When I first heard Love Island was doing an All-Stars Season, I thought, ‘Do we really need another version?’. Already, there are the UK summer and winter versions, the US, Australia, Sweden, and France airing their versions and even the Love Island Games. However, the All-Stars spin on this version did sound enticing. Since I am a RuPaul’s Drag Race fan, I know that All-Stars seasons are some of my favourites to watch – a platform to bring back the best, most beloved, dramatic, and polarising characters to stir up the pot!
In my opinion, love Island, as an overall show, has dwindled in recent years. Although I am still a fan, I am less invested in recent series. Especially since now Islanders who enter the Villa are increasingly entering for fame as opposed to love. In the world of influencers, it feels like everyone who enters the Villa is already plotting their PLT deal or jump-starting a music career.
Over the many different iterations of Love Island, we have seen a lot of changes through the years. Looking For Lewys perfectly describes the rise and fall of Love Island in his video, naming season 3 ‘the Goldilocks season’ where the smoking and alcohol ban was non-existent, and the show had come into its own, introducing the Twitter Challenge and Casa Amour. Since then, the series have been controlled heavily by the producers. You can tell when couples have been instructed to chat with each other or groups of people are sitting together, obviously concocted by producers to fit their storyline. Gone are the days of excessive drinking and smoking on the show, resulting in huge arguments and great TV. However, these earlier seasons lacked a level of care from ITV for the contestants’ mental health and well-being. As much as we want good TV, not at the cost of a person’s well-being.
After adding a few All-Stars as bombshells to the regular Love Island UK, like bringing back Series 4’s Adam Collard for Series 8 and introducing Love Island Australia’s Jessie Wynter to Love Island UK’s Series 9, I think ITV bosses saw the potential of bringing back contestants and the excitement this brought for fans. This brings us to this newest version of the series’ Love Island All-Stars’, where we saw alumnae Islanders back in the Villa for another chance at finding love. Some of these Islanders I was buzzing to see back in the Villa, like iconic duo Kaz and Lib, test-failing Toby, and even Georgie Steel, your Man and Messy Mitch, who I knew would equally infuriate me and bring exceptional entertainment to the show.
However, what I found my initial reaction to quite a few of the Islanders, both the OG line-up and bombshells, was to go, ‘who???’. Once their VT rolled with introductions, it did jog my memory of some of the islanders, but overall, there were some iconic islanders I would have loved to see back for this series. For example, I think Chloe Burrows would’ve been amazing, especially with her ex Toby on this series. Our Irish queen, Maura Higgins, would have spiced things up, although I do think she is onto bigger and better things! I would love to have seen the iconic duo Chris and Kem back in the Villa or one of my favourite islanders of all time, Ovie Soko.
Although this series only lasted five weeks, much shorter than usual, it did seem to drag on with not much happening in episodes. Ultimately, watching Love Island is just watching attractive people talk about ‘connections’, ‘history’ and ‘types’ whilst sitting in the sun, lounging, and swigging from personalised water bottles. However, in a usual series, we’d have fun challenges, trips out of the Villa, many more dates and Casa Amour to look forward to. This season, they were nowhere to be found. This was a bold choice as it often left the episodes lacking substance. A great change could have been to send some islanders off to a Casa Amour filled with iconic Casa Amour All-Stars like Joanna and Molly, who were already in this series but added as Bombshells. This decision to shorten the series will probably be due to funding the show. Cosmopolitan says the All-Stars are paid £2,000 a week to return to the Villa. Compared to a regular series, although ITV has never confirmed the exact amount Islanders are paid, in 2019, The Sun reported that islanders receive £250 a week. Therefore, the cost of production will increase significantly to compensate islanders not just for their time but for their work and notoriety.
The All-Stars series allowed ex-Islanders to re-launch their careers, build upon their budding careers, and even introduce them to a new audience. Some Islanders succeeded at this; Molly has become a fan favourite, and Georgia H has built upon her platform to continue her incredible work. However, in my opinion, Chris, our very own Ken of the Villa, did not possess the same lovable charm as he did during his original series. Getting more involved in drama this time, I don’t think Chris has left the Villa with as much buzz and excitement from the public as he did last time; this will undoubtedly affect his career options.
Despite some shortcomings, this series did give us some iconic moments. Let’s do a rundown! In no particular order (simply because I couldn’t decide), here are my top 15 moments!
Anton falling in the pool: A great save to a somewhat awkward mishap! Despite the cringe, we love to see someone shoot their shot.
“You started to say you saw my dead grandad” This had me and my housemates in stitches! The seriousness with which this was said made it even more hilarious.
Callum giving the wrong twin a coffee: If I were in that Villa, I would be making the same mistake, but the fact that Callum was coupled up with Jess and had been in bed with her that morning and still couldn’t tell her apart from Eve was awkward!
“I’m grateful for my natural long hair”: I can now never answer “What are you grateful for?” the same way ever again.
Sophie’s Voice: She is one of the hottest girls in the series, but every time I watched this with my house, we couldn’t help but impersonate Sophie’s Essex accent along with her vocal fry to get the impression on point. She honestly only spoke with vowels at this point, and we loved it.
Molly and Callum’s French toast: My housemates and I were 100% Molly and Callum shippers and were rooting for them to reunite, so we loved this cute moment between the friendly exes.
Anton’s clap back to Mitch: Anton was an absolute king this series and has matured into a lovely guy, so I loved him standing up for Liberty against Mitch’s Messy behaviour. “There’s no bro code; there’s right and wrong” preach!
Georgia S’s Glam: I can disagree with her behaviour and antics, but my god, I need a tutorial for her hair and makeup. The slick back hair, her bows and the gorgeous soft glam ATE every night!
Maya and her slay outfits: Another iconic moment was Maya Jamma, no moment in particular, just Maya in her stunning outfits being the queen she is. I will not be explaining further.
Molly’s face when Georgia started crying whilst Arabella was crying: This moment was one of the most memorable of the series. Molly’s face while Georgia once again managed to make a situation about her was entertaining as she could not hide her true feelings.
Anton reuniting with Craig David: Probably the best couple to come out of Love Island All-Stars was seeing this iconic reunion. Anton took his getting ready very seriously for his “special night”.
“I’d just got off a 14-hour flight in economy”: We love a humble queen. I honestly think
Georgia was one of the funniest contestants this series, and she wasn’t even trying! But this
comment, along with seeing Casey’s dead grandad, are my favourite quotes from the series!
Eve and Jess’s hair: As a fellow girlie with long hair with long layers, I’m always frustrated when I want to pull out a few face-framing pieces of hair from a ponytail or updo, and I can’t because of my lack of short layers, so I don’t. However, Eve and Jess committed to their hairstyling choices of their luscious locks, much to the surprise of probably everyone on Twitter.
Anton and Georgia H at the final: Anton outing Georgie for entering the villa ‘heartbroken’ on LIVE national television was hard to watch! This moment resulted in some seriously awkward silence after Georgia said, “Do we have to say that?” but our queen Maya helped the interview move swiftly on.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed this series and will always appreciate watching some lovely summer sun to distract me from the winter blues here in the UK. I’m waiting to hear if ITV will renew the Love Island All-Stars Series or Love Island Games for a second series, maybe even both – we’ll have to wait and see!
Written By: Victoria Norman
Edited By: Aimee Boo