‘There’s bombshell after bombshell’: will Blue Therapy be the wildest reality TV ride of the year?

IIn the world where we’re now in our seventh series of Naked Attraction’s genital revelations, it’s hard to imagine there are many boundaries left for British reality television to break. But In Love & Toxic: Blue Therapy insists on a more subtle taboo: black people going to therapy. That may seem relatively harmless, but it’s full of couples baring their souls on screen, admitting their infidelity and insecurities, and making ridiculous statements like, “But I’m a bad bitch!” It’s a good way to challenge a stereotype that the show’s creators wanted to fight against: that therapy is “exclusively for white, middle-class people.”

Channel 4’s latest series is one of the freshest, fun and subversive reality TV debuts of the year. However, it is not entirely new. It’s an adaptation of the hit 2021 YouTube show Blue Therapy, a scandalous yet surprisingly complex portrait of Black people’s relationships that was declared “the most explosive reality show of the year.”

The show peaked at 3 million views with a truly shocking finale when fan favorite Jamel was revealed to have lied about infidelity. But even creator Andy Amadi didn’t expect it to reach the heights it did.

“I knew it would go well,” he admits. “But I didn’t expect the African aunts and the people in the US. I certainly didn’t expect to be doing a show with Channel 4.” Executive producer Luti Fagbenle steps in to highlight what a seismic performance Amadi has pulled off. “It’s incredible to produce a very successful series that is completely self-funded. Andy was effectively his own Channel 4.”

Taking the show to Channel 4 meant scaling it up. Previously, we had only seen people in the therapy room under the guidance of the unflappable relationship coach Denise. Now viewers are taken into the couples’ homes to witness conflict, as well as friends and family having drinks thrown at them as they practically beg their loved ones to end their toxic pairings.

An attempt has been made to inject grandeur into the proceedings: the one stark white room has gone and been replaced by a palatial mansion setting, and all the participants are now styled and lit as if they’re about to star in a reboot of Black British Gossip Girl. For Fagbenle, “making them look like movie stars means the stakes are higher when all the crap comes out.”

In the two and a half years between the E4 show and the internet-breaking, gold-digging accusations and unrequited declarations of love of the YouTube show, both Amadi and Fagbenle believe that the black community (which they are quick to point out “is not a monolith”) somewhat warmed to the idea of ​​therapy.

But in a healthcare system where the maternal mortality rate for black women is much higher than that of white women, and where black people are more than four times as likely to be covered by the Mental Health Act than their white counterparts, there is a degree of distrust . As Fagbenle puts it, “Black people face worse outcomes in the medical system. During therapy, there is a fear that your therapist will not be able to empathize with your race issues.”

The five on-screen couples discuss issues ranging from distrust to infidelity to differing career goals and cultural values. Fagbenle was determined to avoid exploitative television. The cast was “carefully selected and we spoke with them extensively to find authentic relationships that were appropriate but not abusive,” he says. “We’ve found couples where it’s like, ‘Sorry, you’re too far.’ We can’t put you on television. ”

The first couple introduced in the show, Marie and Tunde, desperately need help to break out of a pattern that brings out the worst in both of them. Together on and off for ten years, Marie struggles to accept the three children Tunde had with other women in their fallow periods, brutally forcing them into non-existence (“If he had no children, we wouldn’t even be in therapy”). Meanwhile, Tunde sees himself as an alpha male with traditional African values ​​and wants to emulate the relationship dynamics he saw modeled by his polygamous grandfather. To make matters even more scandalous, an argument breaks out over Marie’s insistence that Tunde give her £15,000 for a four-day trip to Miami (your calculations are correct, that’s £3,750 a day).

Other couples include Rae and Shaun, who have only been together for ten months, but since Shaun lied about his age on their first date, there has been a complete lack of trust between them. There’s Lauren, who feels unsupported by partner Michael in her pursuit of a music career, while mental health professional Annah has noticed some red flags in her boyfriend Lucky’s pattern of ‘love bombing’ and ‘ghosting’.

In addition to relationship coach Denise, the team has added a new coach in the form of Jo, who, according to Amadi, gives a new dimension to the guidance as a black man. “Jo is stricter, and he is a black father figure who can step in and talk black man to black man.”

The first version of the show faced some accusations that the relationships were fabricated (Denise’s previous work as an actor did not help quash the rumors), which Amadi denies. All reality television involves some manipulation, but the couple is convinced the problems and the help are real. “We give the contributors a lot of support off camera. They are all consulted on the issues that we will talk about, and frankly, we will not talk about them,” Amadi added.

It’s hard to imagine what could come off the table when you watch the show’s shocking twists — from Tunde advocating polygamy to Rae not speaking to Shaun for weeks over a misunderstanding over soup. Still, Fagbenle explains that the project’s core values ​​meant creating healthy boundaries around what would be televised about the couples “to protect them.” Amadi adds: “It’s not just about chaos and unraveling crazy stories. People actually solve their problems.”

Amadi and Fagbenle hope that the conflicts between the couples will spark as much discussion as was seen in the comments on YouTube; the audience appears to be just as global, as the show has already been picked up by Black Entertainment Television – BET – in the US, and Prime in Africa.

A spirited discussion seems assured, as £15,000 for a four-day trip to Miami isn’t the only wild topic we need to brace ourselves for. Fagbenle grins as he teases what the audience has in store. “There’s bomb after bomb, and none bigger than what happens in episode five. It’s incredibly shocking!”