Time to say goodbye to Single's Inferno? Let's find out

 

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We rate each season of the beloved Korean reality show

Single's Inferno is a dating show between beautiful Koreans. It recently got its fourth season and people are yawning over its bad quality, boring contestants, and unsatisfying endgame couples.

I'm here to rate every season and express my disappointment and delight in the overall dating game show. What to expect, who to watch, and should it go on for too long?

Spoilers may be seen if you plan to watch and haven't seen the whole show.

Reality shows in general

Comedian, Barry co-creator, and SNL alum Bill Hader once said that he was so stupid for believing that reality shows are not staged. He was surprised that one time when he was a stage assistant or PA for a reality show and then one of the contestants was being coached about what to do or how to act in some sort of situation. The contestant even ends up asking the director or producer if he did a good job crying.

In Single's Inferno, I can't help but think that this is also what's happening. Most contestants are asked to act in a particular way and most contestants are also showing fake emotions every now and then to make the show exciting and of course, extra spicy. It is a dating show after all.

I also believe that reality shows are a way to make a person famous so most of the things that these contestants do are not genuine. They have some sort of ulterior motive when they become showstoppers in a season. Plus, they know they are being filmed so anything embarrassing or uninspired will reflect on their character on the show.

I also feel like choosing beautiful people is just not that real. I mean, can we really believe that these beautiful people are not getting even one person to fall in love with? It's strange for me.

So, let's dive in.

Season 1

First up, the show is creative. You have a lot of games, rules, and dating opportunities for the contestants. 

It's very exciting because contestants aren't allowed to reveal their age and occupation once they are in Inferno. They can only reveal such information when they are chosen or win a date in Paradise.

Early on, we are seeing a bunch of pretty people. Most of them are white-skinned or have traditional Korean skin. However, we also see a contestant with tan skin, and she is So Yeon. Sometimes Koreans don't like tan-skinned women 3 so the contestant wasn't that popular. Early on, this bothered me because I hated such racist behavior (which is actually consistent in every season). 

But these contestants are vindicated in the end so I'm also looking forward to that.

Apart from the skin racism, I also have issues with how contestants act. For some reason, there is this one contestant, Si Hoon who was interested in Ji Yeon but out of nowhere he suddenly liked Ji-a, the IT girl of the season, and was later involved in a fake designer scandal. I also watched some Youtube videos showing Si Hoon's stalker-ish behavior. 

It was weird and I think it was producers who set up this type of plot to spur drama in the show.  

I did like the part where contestants are cooking and there were a lot of scenes in Inferno compared to Paradise. 

Now with the endgame couples, 

I hated the Ji-a part. I just don't understand why she had three men fighting over her. I understood the two men but why is Si Hoon even there? I also get why she chose her "puppy" out of all her options. Don't get me wrong I think she's extremely pretty but it was just staged. The whole fucking thing. 

Se Hoon and Ji Yeon are a cute couple and they are a magnificent twist this season. At first, Ji Yeon did not show any interest but then a few episodes later, both of them went to Paradise and things were transformed. Eventually, Ji Yeon chose Se Hoon, who is a big green flag! 

I don't have an opinion on the other couples coz they aren't memorable but I think most of them are pretty decent. I feel like the last-minute contestants are great but the thing is, game changers don't work because, at the end of the day, contestants are savoring the whole 10 days that they have. I guess game-changers are just there to shake things up but not one game-changer gets a successful pairing (except in later seasons), which I find wasteful and kind of sad. Imagine you're just there to create chaos. At the end of the day, the whole season was the first so I think they still did a pretty good job. 

I mean for a show that's pretty conservative unlike its counterparts, Love Island or Too Hot Too Handle, it did a pretty decent job and people are eating it up. I mean couples here are just talking, holding hands, carrying people, and hugging. I mean they don't even hug, they just straight up have the most conservative date unless they swim in paradise and hug, then that's a bit affectionate and a bit intense.

Season 2

The second season is pretty much the same and it was somewhat boring in the first few episodes until Jin Young, the game changer came. 

Later on, contestants who went to paradise are also very interesting. Their jobs are great from Lee Nadine, neuroscience major from Harvard U, to Seul-Ki, a piano major and season's favorite. 

I absolutely loved how Jin Young made a buzz although his entrance was very staged. Like, of course he would win that game, he went in last minute while the two other men were obviously tired from the first round of the game. But anyway, Jin Young stole a lot of women's hearts but in the end, he did still like Seul-ki.

Seul-ki ended up choosing her final Paradise date, Jong-woo. It was cute and unexpected but personally, I  thought she was going to choose Jin-Young, who meanwhile, had a final date with Nadine (which was actually surprising).

The person I didn't like the most this season was Dong-woo, the plastic surgeon. He was so boring and was not paying attention to Nadine during the date. He was also kind of confused because how on earth did he like Seul-ki? They have zero chemistry but anyway, I still think of the conspiracy that producers went in to make Dong Woo choose Seul-ki in the end. 

