Dear Gossips,   

“Shambolic”, a word I love and see mostly in British media, but you can’t overuse it. You have to be selective about “shambolic”, so as not to dilute its effectiveness. Not every mess is worthy of “shambolic”. And then, well, there’s season six of Love Island USA. Last night was the reunion and, well, it was SHAMBOLIC. On every level. The Islanders, shambolic. The production, shambolic. The editing, shambolic.

 

And I’m not actually sure if this is a criticism. Because this is Love Island. It’s not like Love Island, and especially season six, has ever set a standard for polish. Nobody is tuning in to Love Island to watch neat and tidy programming. Which, perhaps, says more about us, the audience, than the people on the screen. 

 

That might explain why I watched almost half of it last night with a blanket over my head, or with my head buried into one of my dogs, for comfort. And maybe even forgiveness. My dogs are the purest creatures I’ve ever known and here we were, their humans, sitting next to them indulging our most impure compulsions: because we wanted the shambolic, didn’t we? We would have been bored if they had all been nice to each other. We would be lying if this wasn’t our reaction when JaNa casually reached behind her and pulled out several pages of RECEIPTS and checked them off one by one throughout the show. 

 

I don’t want to get specific because I know for sure some people haven’t watched the whole thing yet so head over to The Squawk daily chat for a more detailed discussion. Today I’ll just reiterate the point that I made last week which is that Love Island is SO FAMOUS. How famous? Kordell got his Cheez-It deal but Serena…?

Serena got BEYONCÉ.

https://x.com/CECRED_OFFICIAL/status/1825733938775732590
 

Serena gave us one of the most intense scenes in Love Island history, USA or UK, period. Those two episodes after Casa Amor were unfiltered drama like we’ve never seen before. Outside the villa though, for all of them, but especially the main characters, the ones who emerged as the most popular and the most followed, when they’re presented with all these new brand opportunities, whole careers that may have been unavailable to them before, what’s the expectation on their behaviour now? What are the new set of pressures that they’ll have to carry? Are they prepared for it? 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

 

Cast members of "Love Island USA" participate in a panel conversation with Remi Bader at 92NY in New York City.
Photo credits: Instar Images, Backgrid, Theo Wargo/ Getty Images

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