Update: Season 1 of Slice’s First Dates is being re-broadcast on Global starting this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s what I wrote about the show when it debuted last September on Slice.
There’s a wall-sized sign on the wall in the restaurant where First Dates is filmed. The sign says: Things Can Get Messy, and it’s a pretty apt discription of Slice’s latest original series.
Filmed in one of Earls’ Vancouver locations, First Dates uses Big Brothers setup of filming with a multitude of cameras and microphones that capture every step—and misstep—single Canadians make on the dating scene.
Tuesday’s debut focuses on a trio of blind dates that run the gamut from success to bona fide train wreck. This being a nice Canadian production, however, there are no tears and screaming when a match isn’t made, though you can tell from Billi-Ann’s body language she just isn’t feeling it with Charles. Perhaps it’s his penchant for speaking in the third person, or his intimate knowledge of drinks with college-level amounts of booze in them. Regardless, it doesn’t take long for viewers to realize this HR dude by day, party guy by night, is no match for Billi-Ann.
Much more successful are Denai and Edward, who flirt their way through dinner, aided by her numerous comments about his cuteness, his endless muscle flexing and a shocking moment where he undoes his pants during the appetizer course. Is this the way the kids act during dates nowadays? Are they at the point where twenty somethings throw caution to the wind and flash some skivvy to attract attention? Apparently.
That’s not to say First Dates isn’t highly enjoyable. It is, if you’re looking for pure guilty pleasure entertainment. First Dates the perfect show to sit and watch with friends so that you can laugh, poke fun at—and perhaps commiserate—along with for an hour.
First Dates airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on Global.
