerable, because “boys don’t cry” is “constantly conditioned in black men's heads since we're little boys; I have had to learn to open up and it's OK to be sensitive and emotional and vulnerable.” When the couples actually meet, they gush about their significant other’s appearances, since, despite its ambitious premise, the novelty of the participants not seeing each other is largely nullified by the fact that the ones we actually see on the show are all reality TV hot. Blue-eyed gringo Damian says about Venezuelan-born Giannina, "Her skin tone's so soft...and it's so different and I love difference because different is beautiful,” he says, deeply satisfied with his poetics. “Who knew I could get so deep?" As the show moves on to the retreat, it gets increasingly white and straight, as only one interracial couple survives. Carlton and Diamond (the only black couple) hit an impasse when Carlton (the only openly nonstraight participant) admits that he’s been attracted to men in the past. The conversation quickly escalates: He feels Diamond is defining him through his sexuality and not giving him a chance; Diamond feels he lied, and it explodes into the biggest “reality”-style blowup of the show. “Watch my ass to the next dick, boy,” she says, to which he retorts, “Watch your wig ‘cause it keeps sliding.” Before the couple’s relationship imploded, theirs was the most complex, compelling storyline of the show, and nothing else comes close to it. The show can’t help that it cast a bunch of boring couples, and unlike the vignette-like Dating Around, where they can just cut to the next suitor, we’re stuck with these matches for the entire series. A lot of space is devoted to an especially popular suitor, deep-voiced Matt Barnett, 27. A recovering fuckboy who goes by his last name, he admits to only going after pretty girls but is open to looking for a different kind of connection. He flirts with Jessica, a 34-year-old “regional manager,” who wants to get married and have kids, but ultimately decides to propose to 26-year-old Amber, a former cheerleader who served in Georgia’s Army Guard.

Courtesy of Netflix / Via screenshot Jessica in Love Is Blind.