Love Is Blind season 5 has been difficult for some viewers to get behind after the series pushed the experiment to the wayside in many ways. Participants on Love Is Blind are asked to let go of their preconceived notions and allow themselves to fall in love without seeing their partner physically. They can only meet after getting engaged, and try to build a physical connection to match their emotions. For many early Love Is Blind participants, the experiment offered a fresh look at how love could form and provided many with a long-term relationship unlike what they’d had previously.

As Love Is Blind has continued filming and changing its formula in minute ways throughout the seasons, some viewers have noticed a shift throughout the seasons in the relationships built on the series. While earlier seasons of Love Is Blind allowed the experiment to work more seamlessly, now that the majority of people know about the premise of the show, it’s a bit harder to be fully present in the experiment. Some viewers are looking at the most recent season as a failure, as Love Is Blind season 5 truly changed the parameters of the experiment and allowed never-before-seen behavior.

Lydia & Uche's Past Relationship Made Their Pod Connections More Difficult

Throughout Love Is Blind season 5, there has been an interesting thread that hasn’t shown up on the series before involving Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Uche Okoroha. Lydia and Uche didn’t connect in the pods, but dated prior to the experiment itself. When they met in the pods, Lydia recognized Uche’s voice immediately and the pair chose not to talk any further, acknowledging that because they’d met before, the sanctity of the experiment would be lost if they pursued a relationship. Still, the fact that both Lydia and Uche knew they were even in the experiment made things difficult.

When Uche connected with Aaliyah Cosby, Lydia’s closest friend in the experiment, he didn’t reveal he’d had a relationship with someone else in the pod squad until they were deep into their own connection. Aaliyah felt understandably betrayed, and ultimately chose to leave Love Is Blind season 5 to collect her thoughts. The pod phase was tainted for several participants due to Uche and Lydia’s past relationship, and even though they chose not to talk in the pods, their presence opened up an odd set of conditions that the show hadn’t seen before. The exes being involved in the experiment made it nearly impossible to keep things clean.

Relationships Like JP & Taylor's Failed To Move Past The Pod Phase

Throughout Love Is Blind history, there have been relationships that blossom in the pods and fail to take flight after the couples meet in person. While Taylor Rue and Jared “JP” Pierce seemed like a great match, things quickly got dicey after they met in person. JP criticized Taylor’s appearance, but was confused when Taylor called him out on the behavior. The couple split during their trip to Mexico. While there are typically couples who find it hard to bring their connection from the pods into a face-to-face setting, Taylor and JP were a specific brand of failure that spoke to the series rather than them as individuals.

While in the pods, JP and Taylor were clearly making a connection, but there were times that it felt stilted or difficult. Their conversations didn’t have the depth that Love Is Blind season 5’s other couples were reaching, but they seemed as though they were pushed into pursuing one another outside of the pods. While the series likely wouldn’t show a couple who wasn’t interested in each other at all, it felt very performative for the series to push a couple who was clearly going to fail rather than a Love Is Blind couple who rekindled their relationship after the pod phase.

The Series Has Stopped Investing In Interesting Contestants

As Love Is Blind has continued, they’ve stopped investing their time and energy into developing larger stories with their contestants’ rich lives outside the series. Many contestants are hardly introduced anymore, let alone explored further as people outside their relationships. While there are moments of depth in the series when participants are asked about their hopes, dreams, and desires surrounding a relationship, there’s very little work put into understanding who the participants are otherwise. This can be tricky when the series is so specifically based on building an emotional connection.

Though Love Is Blind does put in the work when it comes to trying to help participants shape their relationships and grow together, they don’t do much to foster the individuals in their experiment or provide context to the audience. There are glimpses of who the contestants are off-camera and how they live their lives, but the majority of the time on the show is spent on the couples as a unit. It would be beneficial to judge the couples and the experiment as a whole to see who the participants isolated, potentially during the pod phase, to grasp what makes them interesting and exciting.

Relationships Like Izzy & Stacy's Have Been Difficult To Watch Unfold

Although there have been relationships like JP and Taylor’s, which generally lacked depth and mutual understanding, there are other types of relationships on Love Is Blind season 5 that are equally difficult to stomach. Throughout the course of the series, couples have had to handle difficulties as soon as they’ve left the pods and made their way into the real world. While some have tried to handle them together, others have a tough time bringing their own issues into their relationships, especially at an early stage. This isn’t surprising, but it can be tough to watch the couples navigate generally tricky conversations when they don’t fully know one another yet.

Love Is Blind season 5 introduced Stacy Snyder and Izzy Zapata, who connected quickly and got engaged in the pods. The pair found a depth in their relationship that worked for them, but as the pair got closer to their wedding, some difficult truths about Izzy’s financial situation came to light. Stacy, who comes from a wealthy family and was raised with privilege, didn’t take Izzy’s situation well, and the conversation that ensued was tough to hear. While having tough conversations is a part of life, seeing participants come to the table with judgment and bias for their partner can be hard and leaves audiences feeling uneasy.

Lydia Has Been Painted As The Ultimate Love Is Blind Villain

Love Is Blind season 5 has given the villain edit to Lydia, which has been difficult to stomach as a viewer of the series. Lydia, who is engaged to Milton Johnson IV on the series and hoping to get married by the end of the season, was painted as a villain due to her past relationship with Uche. After it came to light that Aaliyah was aware of the relationship, Lydia felt comfortable sharing her side of the story along with facts about Uche that Aaliyah wasn’t interested in hearing. Lydia didn’t understand where she was coming from, clearly just happy to feel unburdened, but it was uncomfortable to watch.

Lydia hasn’t only been painted the villain in Uche and Aaliyah’s story, but in her relationship with Milton as well. Milton has been doing his best to be strong in their relationship, but Lydia has been painted by the series to be pushy about what she wants in a relationship. It is difficult to watch Love Is Blind edit Lydia to seem unreasonable for having standards, and at the same time push the narrative that she’s potentially still hung up on an ex. Villifying anyone in the cast has been a rough call in prior seasons, and viewers have been less interested in watching due to the unnecessary drama.

Love Is Blind is available to stream on Netflix.