The Love Island Round-Up: 'Cartoon Teeth and Sexy Baby Voices' (12th - 19th January)
This is a round-up of the week (Sunday 12th – Sunday 19th January), so take this as a warning - spoilers are inevitable.
So, Love Island is back… in January? Perhaps to their detriment the producers at ITV2 have decided that, due to the huge popularity of the summer show, a ‘Winter Love Island’ would be a good idea. Interestingly, from a poll we held on our Instagram (follow us @flolondon_) it looks like fewer of you are watching than expected. But for those that are, we’ve decided to undertake a weekly round-up and this is your first instalment.
If you’re not familiar with the premise, a group of swimsuit-clad, Instagram-loving, fame-hungry (… they aren’t actually looking for love) young men and women have been flown out to a ginormous villa in South Africa. Laura Whitmore is our new host – for both the main show and After Sun – and she will take us through the next six weeks as we watch the Islanders fall in and out of love with various degrees of drama that will hopefully keep us all entertained whilst we patiently wait for our own summers to begin.
As usual, with reality TV shows like Love Island, opinions have already begun to fluctuate throughout the course of the very first week. Already well-liked contestants have become annoying, and those that were disliked have grown on us. But a few opinions that haven’t really changed at all are: that Connors teeth are absolutely terrifying and it shouldn’t be surprising that him and Sophie ‘banged teeth’ during a recent kiss; the difference between Shaughna’s voice and her appearance are hilarious; and no one has a bloody clue how Siannese pronounces her name, and nor do they really care.
Ollie Williams was, according to his fellow housemates, a fairly central figure in the house. In response to Ollie announcing his departure from the villa – a villa that they had been living in for four days. Some even exclaimed, “he was like a brother to me.” Riveting. His reasons were relatively understandable, but the utter drivel that ensued after he announced that he was leaving was some of the worst television that I have recently watched. What happened to the days when people would just silently leave, and their name was never uttered again (think Sherif Lanre from last year)? After receiving at least 45 minutes of airtime just to say goodbye and pack a suitcase, I am fairly committed to not giving Ollie Williams, soon-to-be Lord, and game-hunter any more of my time.
‘The twins’ were definitely brought in to shake things up a little, but that scheme seems to have fallen directly on its face. One of the most confusing aspects of their shared personality was their inability to flee their self-dependent nest. Jess and Eve seem to take pleasure in how people consistently fail to tell them apart, and they make this even worse by wearing the same clothes, the same make up, having their hair in the same style and talking with the same ‘sexy baby voices’ the entire time.
On Friday night we had our second re-coupling – it had good level of drama that will hopefully continue throughout the season. One of the twins (Eve Gale) was the first to be booted out of the villa in a quite emotional departure, and we saw ‘Big Connagh’ steal Sophie from ‘Little Connor’ who will inevitably now throw his toys out of the pram. When Connor stood up to pick his girl in the recoupling, he made his feelings clear:
“I’ve found myself in this situation, I feel like I’ve been snaked out a little bit. People have been dishonest. But yeah, I’m in it now, so that’s it.” …ohhhh, burn.
Siannese was also clearly upset by ‘Big Connaghs’ actions – it appears her sweet fudgy serenade of a Red Hot Chilli Peppers classic didn’t seal the deal with the Welsh model – and she had stern words with him in Sunday night’s episode. Apparently Connagh made her feel like “a bit of a d***head” when he didn’t pick her in the recoupling. How distressing.
All things considered, it looks like we are heading into a good week of television…
Words by Mollie Kate Cohen
