Netflix is notorious for their dating shows: think Love Is Blind, Perfect Match, Dated and Related… and now they’ve added another insane title to their repertoire. This time, it’s Age of Attraction, a dating show for those who want to date with an age gap.
opening thoughts
My first thought here is that while shows like Love is Blind tackled the idea of dating someone without knowing what they look like, a fairly understandable premise, this one lacks that same groundwork. Of course, some age gap relationships are perfectly fine and normal, and it is understandable to feel a connection with someone who may not be the exact same age as you. Despite this, while you can argue that love is and should be blind, you can’t quite 100% say the same about age not mattering. People in age gap relationships are likely in very different stages of life, and understandably so. Furthermore, this can highly deteriorate a relationship, or at least impact it. It’s hard to conceivably see these sorts of relationships on paper, since both parties will have completely different references, and even knowledge about life! Likewise, in some circumstances the younger one in the relationship is placed in a precarious and vulnerable position… there is a large power imbalance in general in these partnerships.
upon watching…
I decided to start watching the show to see if my preconceptions of the show would be correct. My first impression of the show was the name of one of the girls: Pfeifer. That cannot be a real name. Who names their child similarly to a pharmaceutical company?
Once I suspended my disbelief over that point, things (shockingly) did not improve. A lot of the men give off creepy vibes, and it’s also really easy to work out all of their ages. There’s also, unsurprisingly, a lot of botox.
One quotation I really felt like sharing from the show was “a man needs to be plugged into his woman,” which sets the tone of these people pretty well.
in conclusion…
Overall, I would not recommend this show. Not only is the premise pretty icky, but all the couples who are together have massive age gaps, which can be uncomfortable to watch at times. For example, a 54-year-old woman dates a 27-year-old while her eldest child is 29. Yucky! She’s actually twice his age. Two of the other couples have a 20 year age gap, and the smallest age difference in a couple is 15 years. Another moment in this same vein is when 38-year-old Andrew says that the girl he picks, 22-year-old Libby, is actually closer in age to his eldest daughter than him. To put things into perspective, his eldest is 14. If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know, I don’t know what to say. Apart from this: watch for long enough and the couples will end up going to the promise room… where they give each other fake wedding bands and reveal their ages. They then have to live together (after only knowing each other for a few days)… a reality TV classic.
the grading scale
Grade: D. Weird premise and every contestant is genuinely strange onscreen as well. There’s nobody you want to be together and nobody who seems like they will last for very long. Skip this one!
If you wanted to look at more of my thoughts on reality TV, check out my articles on Perfect Match and Love is Blind.