At first, I was a person who hated “Love Island.” I didn’t watch it, I did not understand the concept and ultimately, I did not think it would be a show I would enjoy.
I am the type of person who enjoys her comfort shows. I am basically on my tenth rewatch of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Vanderpump Rules” and “Impractical Jokers.” With all of these shows, watching “Love Island” was out of the equation.
That was until after the season finale of season six had already aired, and all the hype calmed down. I was sitting in my kitchen, bored with all the shows that I had already watched so many times. It was time for something new.
I clicked on “Love Island USA” season six episode 10 (I hate watching the first couple of episodes of shows). This started an obsession, and I will never skip out on a season again.
To explain the premise, there are male and female contestants who are housed together in a villa in Fiji. Islanders are then tasked with building connections, competing in challenges, eliminating other contestants, having their relationships survive other islanders coming in to shake things up, and so much more.
Now, why was season six the best season of “Love Island USA”? The main contestants who made this season so popular include: Aaron, JaNa, Kaylor, Kendall, Kordell, Serena, Leah, Rob, Miguel, Kenny, Liv and Nicole. Practically everyone else is irrelevant.
The first reason I would like to point out is that the entire cast was not afraid to speak their minds or show their emotions. Leah Kateb (whom I follow to this day and love) was known for speaking about how she felt, and it was always messy.
Kaylor Martin is one of the contestants who was not afraid to show her feelings. Martin is most known for her “Aaron stopppppp” phrase and her constant crying.
JaNa was another contestant known for bringing her confident self to the screen. This kept fans entertained.
Honorable mention: Serena, after Casa Amor and movie night, when she saw what Kordell was doing, stated, “You made your own bed, hump in it.” Fans still quote this iconic line to this day, and it is one of my personal favorites.
A lot of people go on “Love Island” to become famous and grow a following on social media. However, for the fans, this cast felt different.
Serena kept Kordell on his toes the entire season because she wanted a relationship built on trust instead of rushing into things (good for her because he decided to mess things up coming back with another girl from Casa Amor). Even though he did her dirty, she stuck with him in the end to win the season, and they are still together today.
Kaylor and Aaron, on the other hand, had a different story. Fans either loved Kaylor or thought she was annoying because of how much she cried. Even though this couple did not last, their arguing, getting back together and staying with each other throughout most of the show (if you watched movie night, you know) kept the fans intrigued.
The Rob and Leah drama. Rob and Leah were together at the beginning of the show. Later, Rob decided that he wanted to explore other connections, which led Leah to be messy when it came to him for the rest of the show. This included cursing at him under her breath during a re-coupling and many emotional arguments.
PPG. One of the most iconic girl groups ever formed by Serena, Leah and JaNa. This one girl group, formed by such powerful, encouraging, confident women, really spoke to a lot of people.
Not only were they just iconic, but not a lot of friend groups like PPG have been formed from “Love Island,” and not only did PPG form, but the rest of the cast also created their own friend groups.
PPG was a light for girls to see into what real girlhood looks like. And when men do you wrong, you always have your girls to go back to and support you.
The last two points I am going to bring up are Casa Amor and the ever-dreaded movie night. Casa Amor was messy, and so was Movie Night.
If you do not know what Casa Amor is, let me tell you. Basically, the girls and the guys are split into two different houses where new boys and girls await.
In the case of season six, when the guys came back, they got to choose whether to return alone or with someone else they had met. What the guys (Aaron and Kordell) didn’t know was that Kaylor and Serena received videos of their bad doings during Casa.
Kordell ended up coming back with the girl that he had met during Casa, and Aaron came back alone and was so happy to see Kaylor alone as well. Little did Aaron know, Kaylor had already seen some of the things he was doing.
These two situations led to the biggest arguments between both couples for the entire season. Fans loved the drama and loved to see their favorite girls take it out on the men who had done them wrong. (Even though both of them ended up going back to those same men.)
Honorable mention: Leah, Serena and Leah all stayed single throughout Casa Amor and had to watch all three of their men come back with different girls. Messy…however, fans loved it.
Last mention is movie night. This is the night after Casa Amor, where all of the islanders sit around with a screen in front of them and answer trivia questions. Whoever wins gets to pick the “movie” clip they watch.
Movie night is what led to Rob and Leah really finding out what was said behind their backs, and caused some confrontation between the two. Movie night also revealed that Aaron did a lot more with the girls of Casa than he led Kaylor on to believe. This again led to another juicy, emotional confrontation between the couple.
The season had many more dramatic and emotional scenes, but you need to watch it fully to understand. I hope that by reading this article, another person can fall victim to watching “Love Island” as I did.
The season went on to have a reunion that was maybe just as messy as the season itself. The drama between Nicole and Kendall was addressed. JaNa had even brought out her book of receipts.
Between seasons five and six, the streaming viewership jumped two times as high. Not only did the viewership spike, but so did social engagement, also almost doubling.
Fans wanted more of the cast, so along came “Beyond the Villa,” the first spinoff show to come from a season of “Love Island” that followed the islanders a couple of months out of the villa. This is also continuing to the seventh season of Love Island.
If you want a fun, juicy, emotions filled reality TV show, “Love Island” season six is great to start with. The season taught me about drama, love and friendships. I will forever be grateful for this season having endless drama, friendships and genuine relationships that kept me and many others entertained until the end.