From the producers of Married At First Sight: Is TVNZ’s wild new dating show Love Triangle worth the watch?

From the producers of MAFS, Love Triangle is here to fill your Thursday nights. Photo / TVNZ

OPINION:

Yet another reality show has landed on our TVNZ doorstep and I know what you’re thinking. Another one? Yes, in the words of DJ Khaled, another one, but you know you love it.

Competing with the likes of Married At First Sight, The Bachelor and FBoy Island, Love Triangle is a show promising singletons love in exchange for partaking in a social experiment our ancestors would find truly bizarre.

Full of insanely dramatic dinner parties we have come to love, plot twists, and a bunch of Aussies that want to quit their day job to become influencers - sorry, find love, it sounds an awful lot like MAFS and that’s because it kind of is.

Love Triangle is TVNZ's newest reality show. Photo / TVNZ

Created by the same producers as the hit show, we can only assume Love Triangle is going to be full of the same kind of drama but is it?

We kick things off with one singleton telling the camera that looks are very important to him. Clearly, this fella didn’t read the fine print though because the first part of this experiment takes place via text – and text only.

Yes, Love Triangle’s first major twist is that it asks a group of brave singles to relinquish all physical laws of attraction and choose between two people they have never seen. Their only interaction with them is via phone message for three days - and no, before you ask cheeky pics are not allowed either.

It sounds revolutionary but in reality, Gen Z has been doing this for years.

After the singleton chooses which person they have more of a connection with, they go on a date and very swiftly move in together. I mean, what is reality TV if not unbearably uncomfortable for the contestants anyway?

The rest of the experiment is very MAFS-esk except for when the producers get bored of the sub-par dinner parties, choose violence and tell the rejected person to enter the experiment.

Why? Because it’s a love triangle. Duh.

The show overall has promise, it sounds like the exact thing my Thursday night is missing, but the first episode has a slower burn than a flameless candle.

For an entire hour, we are introduced to three singletons looking for love and while they appear pretty normal and put together at first, two things become very clear, very quickly. Their introductions could have been compacted into 10 minutes and they are exactly what you would expect from people who think a reality show will help them find the love of their life.

The show promises explosive dinner parties. Photo / TVNZ

Unfortunately, like many love-based reality shows, the introductions are split over a couple of episodes with the intention of getting you really invested. But all it really does is make you check your watch a few dozen times. So, let me speed things up.

Thirty-two-year-old Lisa arrived and within minutes she made her intentions known. She wants a baby, like really, really wants a baby.

Looking down the lens of the camera as if it were a genie’s lamp about to grant her one wish, she said, “that’s what I’m here for. I mean put some sperm in me and knock me up,” before hysterically laughing. It was terrifying.

Thirty-year-old Alex is on a wife hunt but it looks as though things aren't smooth sailing. Photo / TVNZ

Next came 30-year-old Alex who is absolutely on the hunt for a wife to the point where it’s obvious he will make this experiment work for him no matter what.

And finally, we met 28-year-old Ly – pronounced Lee – who is worried that her striking Asian features won’t be attractive to men from other cultures and she admits she’s deeply insecure about it.

Finally, in the last 10 minutes of the show, we get some spice and even though it didn’t make me feel like my hour-long investment was time well spent, it did tempt me enough to consider pressing play on the next episode.

With only eight episodes, it seems Love Triangle has spent a little too much time with the introductions and not enough time on the drama, making it something you could easily put on in the background while you scroll mindlessly through Instagram - so a normal evening for any Gen-Z or Millenial.

However, the structure is there and like any good reality show, it’s full of people who are either deeply insecure or have an ego bigger than Donald Trump’s - which we all know are the two ingredients for an explosive dinner party.

But while it has many similarities to MAFS, one major difference is it avoids marriage completely, making it perfect for anyone who felt like the hit show mocks the sanctity of the “lifelong” commitment.

So, if you’re looking for something to fill your Thursday nights for the next eight weeks and enjoy a little, but not a whole lot of drama, Love Triangle could be for you.

As for the James Weir’s of this world and us fellow drama-loving folk, you may need to search elsewhere for your chardonnay chucking and unfaithful husbands ducking.

• Watch Love Triangle Thursdays at 8.30pm on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+