Netflix's Too Hot to Handle wastes a juicy reality TV premise

Slate

"Despite an irresistibly juicy premise, Too Hot to Handle doesn’t know what kind of show it wants to be, and it suffers for lack of direction," Rachelle Hampton says of the reality dating show that keeps its contestants from touching each other. "Is it a scientific study of whether sex or money is the stronger motivator? Or is it a woo-woo retreat replete with shibari and yoni puja workshops? Despite its stated aim of helping the contestants grow, Too Hot to Handle waits too long to make us care about the person doing the growing. One of the ickier elements of reality TV dating shows is their tendency to force participants to reveal their deepest traumas in their first 15 minutes of screen time. But Too Hot to Handle suggests that there’s something to be said for expediency. By the time you finally learn a contestant’s backstory in the second half of the show—that they come from a broken home, or they’ve been cheated on, or they’re a single mother—you’re already too steeped in toxicity and boredom to care. It’s unfortunate that despite the arsenal of weapons at the producers’ disposal (which include adding new contestants to test connections, tempting private suites, and watches that light up when contestants are allowed to kiss) the show never manages to be as scintillating or as meaningful as it claims to be. Its will-they-or-won’t-they concept is ruined as soon as it becomes clear that, yes, they obviously will, even if it means losing tens of thousands of dollars."

ALSO:

• Too Hot to Handle strikes a campy, canny balance between Love Is Blind and The Circle: "It pokes fun at its own oxymoronic premise, often with the help of an overzealous narrator and an all-powerful AI cone named 'Lana' who informs the contestants when they’ve succeeded or failed. (Think Alexa, if Alexa were more honest about blatantly spying on your sex life.)," says Caroline Framke. "But Too Hot to Handle also takes seriously the idea that people can come out the other side of the show more willing to be vulnerable and considerate with others than they came into it. Too Hot to Handle is trashy and ridiculous, but by the end of its season, its explorations of what makes for real intimacy become strangely touching (no pun intended)."
• Too Hot to Handle is Netflix's most disconcerting yet entertaining reality show: "I understand what you might be thinking," says Claire McNear. "How hard can it possibly be for 10 people to refrain from bumping uglies for a month? You, an upstanding citizen, have probably been found among groups of nine strangers on a number of occasions, and have refrained from having sex—maybe even from wanting to have sex—on a great many of them. Sure, OK, tropical paradise, abs, hot tubs, abs, one great tufted shared bedroom, abs, a champagne coupe in every florid and uncalloused hand, and abs, but hell is other people, isn’t it? Force me into a room with nine strangers and I am exceedingly more likely to want to send them all to a penal colony than I am to contemplate fuzzy handcuffs. But you, my friend, are probably not the sort of person who signs up to compete on reality television."
• With a robot host named Lana, Too Hot to Handle is the perfect quarantine guilty pleasure: "It’s basically Love Island meets 1984. What could possibly go wrong?" says Andy Swift. "Actually, let’s discuss Lana a bit more. While the employment of a faceless host-bot may seem a tad ridiculous, Lana is not to be underestimated. She sees all, she knows all and her suspenseful delivery practically guarantees her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Reality TV Host. (Watch your back, RuPaul.) As one contestant accurately muses, 'You never know what God — or Lana — have in store.'"
• Too Hot to Handle is too stupid to skip: "I implore TV fans of all types and tastes to give Too Hot To Handle a chance," says Alison Foreman. "Just an episode or two, really. Not because we need more disciples of this garbage genre (it’s a full house as is), but because you too deserve to feel reality TV’s unbridled goofiness in crappy times like these. And Too Hot To Handle is the ideal pick for making your unscripted binging debut."
• Too Hot to Handle undermines its trashy appeal with snarky narration
• How Seinfeld's iconic "The Contest" episode inspired Too Hot to Handle: Laura Gibson, creative director of Fremantle-owned production company Talkback, says of creating Too Hot to Handle: “One of my favorite shows is Seinfeld and my favorite episode is 'The Contest.' I thought there’s a show in this. It was that combined with the fact that one of my friends was on Tinder at the time and she showed me an exchange with a guy and within two messages, he sent her a d*ck pic. This is what dating is today. So, we have to get out there and help people. I thought ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to do a reality show where instead of trying to get all of these hot people to get with each, why don’t we try and make them not get with each other.' What’s sexier than not being able to have sex, nothing drives you crazier than that."