The prospect of a wedding in peril has sustained soap operas and nighttime dramas forever; that whole "speak now or forever hold your piece" thing seems designed more for screenwriters than people in real life. But to encourage real brides and grooms to leave their partners at the altar seems especially nasty. If the outcome is bad (and, without giving anything away, I will say this series isn't committed to happy endings), one party walks away crushed and exposed on national TV. It's the sort of voyeurism that makes you feel dirty.
Especially when it comes as part of a commercial for the over-the-top wedding industry. In the week before the big day, we get a mix of wedding porn - the brides-to-be get to try on dresses and pick out free engagement rings - and daytime-talk-show bickering, as our couples make the rounds of family and friends, seeking approval that often doesn't come.
The all-expenses-paid wedding package, significantly, does not include a relationship counselor. It's left to the flailing couples and their not-so-objective relatives to decide whether their doubts - and what engaged couple doesn't have doubts? - are significant enough to merit calling it off. We're asked to act as backseat pop psychologists, though with limited information. Sometimes, a couple's troubles seem deep-seated: CeLisa and Travis fight all the time, and nobody around them thinks it's healthy. Sometimes, a single relative poses the challenge. Torrino's mother complains that his girlfriend, El Lana, doesn't know how to cook, but her real concern is that Torrino is black and El Lana is white.
