When I asked my Instagram followers what shows they watch only with their partner as a couple, I assumed the answers would lean toward middle-ground, compromise picks—things you can both agree on after a long day, like The Office reruns. In reality, there were a lot of prestige dramas like Severance; the expected faves from streamers like Nobody Wants This; peppering of network shows like Abbot Elementary and a slew of Dick Wolf spin-offs (of course). However, the overwhelming majority of responses involved reality TV—specifically relationship-based shows.
It’s as if couples are watching TV together and wondering, “But what if the plot was just…couples therapy?” Because the answers went beyond frothy series like The Bachelor. We’re talking about the down and dirty new class of relationship shows where we skip all the pretense and get straight to the brass tacks—programs like Love Is Blind, 90 Day Fiancé and Married at First Sight. All of these series follow similar conceits where singles throw everything against the proverbial wall to wind up with “love.” A therapist of sorts is inevitably involved, and the result is ultimately witnessing the formation or down-in-flame demise of a couple.
No wonder Showtime’s Couples Therapy was also cited a bunch. Led by psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik, the docuseries follows real-life couples DOING THE WORK. It can be uncomfortable—as therapy can often be—but it’s not the same level of cringe-inducing as, say, a 90-Day Fiancé subject leaving her children to travel halfway around the world to meet her “fiancé,” only to be ghosted. Dr. Orna basically offers viewers that prestige TV experience with the juicy voyeurism of the slapped-together relationship shows.
