Why Too Hot to Handle is a show that doesn’t make any sense
There comes a point when reality TV gets so meta that Inception seems like a straightforward concept. I thought things had peaked when I watched The Other Way Strikes Back (90 Day Fiance cast members watching and responding to other cast members on Pillow Talk watching and responding to their original episodes). I think things could only be further enhanced by creating an episode where the whole 90 Day crew gets together for a mega tell-all.
Which brings me tangentially to a much more simple concept, Too Hot to Handle. This show is ridiculous. A group of attractive twenty-somethings think they’re on an island to party in some Love Island/Girls Gone Wild-esque mash-up extravaganza. But it’s a sham, a scam, a real doozy — this party show simply doesn’t exist, even though ostensibly it even comes replete with a fake host. He lasts all of an episode or two before he is replaced by… an Alexa device named Lana. And boy, does Lana have a surprise for them.
It turns out, these folks aren’t here to party at all. They’re here to ‘work on themselves’, to develop relationships with others that aren’t based on physical attraction alone, that have some actual substance. Lana bans contestants from any form of physical contact, other than cuddling, and ‘fines’ them from their collective prize pool every time they’re caught canoodling (which includes self-gratification).
The thing is, these cast members didn’t come on the show because they wanted to grow, spiritually or otherwise. They likely wanted to get Insta-famous and make out with (and more) some hotties along the way. It feels like — to really grow as a person — there needs to be some intention behind it. Some readiness to step away from your usual pattern and consciously make a change. That approach seems like it stands much more of a chance than bamboozling people, most of whom clearly have no desire to change.
Some people on the show are clearly breaking the rules to generate their own storyline, a bit of clout. Others seem to genuinely like their chosen partners. Others seem to very quickly develop some deep emotional baggage from the most superficial of relationships — ‘you never make me feel attractive’, ‘you looked at another girl’ type situations. The prize pool seems to be a distant glimmer for many, who seem much more focused on how many followers they’re going to end up with after the show has aired.
The ‘experts’ who help the contestants put them through interesting exercises, like stroking each other with a feather to generate intimacy. But at the same time, they’re not allowed to act on it or they’ll lose prize money. It doesn’t really seem to be teaching people to get to know themselves or their partners on any deep level. A few couples feigned ‘real talk’ conversations, Lana would give them a ‘green light’ and they’d have free rein to make out with each other until the light turned back off.
I left this series not really caring who won, knowing that not many lessons had been learned. Too Thot to Handle might be a more appropriate tagline. Am I here for season 3 when it inevitably comes out with the same storyline, and more cookie-cutter cast members? I’m not so sure.
