Love Island 2024 review: The bar, really, couldn’t be lower – but it’s irresistible

love island, Glastonbury and an international football tournament were once the holy trinity of a long, hot summer – but now in its 11th series, is the ITV reality show still up to the task? Add to that the upcoming general election and there is no shortage of newsworthy events grabbing our attention. As former islander Molly-Mae Hague infamously said, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. So it is love island Is it worth spending your precious time on it? We’re only an hour and a half into the current series, but the kickoff episode delivers a last-minute twist that makes reconnecting irresistible.

The series’ opener ticks all the usual boxes in a matter of minutes: a cheesy opening sequence to introduce the contestants, panoramic shots of Majorca, and at least two twenty-something women looking for men. tall, dark and handsome.” Islanders are now entering in groups of two or three, which is a welcome way to speed up the launch episode – especially since their VTs all went live last week.

Iain Stirling is in fine form, with topical jokes – “This is what the sea looks like when it’s not full of sewage” – and self-deprecating gags, while host Maya Jama, who rightly elicits screams upon entering the villa, once again. brings a genuine enthusiasm reminiscent of the show’s original host, Caroline Flack.

In another small twist on the format, the islanders get the chance to mingle and get to know each other a little before playing a game, in which the girls rank the boys in order of who is most like a boyfriend , and vice versa. versa. Munveer, who at 30 has almost reached retirement age in love island terms, takes first place among boys. For what? “He’s quite talkative and hasn’t said anything bad yet.” The bar really couldn’t be lower.

It is heartening to see that the islanders themselves are still far from learning each other’s names, with the boys instead referring to the ladies as ‘scouse’ or by the color of their swimsuits. Personally, it will take me at least a week to be able to name 50 percent of them. Jama oversees the game before revealing that the islanders are paired based on their ranking, which is another decent way to speed up what can often be a drawn-out process.

The question is whether the changes made by producers will be sufficient to maintain love island feeling fresh and relevant in 2024. At the height of its popularity in 2019, the sunny series averaged more than 5 million viewers, and 3.6 million of us watched Amber Gill be crowned the winner, just a few weeks after suffering. one of the most painful Casa Amor dumpings in the series (Michael “Chaldish” Griffiths still hasn’t been forgiven).

What made this series so compelling was how real it seemed. The fact that Amber was abruptly dumped was a bat signal to every woman who has ever been wronged – she could have bounced Michael with a plank of wood and we still would have voted for her to win. (In the end, she settled on Greg, who had no rizz and allegedly dumped her via text a few months later. He, too, will never be forgiven.)

The 2019 series also gave us one of the love islandThe most famous couples of Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury, who finished in second place. But with so many international versions and spin-offs, it’s much harder for ITV to maintain the illusion that love is actually the point of the game. Instead, it seems like they’re moving fully towards the delivering tweet-worthy reality TV drama and twists.

The first bombshell is revealed in the final seconds of the launch show – and it’s none other than TOWIE veteran Joey Essex. It’s been a long time since a love island twist really left me shaken, but it does. Is the permanently tanned King of Reem really looking for love? Maybe it doesn’t matter after all. As long as the drama continues.