Maggie Collins
Senior Staff Writer
In some relationships, there is one partner ready to tie the knot while the other is still skeptical. That person could not be ready for reasons like financial stability or because they just don’t know if their partner is the one they want to spend the rest of their lives with. Whatever the case may be, this is what the new show, “The Ultimatum,” is all about.
“The Ultimatum” is hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey who are also the creators of another Netflix dating experiment called “Love is Blind.” As you might have guessed, “The Ultimatum” has all the drama you could need from a dating experiment. The first episodes of season one were released on Netflix on April 6th and more episodes were released each week after. All episodes of this season have now been released.
This experiment consists of six couples with one partner giving an ultimatum to the other. They have expressed that they want to get married or that they will be moving on. Most of the couples have been dating for around a year and a half to two and a half years. They have a span of two months to go through the experience and decide if they want to get engaged or break up for good.
First, the couples are introduced and we get a look into their relationship including, who issued the ultimatum, and what their hopes for this experiment are. Then, they all get together and the couples split up to have mini-dates with other people. This is where the jealousy starts to bubble as everyone has to watch their significant other go on a date with someone else.
After one week of getting to know all of the other cast members one of the most intense days comes: they have to choose someone else to have a trial marriage with for three weeks. They will be staying in the same apartment with them, sleeping in the same bed, and going through life as if they were truly married. This day is one of the most intense because you have to announce who you will be spending the trial marriage with right in front of everyone at a long dinner table. You have to hope that the person you choose reciprocates the same feelings and also chooses you, because if they don’t then you have to choose someone else.
Once everyone has found someone to spend the trial marriage with, they are off to their apartment together for three weeks. During these three weeks, they have opportunities to meet the other’s family members and friends, which can be extremely intimidating. They have no rules or restrictions on what they can do in those three weeks. This is the time for them to see if they could truly live with someone else, and they can see if the problems they thought they had with their previous partner were really as bad as they thought.
After the three weeks of their trial marriage, they get to move back into an apartment with the person they first came on the show with. This is a time when some couples expressed how they still love their partner and want to still get married. However, other couples were very open about the fact that they had a better three weeks in the trial marriage than they did dating the partner they came into the show with. These three weeks are full of drama along with some couples who actually try to make things work. They all express what they learned living with someone else and how that has affected their decisions, good or bad.
Then comes the day where the Ultimatum has to be answered. Will they get engaged or break up? Some answers came as a surprise and others were slightly expected. The final episode of the first season is the reunion. All of the cast members come back, in new or old relationships, to talk about the answer they gave to the ultimatum and what has happened since that day. While this show is filled with some good drama, it is really interesting to see how couples grew to love each other and some grew to realize that they weren’t meant for each other. I would recommend this show to anyone interested in watching a good dating experiment.
Categories: Arts & Entertainment, featured, What to Watch
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