Five blind dates. One second date.
That is the simple but compelling premise of Dating Around, Netflix’s original reality dating series. While Love Is Blind and Too Hot to Handle may have made big splashes with their debut seasons earlier this year, Dating Around, which just dropped its second season, was actually the streaming giant’s first foray into the genre and may be the realest reality show on TV.
Each episode features one lead dater who goes on five blind dates in a Groundhog’s Day sort of way: almost everything is the same (the clothes, the hair, the restaurant, the atmosphere) except for the person they are on the date with, with Dating Around seamlessly editing the five dates to come together.
It’s a fascinating social experiment, representing all different kinds of dating—season one’s Leonard was a senior citizen and season two featured the show’s first bisexual lead dater, Deva—and making for some super-relatable and super-awkward moments.
But just how real is the show? And how did they cast the lead dater as well as the blind dates?