‘FBoy Island’ Premiere Review: A Good Kind of Predictable

“FBoy Island” is everything you’d expect out of a dating reality TV show — especially one that takes place on an island. The show presents three attractive single ladies, apparently looking for love, with 21 single men. Half of the men are self-proclaimed “Fboys” while the other half are “good guys.” Throughout the season, the female contestants will have a chance to eliminate the male contestants, hopefully ending up with a “good guy” by the end. If they end up with a good guy, they get to split 100,000 dollars. However, if they end up with an “Fboy,” the “Fboy” can choose to either keep all of the money or to split with their partner. The premiere of the third season reintroduced this concept but added some interesting new aspects, including Katie Thurston, of “The Bachelorette” season 17 fame, being one of the contestants on the show. The other two contestants are Hali Okeowo, a beauty fashion model, and Daniella Grace, a professional snowboarder.

All of the contestants are stereotypically attractive, and each of them claim to be looking for love — but the audience does not know whether that is the truth yet. Though the cast has obviously changed from previous seasons, they present as typical reality show contestants and behave similarly to past seasons. Just as in previous seasons, all of the guys have unearned confidence and all of the girls are flirty and skeptical. This creates an interesting dynamic in that there is a power struggle between every person involved in the show.

The show starts with an introductory activity related to red and green flags for the ladies to get to know the guys; the objective is to present a creative introduction that depicted a portion of who they were. This activity proved to be slightly cringey, but also extremely funny in its awkwardness. The men were very predictable, but creative in the sense that they each had a distinct kind of predictability. There were lots of cringey pick-up lines and even some erotic dancing — which was admittedly challenging to watch. Some of the men were very obviously “Fboys” which created some early tension between the viewer and the show itself, seeing as they knew crucial information that the women clearly did not know. Throughout the first episode, there were only a few men shown interacting with the women, which was slightly frustrating because it felt like a competition between five or six men rather than all 21. The point-of-views focused on these men, giving them most of the screen-time whether it was while they were with the women or not. Additionally, if there were any other male appearances, it was often when they were talking about or involved with the main six men. This created a limited perspective and a lack of interactions between all of the contestants, to the extent that when people were elected for elimination, the viewer had no idea why.

While this new season did introduce new characters and interactions, it was extremely predictable. All of the reality dating show expectations were met. The components of the show were identical to every other show like it: The music that played, the lines that were said, the problems that arose, and the kinds of people were all the same. If you are looking for originality in anything other than concepts, you won’t find it here. Reality shows such as this one are often slightly awkward, with the competition between men being very intense, yet stupid and unnecessary. The people making choices make distinctly bad decisions, and the viewer has to suffer through hilarious and predictable frustration. The women often kept the man that was more problematic, just because they were attracted to him. They also gave out some questionable kisses and had interactions that the viewer could be certain were moving in the wrong direction.

But is that not the beauty of the show? The viewers watching this show are not hoping it will alter the genre of reality TV in its entirety, nor are they expecting it to be completely original. It is likely that the viewers of the show are looking for an easy watch with corny lines and intriguing drama. The show’s depth is not an area of attraction for the average reality TV viewer. Therefore, the third season of “Fboy Island" is bound to be a good one for anyone who enters into its viewing with the proper expectations.