In 2020, Netflix expanded quite a bit on its reality/unscripted/competition TV original series, with the first hit series The Circle–a social media competition featuring people trapped in apartments talking to each other on a fake social media platform. Very quickly, the streaming giant then pumped out Love is Blind and Too Hot to Handle, two relationship shows that could not be more different from each other. During this time, it was the COVID-19 pandemic, so we were all stuck in doors and glued to whatever was on TV. And I sat down and watched it all. Then, one day, I realized something about Love is Blind: the stars of these shows aren’t the people, they’re the weird metallic glasses everyone drinks from.
Please, stay with me. We’re about to go on a journey together revolving around reality TV drinkware. Yes, I’m aware this is bizarre.
So Love is Blind is like Married at First sight but without Dr. Pepper (the actual doctor, not the prune-flavored sugar water) and with a lot more talking. People go on blind dates where they never see each other and talk to each other through a screen, and if they’re emotionally compatible, they decide to get engaged. Then they live with each other for a while, and many realize it’s all a mistake, and the finale is the contestants’ wedding where they finally decide whether or not to get married. This is a real show, and Season 4 is arriving on Netflix on March 24, 2023. Yes, it’s real. Yes, I’ve watched it all.
At first, while watching this show, the weird metallic glasses weren’t a big deal. I caught the first glimpse of these glasses on Season 1, Episode 1 of Love is Blind at around the 6-minute mark. But not everyone on the show was drinking out of these just yet. Throughout the first episode, people are drinking from normal wine glasses most of the time. In fact, that first metallic wine glass from Episode 1 is an anomaly for a lot of the first Season, up until we get to Episode 6, and the gold metallic glass pops up again during a get-together.
We get to Episode 8, and the long stem gold glasses pop up. At this point, I thought to myself, “That’s a weird choice for glassware.” Why did we go from normal glasses to these very specific, very recognizable glasses in the span of a few episodes? At both the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties, the metallic long stem wine glasses and short glasses quickly become the standard for everyone on the show. If you’re drinking anything, it has to be in that glass. But I’m looking at this through the lens of someone who has seen all of Love is Blind–up until the end of Season 3–and knows what to look for. So for the average person, you may pick up on this, but it’s not distracting to you–at least it wasn’t until I mentioned it.
But just take a look at this bachelor party…
Take a look at this bachelorette party…
Gold metallic glasses everywhere.
However, it wasn’t the standard at this time. It was just a recurring guest star. Then we get to Season 2 of Love is Blind, and the glasses are everywhere. Everyone is drinking from them at all times. This single shot has five of these glasses in it–and one bowl–and there’s only one person in the shot.
What is happening?
As a former longtime entertainment journalist, one who actually covered reality shows on occasion–the commenters loved it when I talked about these shows (end sarcasm)–I decided to do what I know best, dig into why these glasses exist and how far this metallic menace has spread into other Netflix unscripted programming.
Here’s a breakdown from what I found before I got frustrated with the amount of reality/unscripted/competition series Netflix has put out since the start of the pandemic.
Love is Blind: Prevalent in every season, with the peak being Season 3, when these chalices are in like any shot where someone has even the slightest chance to take a sip of a liquid.
Love is Blind Japan and Brazil: Participants are allowed to drink from normal glasses.
The Mole: This spinoff series sees contestants betraying each other, and they’re allowed to use normal glasses.
Dating and Related: I never watched this one, but the title is super gross. People are dating other people, but they also have family members living with them or something? Anyway, the weird gold glasses pop up here on occasion, from the quick jumping around during the show that I saw..
The Circle: Netflix’s weird, hard-to-define contest about people trapped like prisoners in an apartment complex, never really allowed to leave their rooms. They can only communicate through a social media site called The Circle, and it’s all very silly. Anyway, these weird glasses pop up on occasion throughout the numerous seasons. I did not check the various spin-offs from other countries because my brain was beginning to hurt.
Dating Around: I didn’t even look into what this show was about because it didn’t have a silly hook. Anyway, they all use normal glasses.
Sexy Beasts: I did watch like three episodes of this one because it’s about hot people in animal costumes going on blind dates, and it’s just so ridiculous.Sadly, everyone drinks from normal glasses here.
Too Hot To Handle: I’ve asked you to “stay with me” a lot, and I need you to continue doing so here. Too Hot To Handle is a game show about a bunch of extremely horny people being sent to paradise, and after the first day, they’re told they can’t have sexual relations with each other or they’ll lose prize money. Of course, their libidos are exceptionally high, and the contestants never take home the full prize. But for some reason, this Netflix series–which I maintain is the epitome of Netflix reality/unscripted series–doesn’t contain these invading metallic glasses.
