Love Island has officially returned; let the deeply distressing games begin! Last night, the fifth series of the increasingly popular dating reality show started on ITV2. An unprecedented 3.3 million of us tuned in, and Twitter is now sagging under the weight of memes, jokes and judgements about this year’s contestants. But amid the gossip lies something more serious: observations about Love Island’s sinister racial politics are too important to be ignored.

The first episode follows a set format. Five girls stand in a line – looking nervous, self conscious and somewhat unsteady in vertiginously high shoes – and wait for the boys to come out, one by one. After offering an obligatory platitude along the lines of, “all looking stunning today ladies”, the men wait to see if anyone will “step forward” for them (things are kept almost entirely non-verbal at this stage, just to hammer home the paramount importance physical appearance in matters of the heart).

After surveying their options, the boys choose a girl to couple up with, regardless of whether or not she’s stepped forward (setting a slightly awkward precedent in terms of consent). But after a girl has been willingly or unwillingly selected she can still step forward for the next topless man who waltzes into the villa. Essentially, it’s a hellish, humiliating parlour game, which 85,000 people were desperate to play. It’s basic game theory with high emotional stakes.