The history of unscripted dating and romance shows is littered with outlandish premises.
For six episodes in 2001, UPN tried out Chains Of Love, in which a “Picker” was challenged to find love with one of the four opposite-sex contestants to whom he was literally chained for days. Fox’s Joe Millionaire (2003) bamboozled bachelorettes who battled to win the heart of Evan Marriott, not knowing what the audience did: that he was not actually wealthy. Married By America (also 2003) kicked off with a live TV event in which viewers got to match couples via phone-in votes; cameras then followed them for an “engagement period,” with relationship experts eliminating one couple per week.
But one needn’t look travel so far back in time to find wild concepts: on Netflix alone, there’s on TV and Waitress on Broadway. Whereas many dating-show hosts can seem extraneous to the action, restating facts to stretch 28 minutes’ worth of content to the required 43, the enthusiastic Nettles is a joy to watch here. I would blush to admit how many unscripted love affairs I’ve watched come to naught, but when Nettles tells us that an afternoon of speed dating could be life-changing for several show participants, I actually believe her!
The secret truth of dating shows is that they tend to get less interesting as a season progresses: The really messy contestants who make for good TV generally get eliminated, leaving fewer, and duller, people to fill the allotted time.
It’s also unclear from the premiere how much the Farmers will be interacting with each other now that they’ve repaired to their homes in different states; it would be a waste to cast four guys without having them compare notes on their experiences, so maybe they’ll periodically get to hop on a Zoom together. Even if not: With Nettles on board—and the possibility that a self-deluded marketing coordinator may face-plant into a pile of manure—Farmer Wants a Wife just might keep me hooked to see which fillies make it to the final rodeo.
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