Dating in the Dark, Week Two (Television Reality Dating Show Experiment)

I wrote a review about the romantic reality dating "experiment" show, Dating in the Dark, last week after its premiere episode. You can read what I had to say about it here. At first I didn't plan to watch the show again but there's something different enough about it that it hooked me. So ten minutes till ten on Monday night, I was getting a cup of water and on my way to the couch to wait for the second episode of Dating in the Dark to begin.

So what made me want to watch the show again? I mean, the premise is certainly interesting and different from other reality dating shows; three women and three men meet each other in complete darkness and get to know each other without ever seeing what the other person looks like. The men and women are forced to rely on talking to each other and paying attention to the person's personality instead of their looks. And according to the show, they don't get paid to be on the show. The men and women do get to stay in a big beautiful house, the women at one end and the men at the other end with absolutely NO contact whatsoever EXCEPT in the dark room. We, the audience, get to see everything that happens in the dark through the use of infrared cameras.

The men and women on Dating in the Dark, at least in the two episodes that have been on so far, are ordinary people. None of them have been fabulously handsome or beautiful but neither have they been entirely unattractive either. They seem like the kind of people you might meet at the grocery store or at the neighborhood pub. Their ages are similar and everyone has a job. As an experiment, Dating in the Dark seems to be going with the average working person and they are all placed on equal footing. No one has the advantage in the dark. Dating in the Dark is one of the most reasonable reality shows that I have seen to date.

But honestly, the real reason I watched the second episode of Dating in the Dark is because of the preview of the second episode at the end of the first episode, where the host was letting the men and women go through each other's luggage to get an idea of the personality of the person to whom the luggage belonged. It sounded hilarious to me and I was right, it was funny.

When it came time to go through the luggage, the men were looking at bras and what sizes they were to get an idea of what size the women were. I thought that was funny and completely shallow but hey, it seemed entirely reasonable to me! The women were more into the fashion of the men's clothes and whether they would let their guy go out in a certain outfit. There was one man who had a hair straightener in his luggage which certainly bothered the women. Did the guy have long hair? They couldn't figure it out. As soon as one of the women met the man alone in the dark, she asked to touch his hair to see why he needed a hair straightener. As a dating hook, it was a perfect ice breaker in the dark.

After the men and women had met and somewhat loosely paired up, the host told them their "perfect" match, the one person who was most suited to them based on the fifty page questionnaire they'd filled out before the show and also based on a team of relationship experts. The funny thing is that each informal couple pairing that had already taken place was the exact person they were the most "perfect" for. The couples kept spending time together in the dark room, talking, laughing, and goofing around until the last date. For the last date and before seeing each other in the light for the first time, the host had the men fix a meal for the woman they were paired up with and had the women give the men a massage after the meal. It was funny trying to watch them eat in the dark and then give a massage, also in the dark.

After the last date, it's time to see the person for the first time. The show handles the big reveal in a dramatic fashion. The couples are in the dark and are not allowed to speak. First, a light shines on one person for a minute and then on the other person for a minute and then it's back to the dark. The other person can not see the face of the person who is seeing them for the first time. If you've seen the show, you know that's a good thing because some of the reactions are not the most positive.

After the big reveal, the men and women must decide if they want to continue to date the other person. There is a balcony that overlooks the front door and each person, both men and women, can decide to continue to date by going out on the balcony to meet the person or to walk away by going out the front door.

On both episodes, this has been the most difficult part of the show to watch. It's sad when one of the people decides to walk out the front door instead of continuing to date; however it does give the viewer someone to hate. In the first episode of Dating in the Dark, we all had to hate the shallow woman who decided that Seth wasn't good looking enough for her. In this second episode, it's the man who goes out the front door saying that he is absolutely attracted to Chrystee but that he has to think about her and how she needs someone different in her life, someone who is more religious like she is. Oh please, we all know he's saying, "its not you, it's me" which translates to "I don't like you enough to date you because there's something wrong with you."

I like the basic premise of the show, and the "star" of the show which is the dark room, because it does give the show a little something different than other reality dating shows plus it gives us some very funny moments to laugh at.

Perhaps one complaint and it's just a small one, that I can make about the show is what the infrared cameras do to the eyes of the people in the dark room. Have you ever watched the CW television series, Supernatural? The infrared camera gives the men and women demon eyes ala Supernatural which I have found to be a little disconcerting at times.

After watching both the first and the second episodes of Dating in the Dark, I think I can safely say that I will be watching the next episode as well. I've decided that I'm not too embarrassed to admit that Dating in the Dark has become one of my new guilty little pleasures.

Check out ABC.com online to watch full episodes of Dating in the Dark free.
Dating in the Dark, Monday Nights on ABC at 10PM