Overall, this season was also kind of boring but with the additional casting and more games, it made my heart flutter and somehow it was exciting at the end.

Season 3

This season has the most problematic contestants. I think most of them are also so well-known which made it less thrilling for contestants. Like I think 3 of the contestants were from Ms. Korea? and then for the male contestants, Gwan Hee is a basketball player for the Korean team so there is less thrill.

The season started out so problematic too because there was a lack of cooking scenes from the contestants. But I figured maybe because there are no chefs this time except for Jin-Seok, the fan favorite, who owns a coffee chain. 

Early on, the show had problematic contestants like Gyu-Ri, who is an overconfident but mean woman. She was also seen ignoring Hye-seon who complimented her beauty. I think this is a non-issue but since they joined the show to be judged and be a type of entertainment, I think it was a shitty move on Gyu-Ri's part. I mean, is she deaf? People also think that Gyu-Ri is trying to be a Ji-a (from S1) but she fails in her personality.

Meanwhile, women contestants are also great this season. Hye-Seon is a bioinformatics major at Ewha Women's University, Min Young is a pilates instructor, Ha-Jeong is an office worker at a biomedical company and Min Ji is a TV anchor as well as an economics major. The rest of the cast are either models or actors. 

The most controversial part of this season is Gwan Hee who seemingly became very materialistic with women. He pointed out each woman who he wanted to be with during the infamous fireplace episode instead of mentioning their names. If a woman did that, it is still creepy and disrespectful. It was freaking weird and kind of cringe as well. 

The show was also experimental because they separated two islands at first which was surprising. I think it was also great that they switched couples suddenly to confuse the contestants. It was a whirlwind of personalities but also things got fucked up when Min Ji came.

Min Ji, like Jin Young, was a good game-changer. She changed the minds of Jinseok and Min Young who were supposed to be endgame but Min Young ended up putting Jinseok down because she wanted to see other people. When Jin Seok tried to have chemistry with Min Ji (which was good by the way), Min Young got jealous and eventually won over Jin Seok. Now, I think this is kind of doable but in this scenario, again I feel like producers wanted Gwan Hee to be the star of the show because he did create a lot of drama. From Ha Jeong's outburst in his room to Gyu-ri turning him down when Gwan Hee was showing interest. HyeSeon on the other hand also turned Gwan Hee down but not so fast, we'll talk about that later. 

Min Ji started to meet other singles so in the end, she started liking Gwan Hee and showing interest in him. It was nice and she, also out of the blue, left Jin Seok hanging (which again, I think it was the producers' order). She continuously went on and had a date with Gwan Hee in Paradise, wearing a bizarre nightgown. Their date was very nice too and both of them enjoyed each other's company. I also think they deserve each other because of their loud personalities.

Meanwhile, we see the romance between Sieun and Min Woo bloom in Inferno, the first in the show. It was the first time that a couple liked each other in hell despite not visiting paradise with each other. Gyu-Ri was outraged and took it out on poor Min-woo, who I think was in the right in this conversation. I don't think they made a promise with each other to be endgame and I understand that Gyu-Ri was sick but she has no right to tell the guy off and not let the guy talk to other people. Honestly, this was one of the worst scenes in SI that I have ever witnessed or maybe I just didn't like Gyu-Ri. Anyway, Gyu-ri's outburst did not pay off as Sieun and Minwoo became endgame.

The second couple was between HyeSeon, Hajeong, and Min Ji. I was surprised with HaJeong because I thought her conviction on Gwan Hee was real but she ended up liking Gwan Hee instead after her date with HanBin, the loser and the most boring man alive, went downhill. I also didn't expect HyeSeon to stand up, because she straight up told Gwan Hee that he can shove it up his ass when the man can't decide hours before the final choice. It was so shitty plus Gwan Hee even blamed HyeSeon for liking Won Ik, who actually likes Seiun. 

The last couple was Minkyu and Gyu-Ri which is kind of forced because the two of them I think were sweet in the final moments of the season. I think the producers needed a third couple so they forced Minkyu and Gyuri to have this last-minute romance with each other. This is a theme in the show that somehow Inferno needed 3-4 couples to end the game. I think one couple or two is enough.

The whole season is so fucking stressful but I still enjoyed it even though some parts were orchestrated. I found myself rooting for the women and just straight-up ignoring all the men. I kind of feel like Minji was just acting the whole time and that's not her real personality but I admire her for doing cringey stuff because maybe that's her plan all along. Her cringiest scene was in the helicopter when she was crying because Gwan Hee ignored her lol while she was resting her head on Gwan Hee's shoulder while Gwan Hee was having a date with HyeSeon. But I guess it was good because the scene became a meme and it probably turned up Single's Inferno ratings for an episode. 

Based on TV.co, the highest-rated episode of Single's Inferno is Season 3, Episode 10, and Min Ji's crying episode on helicopter. People thoroughly enjoyed it and Season 3 was also the only season that had one low rating, which is the final episode when Gwan Hee chose HyeSeon. LOL.

