We're so back

Not too long ago, I was writing about my newfound love for Love Island USA and its unusual portrayal of positive masculinity (among other things). My thoughts were based on the only season of the show that I'd watched at that point, and with an additional two seasons under my belt now, I stand by most of my initial impressions – although last year's Season 7 was a real stress test in a lot of ways.

On Tuesday, the eighth season premiered (pretty much in tandem with the flagship show, Love Island UK, which premiered Monday, but won't be available on its United States streaming home until Thursday, so those thoughts will have to wait). This is the first season that I'll be watching in real time – or at least attempting to, since it's likely that the 30-odd episodes won't all be able to be watched in a timely fashion. I got a kid, man.

Initial impressions of Season 8 is that it's a delight, and most of these people are pretty fun and/or unobjectionable. (Notwithstanding the individual who was sent home prior to the first episode due to the now-standard "producers discovered you saying slurs on a podcast" kerfuffle.) This is a very welcome contrast to Season 7, which featured several people I absolutely could not stand (one of whom won!) and one of the absolutely least-hinged people I've ever seen on television, who has gone on to do such notable things as "get hit with a restraining order" following her time on the show.

Despite the occasional nails-on-a-chalkboard experience, Season 7 still had plenty of things to like (final result notwithstanding), but I'm ready for a rebound season after some stretches of Love Island USA being a bit of a chore, and things look very promising at the outset. There's the (I believe) first Islander with a disability, a guy who quit his job as a cop to be able to do the show (possibly making him the first good cop??), the brother of a previous contestant who is an emphatic cat person, a woman whose resting facial expression is one of utter bafflement, and a man named "Sincere."

I'm going to keep this, my second post about Love Island, brief, because I freely acknowledge that it is a bizarre and baffling show, one that is deeply weird and stocked with people in thongs at all hours. The main thing I'm trying to get a handle on by following the show as it unfolds is exactly what the viewers/voters (who determine the winners) are thinking, because rewatching old seasons makes it completely impossible to suss out exactly why and how they are voting the way they are. I'm looking at the most irritating people in the entire universe and they're making it to the finale, while the most sincere-seeming people on the show are deemed "fakest" by the people voting. Although the voters are simply referred to by the hosts and contestants as "America," and if there's one thing you can count on from America, it's voting against its own self-interests.

Here's to a new season of Love Island USA, and a whole new series of meltdowns and/or bonding sessions at the fire pit.