The dilemma of a Love Island producer
The success of Love Island is causing its talented producers problems they never imagined. I’m not referring to the challenge of squeezing in as much sponsorship as possible without alienating advertising jackpot-winners Superdrug. It’s far more serious. Their problem is how to balance the need to entertain with fans’ dedication to the contestants.
We are so wrapped up in the loves and lives of the islanders that we must believe that what we see is a fair reflection of what’s really happening. We need to believe in the characters and plot lines in order to get invested. The producers and editors, however, need to generate drama, develop characters and create plot-lines. They do that of course by the way they selectively edit what must be pretty tedious 24 hours into a one hour show.
You can see it in the way certain characters seem likeable for a while, only to suddenly reveal themselves as mean (Georgia); or are mean for a while and then are suddenly rejuvenated (Josh); or are sculpted to play a certain role (Alex, Adam, Megan).
You can see it, too, in the show’s end-of-the-week ‘behind the curtain’ programme Aftersun. Each week whoever had been ejected is subjected to a round of teasy questions by the host Caroline Flack. The lack of control must terrify the producers, since they frequently explain patiently that in fact what you saw on the screen was not quite what happened, because, right, they’d been talking for 30 minutes like before I shouted and actually afterward they’d another chat that wasn’t shown… etc.
I especially enjoy watching Flack trying admirably to deflect.
You saw it in the case of Samira last week, who’d found some romance at last with quiet Justin Trudeau look-a-like Frankie. The context was here was that the producers had a problem: Jack and Dani are runaway favourites and that’s not good for ratings. I assume they had to start editing up some other romances. I further assume they’d decided Josh and Kasimir were marginally more interesting than Frankie and Samira, because J&K got a load of pouty kissy air time. S & F got practically none. Minutes on screen is everything in a public-vote reality show and Frankie got the boot on account of no-one knowing who he was. Then something unusual happened: Samira voluntary exited a few days later because she missed him so much. Eh? I guess the romance was far more meaningful that the show suggested. We were duped!
Maybe we all know this is what’s happening, that what we see and what’s really happening in ‘the villa’ bear merely a passing resemblance; and we suspend our critical faculties because it would hurt too much to admit we’re being manipulated by a bunch of ITV2 execs. A similar cognitive dissonance afflicted revolutionary Marxists in the 1980s.
But I don’t think so, which is why I think the producers are now victims of their own success. They have to give us bread and circuses, but we are starting to fall in love with the gladiators. What a nuisance. The more invested people become in the show, the more furious they are each time they think a character is being treated unfairly (Dani seeing Jack’s ex) not getting the right coverage (Samira) or possibly having scenes re-shot (Georgia kissing Jack). To accept the whole thing is entertainment rather than an observational documentary might be too much for some to bear. When they do realise, their fury will be roughly equal to their dedication: total.
