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29th Jul 2021

Opinion: Love Island producers need to learn where the line is with mind games

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Why are they doing this?

Love Island fans were not at all happy after watching yesterday’s Casa Amor antics, and with the way producers have been behaving, I can’t blame them.

The islanders have been split up, with the girls in the main villa and the boys in Casa Amor, but the producers seem to be playing some serious mind games to stir up some drama.

Last night, we saw a postcard get delivered to the main villa, showing snaps of the boys in Casa Amor cuddled up to, or in some cases, kissing other girls.

We all watched confused as Faye got visibly angry and upset over it, but Teddy has been sleeping on the day bed, he’s been missing her, right?

Wrong. Right on the card was a very misleading picture of Teddy kissing one bombshell in a challenge, seemingly put there to deliberately mess with them.

Look, I get it, we’re here to see the drama unfold, but where is the line for Love Island producers?

With the reputation the show has surrounding mental health, and the unfortunate deaths that have come from the show, why are they consistently poking at the contestants this way?

Before this series aired, ITV sent out media releases to explain how important mental health was this series and how the aftercare for the show was going to be much different this year.

But when it comes to the islanders in the villa, this seems to go out the window, as if ratings are prioritised over their health.

Faye has been open about her trust issues throughout the series, so why have the producers completely disregarded this and are now using it against her in this postcard?

As we watched the show, we see Teddy unphased by the new girls admitting he misses Faye, while Liam’s head is completely turned.

But when that postcard arrived, Liam got off easy making it look like he had only shared a bed with a girl despite cracking on with Lillie, and Teddy, who is innocent, has been made to look like something he couldn’t be further from.

The girls are now encouraging Faye to move on, which is fair considering what they think has happened, but poor Teddy will be returning to her in the villa only to hear how he was portrayed to them.

Where do the producers draw the line? They preach about how important mental health is but this series is messing with their heads just as much as others.

When are they going to learn from their mistakes, are the three deaths from this show not enough before they learn how utterly damaging their actions can be?

Fans have been complaining to Ofcom since last night over this issue, an issue that could be detrimental to people’s mental health once they see how everything truly went down.