3 Hypothesis About the Love Is Blind Gold Wine Glasses
Sometimes I write about deeply meaningful stuff.
And then there’s today, where I’m going to rant about the prop department from the Netflix reality series, “Love is Blind”.
If you haven’t watched the show (you should by the way, it’s absolute premium reality TV) it’s a show about couples who meet sight unseen and then find their ways to marriage. They meet in “pods”- these weird windowless boxes where they talk to each other through a wall. Then the show follows them as they reveal themselves to one another and work on growing the physical part of their relationship too.
It’s honestly, really good. But there is just the weirdest part that has transfixed the internet. It’s these damn gold wine glasses.
See, the entire show takes them from these pods, to a retreat in Mexico, back to their hometown of Chicago- and the whole time, these glasses come along. We’re talking everywhere from the beachside picnics in Mexico to the wedding dress shop in Chicago and between. These people incessantly use them. In fact, they don’t just use them for wine. In one scene it looks like Jarred is even making tea in them. At this point, I’m half assuming I’ll see them in the finale reimagined as wedding bell decor.
In fact, since there’s been so much talk, the gold glasses even came up in a recent interview with Variety. There, the creator Chris Colen explained, “I don’t know, it’s something I like. When you turn on the show, you know it’s our show. It’s a very authentic, really true following of these people’s journeys, but I like the fact that we have this sort of connective tissue with that in a really light way, it’s fun.”
But you know, something about that doesn’t sit right with me. It’s distracting enough to not feel at all “fun”. It’s confusing and continues to elicit even more confusion every additional time you notice it. An audience isn’t thinking, “Man I love how lighthearted the production team is for using these glasses” they’re thinking, “Seriously what the fuck with the glasses?”. I’m not laughing, I’m confused.
And “authentic”? There’s nothing authentic about shipping gold glasses around the world and forcing them into every scene. It’s literally the least authentic move you could make. People drink from different glasses. I’m literally drinking out of three different glasses right this second and not one of them is a gold chalice.
So since the internet is buzzing about this interesting prop choice and I’m not convinced by my man Chris’s call to “connective tissue”, I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring you my .02 on the matter. Without further ado, my 3 hypotheses on the gold wine glasses from Love is Blind:
Hypothesis #1: Bizarre Attempt at Branding
So for my day job I spend a lot of time in the field of marketing and brand development. Naturally, this is where my mind goes first. Perhaps they’re attempting to brand out the show through the use of these gold glasses. Chris calls this to mind when he references “collective tissue” in his quote to Variety.
The fail here is that the wine glasses don’t really say “Love is Blind” at all. Unless they’re trying to make some deeply critical statement about how alcohol deludes us all into thinking physical attraction doesn’t matter- they miss the mark. The show isn’t about drinking. It’s about forming emotional connections.
So if it is branding, it’s bad branding.
Hypothesis #2: An Elaborate Affiliate Marketing Scheme
That brings me to Hypothesis #2. Perhaps this is just a complex scheme to make more people buy gold wine glasses. When you perform a Google search for the wine glasses from the show, a vast majority of the links are where to purchase them from.
All I’m saying is that if our creators were smart and wanted to get rich beyond the Netflix paycheck, this is a subversive marketing flex. I didn’t go through the work of itemizing all those links I saw but I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t some sort of paper trail back to Love is Blind somewhere.
(Also, someone please actually research this and tag me in your post)
Hypothesis #3: Someone From The Prop Department F***ed Up
So lastly, I have to admit that while I wish everything had a greater meaning (I used to teach High School English, this is literally in my DNA), the potential exists that it means very little at all. Perhaps when ordering props someone just accidentally added an additional 0 to the purchase order and what we’re watching in internet hysteria is just one person’s genuine error.
Frankly, the fact that Colen’s explanation is also so nonsensical leads me to think this could be a viable hypothesis. Nothing about this feels intentional, that’s why it’s confusing. And because there seems to be such little intentionality here, a slip of the keyboard somehow almost makes the most sense at this point.
So there you have it, my 3 best hypotheses on what’s going on with these gold wine glasses from Love is Blind. What do you think about these glasses? Drop me a comment or tag me in your post because I’m all about getting to the bottom of this. And if Chris Colen himself is reading this- let’s chat man.
