Culture ‘You couldn’t pitch that in the US!’

Are the UK’s dating shows the wildest in the world?

By Daisy Jones

THE FIRST KISS in Netflix’s same-sex Japanese dating show The Boyfriend arrives an entire eight episodes in. Two cast members, Shun, 23, and Dai, 22, who have spent weeks embroiled in a “will they, won’t they” dance, finally go on a “sleepover date”. Shun sidles into Dai’s single bed. And then, in a scene that will have you holding your breath in anticipation, the two men gradually tip their faces towards one another and touch lips. Yeeessssss, I screamed at the TV, weirdly excited about the prospect of two people I’ve never met kissing. Finally. Quite different, then, to the BBC’s same-sex dating shows, I Kissed a Girl and I Kissed a Boy, in which cast members make out upon meeting. And that’s not the most out-there UK format. Dating Naked…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 23 August 2024

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