Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Japan may not yet be on par with some of its fellow first-world countries when it comes to marriage equality for the LGBT+ community, but thankfully that hasn’t stopped creatives from launching a groundbreaking gay dating reality show in the country. The 2024 Netflix reality series “The Boyfriend” (original title: Bôifurendo) brings together nine men in a beach house to find love over the course of a few days and dates.
The format is quite like the Netflix show “Terrace House,” where six men and women live under one roof and go on dates to see if they click, while a group of commentators give their opinions on the developments. “The Boyfriend” features nine contestants and five commentators, one of whom is a fabulous drag queen, even though we don’t get to see the drag dresses in the first three episodes.
Episode 1 starts off with the men slowly arriving with their bags at the beautiful beach house where the series unfolds. What was kind of funny is how only five men gather at the house first, and there are five guest commentators discussing them. I feel like just three guest commentators would have been enough, like in the Netflix reality show “Super Rich in Korea,” where cameras tracked the lives of five super-rich individuals, while three celebrity guests commented on their lifestyle and behavior.
“The Boyfriend” is a ten-episode show, and as far as the first three episodes go, there’s significant focus on a select few men, while the others are completely sidelined. This despite the fact that all of them have their own charm. And only one pair gets an opportunity to go on a proper date; that’s only one date in over three days and three episodes. The Korean dating reality show “His Man” has a cleaner format, where the men get to go on dates right from day one and also directly get to call each other at the end of each day, which gives them a chance to clearly express their interest in their crushes.
So far, in “The Boyfriend,” contestants only got to write anonymous letters to each other and go on work dates to run a coffee truck together, which leads to quite some confusion. Although the confusion definitely adds some comedy and drama to the events. A ninth person is yet to show up, however the current participants in “The Boyfriend” have very diverse personalities; some of them are pleasantly forward and relaxed in their demeanor, although the majority of them still have their guard up.
One curious difference between “The Boyfriend” and some of the other popular gay dating reality shows is the fact that the men are allowed to leave the beach house for their work or personal reasons. Although, this also means that everybody doesn’t get the same amount of time with the others. For instance, one of the contestants is a chef, and he says he will be going away for three days, which puts him at a big disadvantage. I like how nobody is making any fuss over age differences (yet) and are instead focusing on getting to know each other through games and activities. And in case you’re wondering – the age range of the men is between 23-36.
“Do you think they are being their true selves?”; “Nobody can be that nice!”; “Oh, their true colors will come out soon” – these are some of the fun remarks by the commentators about the men in “The Boyfriend.” And with one man still left to join the beach house, and seven episodes left to boot, it’s going to be interesting to see how this dating reality show pans out. All the pretty beach locations and complicated interactions between the men, that range from pure awkwardness to subtle comedy, make it an entertaining watch.
You can stream “The Boyfriend” on Netflix.
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