Dating Unlocked

Dating Unlocked - Season 1 by Border2Border Entertainment with Charlie David was a lot of fun to watch. I streamed all ten episodes in one evening because it was so easy to sit back, relax, and binge watch. The show is hosted by the amazing Yaz The Human. In various ways, Yaz really made the show. Her effortless hosting made the show interesting and kept things very entertaining.

The general premise of the show is that one dater is shown three possibilities. At the end of the episode, things are narrowed down, and the primary dater has to unlock a door and see if their date is on the other side. In an interesting twist, the other person had to agree to be on the other side of the door, so it had to be a match on both sides.

One thing I really appreciated throughout the series was the focus on consent. Everything revolved around consent. Even when the show got a bit spicier (including removal of clothing, frottage, and making out), there were always discussions of consent. In our world today, consent is such an important part of any dating and sexual relationship, so it really made me proud to see this focus within the LGBTQIA2+ community.

Another factor I highly appreciated was the sheer amount of diversity in the dating. We had polyamorous, nonbinary, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and many other colors underneath the large flag of our community. We also had ethnic diversity and body-shape diversity thrown into the mix. You could tell that the producers really thought through how they could full represent the queer dating experience. However, I would argue that the "body-shape" diversity still sided more on average than clearly representing those LGBTQIA2+ of size who are regularly discriminated against in the community. I also would have liked to see a more representation from non-able-bodied individuals. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see open discussions of mental health issues that various daters had on the show. In this respect, I found the show very open.

Overall, is this show perfect? No. It is, however, probably the most interesting dating show I've ever seen.

I enjoyed the first season of Dating Unlocked so much I was thrilled they were able to do another one! The host, Yaz, is awesome - they've got amazing style, an engaging sense of humor, and they do a wonderful job of interacting with the daters.

I enjoy the games they play as they get to know each other, and guessing who will get picked is half the fun. A wonderful selection of guests too - I love Al Val and was so pleased to see her make a connection this year!!

I'm glad they were able to bring it back and hope for more seasons soon. Ten out of ten stars for this show, very creative and interesting.

I just love this show! I'm a pretty shy person myself, so I love the opportunity to meet new people and feel a little (or a lot) risque vicariously. I have watched both seasons, and I really liked the variety of LGBTQA+ people this season. The representation is fabulous, with trans people, pansexual, poly, and the physically challenged, There was also good representation of different races and nationalities. Yaz is such a great host! I love their outfits, including the "wardrobe malfunction" (not shown on screen. LOL), and their fun sense of humor. So many great outcomes this season, although there were a few empty doors. I really loved the first episode where the two non-selected dates indicated they might go out with each other. It was like a bonus pairing. You don't see that sort of thing happen on a "straight" dating show. LOL.

I received free review access, and I am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

I watched all the episodes in one sitting and it was refreshing to see so many different positive representations of the queer community! Not just the cookie-cutter model Gay or lesbian, but bi, poly, non-binary, and kink. Also the positive representation of someone who is HIV positive was wonderful to see as well! And Yaz was a complete delight to watch! I would love more of this just for them!

Really enjoyed this series and I haven't watched a reality series in decades, lol. The description of the various episodes and the variety in types of relationships people were looking for drew me in and I was not disappointed. There were folks I rooted for and those I definitely didn't, lol. Always interesting and entertaining.