Perfect Match: An amalgamation of every Netflix scripted show mentioned here–and a few not mentioned–this dating competition show features various contestants from other Netflix original reality series and tries to pair up couples as they compete in various silly physical and mental challenges. It’s essentially MTV’s The Challenge but 400% hornier. There are no metallic glasses on this show; however, contestants all drink from these weird all-white oversized goblets. It’s comical.
There are other Netflix reality shows I have no interest in really digging into, and I’m just going to assume these glasses pop up here and there, but why are they appearing on some shows and not on others?
With Too Hot To Handle, I have a good idea as to why these glasses haven’t invaded the series. Producers know this show is about ridiculously-attractive people trying their hardest not to bone each other. These metallic glasses would be a distraction from all the over-the-top sexual tension. And even when people aren’t trying to do the Wild Mambo, they’re in therapy sessions learning to respect each other and not just go straight to the hunka chunka.
Above, you’ll see one of these therapy sessions where a group of men hold puppet representations of vaginas–called Yonis here, which comes from Hinduism–in order to learn respect from women’s genitalia. Understandably, we’ve completely deviated from what this piece is about, but I need you to see attractive people talking to vagina puppets. Now, back to Love is Blind and the weird metallic glasses.
As a former or current (I don’t know what I am anymore) journalist, I did the simplest thing I could: I found the PR contacts for Netflix’s Love is Blind, and I reached out to them. This is something I’ve done hundreds of times throughout my career, but I always had an email address attached to the outlet I was working for. So I reached out using my personal email account, and I asked a trio of PR folks from Netflix about these metallic drinking glasses.
In the email, I was entirely open and self-aware that the email I was sending out was completely out-there, but I needed insight for a feature I was writing that ties into the upcoming season. It was a very typical PR email that I’d probably get either a response to, something on background, or just a plain, “no comment.”
So I waited…
There was nothing. So I followed up.
Nothing…
Obviously, the superpower I held for years as an entertainment journalist at GameSpot had gone away with the job. I have simply become a random person on the internet who stumbled upon PR contacts. So where does this piece go now that it’s reached a deadend?
Guess I’ll make up the rest.
Here’s why these metallic cups exist throughout so many of Netflix’s reality shows:
Warning: The following paragraphs are entirely made up. There’s no factual information coming your way. However, no one has disputed or denied this information, I leave the choice to believe my theory up to you. But seriously, the following is fake… or is it?
In 2003, PaperKlipz CEO and French Nationalist George Milquetoast wanted to expand his business. According to research I didn’t do about a person I made up, his billion dollar empire was crumbling as Google docs were replacing the traditional paper clip, where Milquetoast made his money. Quite the innovator, Milquetoast sought to tap into the cup market, which was dominated by red Solo cups at the time.
Looking to add class to drinking alcohol and to take money away from Toby Keith–whom Milquetoast had a blood feud with after Keith cursed Milquetoast’s children with the “Thinner curse”–the PaperKlipz CEO started a new venture, Stupid-Classy Drinkware. His first line was silver-plated plastic cups that had the look and feel of Solo cups but at 4,000 times the price.
It was an utter failure, and Milquetoast lost almost everything, until he met Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos at a charity mixer to safely house war refugees in 2018. Yes, he spent the prior 15 years marketing Stupid-Classy Drinkware and went nowhere with it. Milquetoast approached Sarandos, and showed off his Stupid-Classy Drinkware. Sarandos was impressed but thought the drinkware wasn’t cost effective or classy enough. Milquetoast promised Sarandos the next line would be even classier, and involve mind-control technology.
The new cups were a technological achievement unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Not only were the cups very classy, but they had the power to force people who see them on television to watch whole seasons of pointless, mindless television without moving. The cups made their debut on two Netflix originals: Love is Blind and Tiger King. While Love is Blind used the cups everywhere, it wasn’t as effective as Tiger King because the true crime docuseries hid the drinkware inside of tigers and tigers are magical or something.
Now, Milquetoast is a billionaire once again after working with Netflix, who signed him to a seven-decade deal. Sadly, Milquetoast mysteriously died shortly after the deal was finalized, and his next of kin was The Circle Season 1 runner-up Shubham Goel, who now owns the rights to Stupid-Classy Drinkware and has all the money.
Again, we’ve reached out to Netflix about the glasses on Love is Blind–not so much about the completely made up story about a dude named Milquetoast and mind-control drinkware–for comment, and we will update you if we get a response.
Fancy Boys Club 