Why Love On The Spectrum Is The Best Kind Of Dating Show
The latest season of Love on the Spectrum has proven to be a massive hit over in the states.
Just like its Australian-based older sibling, the new season is full of nerve-racking first dates, heart melting moments and some unavoidable heartbreak as it follows the lives of five singles on the autism spectrum disorder.
Junkee spoke to the award-winning TV Director and brains behind the show Cian O’Clery on creating the beloved series who said “people tell me that their lives have been changed by the show. You know, that’s not something I would never say but when people say that it’s pretty incredible.”
Why Love On The Spectrum Differs From Other Dating Shows
For Cian and his crew at Northern Pictures it was always their aim to create a documentary series and never a reality show.
“That was really important for a lot of reasons. Every single person we film with is different to somebody else, everyone’s got different needs and different sensitivities.
We’re telling character-led individual stories of Michael, and of Mark and of Chloe. And if we are talking about the Australian or the American you know James or Dani, the way we approach it is always on an individual level,” said Cian.
A real draw-card to the show is the cast themselves and how they are captured in a realistic light something that is refreshing in the minefield of dating shows on streaming platforms and national TV.
To ensure this sense of realism Cian said he made sure every scene sat on its own and wouldn’t “drive scenes with interviews that we shoot later which is kind of what happens a lot in reality TV,” he said.
Cian never wanted the series to ever feel like it was taking advantage of anybody he said. “We wanted it to be a positive thing and we wanted to present everybody in their best ligh the most important critics for us are the participants themselves.”
“We do our very best to represent as much diversity in the spectrum as we can. That’s really, that’s the most important thing for us. How you kind of break down misconceptions and stereotypes is by presenting people that are all very different. And I think that’s hopefully what we’ve been able to do.”
Meeting Dani Bowman
We checked in with one of those important critics, Dani Bowman, on what her experiences were like on the show.
“What I really like about the experience is that even though there are cameras around, I just go with the flow just being myself, which is really great.”
Dani appreciated Cian and the crew allowing her to be herself and that nothing was scripted. Speaking to Junkee she said she was a big fan of shooting on different locations for different date experiences, especially for speed dating.
She even had tips for those of us on the dating scene.
“There are three most important lessons I’ve learned from this experience. Number one is don’t express your feelings out loud on the first date. When that’s what happened with me and my first date in the scene.”
“Second, never kiss on the first date, especially a blind date because you need to get to know somebody first. And then third set your boundaries in the beginning, because you might have to there are some parts that [might] make you feel uncomfortable,” said Dani.
If you’re like me and hanging for another season you’re in luck but there’s a twist.
“We’re not making Love on the Spectrum series three in Australia, but we are making a new series that is about people dating for the first time. So we want to include a broad range of people from all walks of life, we want to be inclusive and, we want to have a really diverse cast,” Cian said.
“We also want to hear from people who might want to date our main participants. So really if anyone’s out there and wants to date, they should get in touch because we’re actually at the moment casting right now, and going into production soon.”
If interested in participating on the show please get in touch with [email protected]