In March, it was announced that this second series of the queer dating show I Kissed a Girl would be its last. Sibling show I Kissed a Boy would also be axed, with the BBC citing “difficult choices in light of our funding challenges”. This would perhaps feel less momentous if the two shows were not groundbreaking – the first UK dating shows to feature exclusively gay casts of men and of women.
As well as being unprecedented, these shows have been a container for vital queer conversations that aren’t happening anywhere else on our screens, surely well within the remit of the national broadcaster. Plus, they are ridiculously fun. Watching series two of I Kissed a Girl knowing this is the last feels so entertaining, but so bittersweet.
Dannii Minogue hosts in the vein of Love Island’s Maya Jama, occasionally dropping in for a dramatic dumping, while TikToker Charley Marlowe takes on the bulk of the compering. Within seconds, Marlowe has name-dropped queen of the cruise Jane McDonald and LGBTQ+ music festival Mighty Hoopla. The constant queer culture references can feel a little cynical and rather middle of the road, but where else can you make these kinds of references if not on the UK’s first gay dating show? Sure, the instant Lady Gaga needle drop won’t be for everyone, but then I Kissed a Girl more broadly won’t be for everyone – such is its USP.
The cast of women is wonderful – and I’m not saying that because I have been watching various shades of toxic masculinity play out over on ITV2 this summer. Faye – a self-described “chaotic”, “feral” femme – is a huge softie who wants “someone who’s obsessed with me”. Renee is bold and rowdy, but there is a gooey centre there, too. And who could fail to be charmed by Ebony, a geordie delivery driver with a permanently cheeky glint in her eye who could lob your Vinted parcel into your bin and still have you smiling?
That’s not to say we are in a queer utopia here – there are plenty of red flags, and one contestant in particular whose immature behaviour feels more in line with the lads from the Love Island villa. One challenge skewers the idea that gay women are more likely to “U-Haul”, moving in together at a rate of knots. But on the whole, things feel more wholesome here than on other dating shows. I appreciate the separate beds, too – not that anyone stays in their own for too long.
As mentioned above, it is the perfect space for some important conversations for the 10 contestants in the Italian masseria where they are staying (contractual obligation, it seems, prevents anyone from uttering the word “villa”) and for the audience at home. Elisha, a femme-for-femme lesbian, talks about how exhausting it has been to prove that she is gay, while the women frequently wonder whether their connections are merely platonic – dictated by their general politesse – or whether they could be romantic, too. Elsewhere, Renee talks about how being a masculine lesbian means that she sometimes feels she is not treated like the emotional woman she is. Spoiler warnings preclude me from going into detail, but one of the participants is very frank about her current period of celibacy and is keen to find a partner with a similar outlook on intimacy. All in all, this results in significant chats for these women, plus, surely, a hugely important resource for queer women – especially, but not exclusively, younger ones – watching at home.
I Kissed a Girl is also really fun. The three episodes released for review fizz with the excitement of young love and lust (the women are aged between 21 and 25 this time) and a soundtrack of Sapphic pop stars, among them the Japanese House and Nimmo, that don’t feel shoehorned in like Gaga. It is a four-star series but – and I’m breaking the fourth wall here – it feels important enough for a five-star rating, and more valuable to the country’s younger viewers than the BBC may be aware of. The Apprentice has had 20 series, Dragons’ Den has had 23 – and the first gay UK dating franchise has managed four.