I think last season was the best for all fans but I liked Season 1 better. Season 3 was also interesting because Jin Young joined the set of judges and he is an entertaining panelist. It was nice and refreshing seeing someone give his perspective, especially having been in the show.

Season 4

Now the most recent season, which is also dubbed as the worst and the most boring season yet. The show started off promising, however, and I hate to say it but I have to agree that I was bored of my life watching the last few episodes of the show.

It started out awesome because all the contestants were interesting personality-wise. I was excited because each one had the right temperament except for Tehwan. I  liked Theo, DongHo, MinSeol, Ji-Yeon, You Jin, and A-rin. Theo was the most animated one and for a time I did like Jun Seo until he became weird and boring. 

From the first episode, it was really surprising as the women are the only ones being shown in the inferno. Until, Jun Seo came after winning the guy's game. He had a date with You Jin and things went good. Jeong Su had his first date with Si An, which was fine but it got Si An really fall for him. 

Meanwhile, the episode got interesting as Theo locked on Si An. He was entertaining and somewhat kind of love-bombing Si An which for me, might be a turn-off. Then, in the half of the season, the show became so boring as most of the scenes were Si An and Jun Seo dates. The two had Paradise dates twice and it was so draining that I was almost dozing off. That was the most boring piece of television I watched in my whole life. I think I know why, the other couples were also boring. There was little info about the dates between Ji Yeon and TeHwan. The silver lining was Dong Ho and A Rin who were endgame after their paradise date. It was wholesome and cute and I wanted to watch more but I guess producers thought the Sian and Junseo pairing was more interesting.

I was disappointed with it a lot but I guess it isn't the contestants' fault. Si An won a lot of games as well as Jun Seo. The two contestants also interacted a lot and had brave moves like being touchy with each other and how Jun Seo hugged and cuddled Si An in bed. 

Things also took a turn when I found out that most contestants were models and the only interesting jobs were Ji Yeon, a space director, Min Seol a sportscaster, TaeHwan a DJ, Hae Lin, a film major, and Dong Ho, a CPA.

I think the show was heavy on the Sian and Jun Seo drama because none of the contestants really tried to be with other people. They were sticking with this one person even though it was already bleak. Theo didn't try with anyone even after Si An dropped him. He was missing in the last 4 episodes which was fucking annoying. Like what did he do? sleep, eat and just stare at Si An? WTF. 

Ji Yeon didn't also try to be with anyone. She just straight-up tolerated Te Hwan, the annoying and self-serving asshole who can't communicate his feelings. He is Hanbin the second but more annoying because he is a liar and a gaslighter. At least Hanbin didn't force it on Han Jeong in the previous season lol. And he was kind of funny at the helicopter too. TeHwan is so dry and his feelings aren't genuine. He looked so boring and looked like a seaweed waiting to get wet or something.

I also hated it so fucking much because the fourth couple, Hyejin and Ahn Joong Hon suddenly became a couple? I mean, they didn't even get close to Seiun and Minwoo in the previous season. It's just so fucking weird like the producers panicked or something. 

Then, I feel so bad about Minseol and Hae Lin. I think Jun Seo did Minseol dirty because he led her on. The dude is so shitty and unforgivable I don't get why he swept Si An's feet. For Hae Lin, I guess Dong Ho really wanted A-rin for the long haul. Plus they did keep missing each other which made things more interesting.

I think Hae Lin and Ahn Joong Hon were good game changers except Ahn Joong Hon was so stupid that I feel like he didn't want to be there in the first place. Hae Lin was loud at first which I thought she would be a Min Ji but was silenced when Dong Ho straight up rejected her. Like... ok girl but?? 

I did admire her dedication plus she did like Dong Ho and she didn't like anyone else which I think again was the problem. No one seems to be doing an experiment like everyone is sticking to one person which is fine but this is a dating game so why are you guys acting like there's only one woman/man on this island for you Lol. 

Anyway, I like another commentary that Ahn Joong Hoon is the worst because he was just sleeping. I even feel like You-Jin didn't deserve that treatment during her last date in Paradise because Joong Hoon clearly didn't want to be with You-jin. At least try to enjoy it motherfucker. 

Overall, the whole season was kind of a reverse of Season 2. Things were good at first then really boring when the game changers arrived. I think they can do better by introducing more games and making things more interesting by prolonging the separate inferno for an episode until the game changers arrive. I also think that there were fewer competitions for special dates in Inferno. I think it only happened twice which was weird. 

Should Single's Inferno end?

Season 4 really had bad ratings like most episodes had 6/10 below which is so sad. It never bounced back and people didn't even bother watching the last few episodes. I think some of them just researched after they were so bored with JunSeo and Si An episodes. 

In my opinion, Singles Inferno is on the brink of getting canceled. It's still popular but they should step up. Dating shows usually take longer than 10 seasons unless something bad happened like Terrace House when one of the contestants died by suicide. It was so sad too. 

I think Single's Inferno should try and evolve but maintain its innocence since it is its selling point, especially to a lot of Asians.

Plus, SI has been renewed for its fifth season so I hope they do better.