With a multitude of questionable spinoffs under its belt, the 90 Day Fiancé franchise is expanding.
90 Days: The Single Life Season 1 Episode 1 reintroduced us to many of the franchise’s most popular stars as they come to terms with single life after the breakup of relationships they had when they joined the program for the first time.
the result was a bit more disappointing than I expected. On paper, this show sounds like something to break from the franchise formula, but in reality it feels like a watered-down version of the original concept.
instead of dating abroad, singles date within the usa. which probably allows the program to remain in constant production.
A lot of the other shows have been hampered by the pandemic, so this seems like a way to keep production running smoothly.
With names like brittany banks, big ed brown, savage colt johnson, danielle jbali, and molly hopkins at the premiere alone, there should have been a lot more drama than we got.
maybe 90 minutes runtime is not the best for this program. Remember the good old days when you didn’t have to dedicate a whole night to the franchise when the episodes were shorter?
Now that the series is gravitating towards streaming, there was no need to make this premiere so big and exclude the biggest draw from the cast.
Fernanda Flores as a single woman and throwing a divorce party in the teaser at the end of the premiere was infinitely more interesting than what we got in this opening episode.
We’ll start with Brittany, aka the person who trashed tlc and the producers of 90 day fance on social media after 90 day fance – backwards season 2 ended.
Brittany and Yazan weren’t meant to be together, but what we could see of their relationship hinted that they were both at fault.
Brittany seems to be too free of a spirit to settle down with anyone, so her return appears to be a way for the show to capitalize on bringing the most controversial stars in recent memory back into the fold.
While it was hard to get into what he was saying about dating because he doesn’t seem to have a connection to any of the men he talked about, it was nice to see an unfiltered version of the character.
Moving from cable to broadcast allows the cast to be less secretive and more open about the current situation without having to worry about meeting broadcast standards for their broadcast.
Brittany seems happy with where she is in life, and seems to me to be one of the cast members who will still be single at the end of the season. she doesn’t seem interested in exposing herself again.
one person who is interested, perhaps too much so, is big ed brown. she burst onto screens before 90 days and now it seems she will never leave.
The waitress and ed had no chemistry, so it was surprising how much ed seemed to want to go out with her. She’s starting to annoy his friends by dating women nearly 20 years his junior, but she doesn’t care what the naysayers say.
Asking the woman out on a date with him was probably one of the most awkward scenes in the franchise’s history, largely because it seemed so put together.
It’s hard to connect with these stories when they probably need to be planned well in advance to comply with covid safety precautions.
I definitely think the waitress had no idea what she was going to be asked for, but it seemed like ed had been planning this for much longer than he let on viewers, leaving a huge hole in his story.
I didn’t like the suspense. It seemed unnecessary because the woman he claimed to be crazy about seemed to want the ground to open up and swallow her.
It would be wise for Ed to date again because this girl seems happy to have him as a friend and nothing more.
This being a 90 day fiancé, there will probably be a huge twist on us to reveal that they are, in fact, a thing.
colt is one of the worst cast members. there is no escape from that. It’s good that he’s taking better care of himself, but how can he expect to date when he allows her mother to have so much influence in her life?
vanessa and colt’s relationship began with lies, and vanessa has witnessed the torment he put both jess and larissa through, so for her to even contemplate the possibility of them being romantically linked feels a little far-fetched .
on the other hand, we know that colt and vanessa are engaged, so vanessa must start to see the value of colt at some point.
the speed dating event was embarrassing, more than anything. I don’t think he’s the only one who thinks this, but nothing Colt says feels genuine. If he’s nervous in front of the cameras, I don’t know, but I’d rather his relationship was saved for his wild instagram page or something.
danielle’s return was actually handled well. Her life is completely different from how Hurricane Mohammed came, and she was in a much happier place at the top of the premiere.
It was a little annoying not seeing their kids, given how involved they were during the show’s early seasons, but maybe they’re just tired of all the drama that comes from reality TV cameras.
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One thing I couldn’t stop thinking about, though, was the way Danielle seemed almost excited as she talked about Mohamed getting back in touch with her.
It takes two to tango, but they were downright horrible to each other when the relationship fell apart. it’s hard to believe they see any value in getting together again.
Clearly, Danielle still has feelings for Mohamed, but the way he’s talked about her since the show makes me believe he legitimately wants to be friends with her.
maybe he feels bad about the way their relationship imploded, or maybe he really needs something from her. Danielle said in a throwaway phrase that a meeting is coming up.
I’m not even going to talk about Molly because, while I think she’s a pretty decent cast member, her story seemed very similar to Luis’s.
what do you really know about this guy kelly? he’s ripe for drama, but it’s a drama that could have been resolved more naturally if she had been honest and asked him everything during their initial conversations.
All things considered, this wasn’t a terrible premiere, but it needs to up its game if discovery+ wants people to sign up to watch it.
the next few episodes will be the real test of whether the updated format works.
what do you think of all the returnees?
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paul dailly is an associate editor at tv fanatic. follow him on twitter.