Stream It or Skip It: ‘Single’s Inferno’ Season 2 on Netflix, A Show So Slow It Feels Like A Ring Of Hell (2024)

On Netflix’s Single’s Inferno, nine hot, young singles meet and mingle on a tropical island. If they make a love connection and pair up, they get to go to a luxurious resort called Paradise, but if they don’t, they have to stay behind have to rough it on the island known as Inferno, where they must fend for themselves with no phones (!) or catering (!!).

SINGLE’S INFERNO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “A single choice can separate paradise from inferno,” a voiceover explains over shots of a sandy beach.

The Gist: A group of good-looking singles arrive to a tropical island where they meet, albeit hesitantly. I’m so used to the first episode of most dating shows to be so bubbly and full of energy, with contestants who are total strangers greeting each other as if they already know one another and instantly want to party, but on Single’s Inferno, no one shows much emotion as their fellow contestants arrive, and they all just quietly wait for instruction. One woman sits with a pillow on her lap and doesn’t make eye contact with anyone. This show is supposedly a massive hit, but so far no one is doing anything.

As we meet the nine new contestants, five women and four men, they all describe themselves as being physically fit or athletic, and the boldest adjectives any of them use to describe themselves are “clumsy” or “cold and snobbish.” There are also four hosts on the show who are really more like commentators than hosts, Hanhae, Hong Jin-Kyung, Lee Da-Hee, and Kyuhyun, and they watch along with us adding their opinions and thoughts. Though they all actually work on the show, they seem unaware of anything they’re about to see, adding commentary and surprised thoughts about the way the villas and contestants look. Their commentary is almost grandmotherly as they assess the contestants who arrive to the island (“She looks elegant!” “He has a nice smile.”), and it all feels very tasteful and bland, the opposite of salacious or sexy.

The crux of the show is that if these singles don’t couple up, they must stay on the island called Inferno, a deserted (but still gorgeous), sunny island decorated to look like a ship has washed up on shore and is lit by torches. While on Inferno, they can’t use their phones, they must cook for themselves, and they’re not allowed to revealed key details about themselves like their professions or their ages, so they have to use their physical traits and their general charms to woo one another.

If a pair does couple up, they get to to to Paradise, a resort where they not only can enjoy a little bit of luxury, but they can share more intimate details about themselves, too.

Things pick up when the contestants are forced to make dinner for themselves, and even though it’s nice to watch them collaborate and work with each other, it’s still too soon to see any sparks of chemistry between the contestants. Despite their outwardly vague and very subtle feelings though, the contestants have to vote for the person they most want to pair up with at the end up the episode by leaving a sweet little love note in the mailbox of the person they like the best. They can’t reveal whether they got any love notes to their fellow contestants though.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Single’s Inferno feels like a G-rated Too Hot To Handle. The contestants of both shows are directed by a robotic voice who tells them where to go and what to do, and when they group off by gender, the conversations about which members of the opposite sex they find attractive and who they would want to make moves on are similar. It’s just that on Single’s Inferno they’re, like, celibate by choice because they’re all just very nice and sweet and not motivated purely by sex in everything they do.

Our Take: Single’s Inferno, despite it’s fiery name, is rated TV-PG, and while many of the conversations on the show revolve around the contestants’ fit bodies and appearances, they’re meant to charm one another with their winning personalities too. I have to admit, I nearly turned the show off when one of the conversations between three of the prospective daters on the show went like this:

“There’s something about it.”

“It’s so good, right?”

“Mm, cold water!”

I don’t want to say that every dating show needs contestants who only talk about the their Instagram followers and how they’re aspiring actresses or whatever, but a conversation about water, in which all three participants genuinely seem excited by the idea of drinking a nice cold glass of it, is new –and honestly baffling – for me. But then, that’s the pace of this show. It’s about meeting people and getting to know them in what feels like painstakingly awkward real time. If not for the deliberately drawn out pace, I’d be much more invested in the show, but I just don’t have this kind of time.

Sex and Skin: Not yet, this is a decidedly demure dating show.

Parting Shot: As the men of the show approach their mailboxes to see if any of the women left them a love note, the hosts speculate about which man has received more love letters than the rest. The show cuts away before we find out who received the most.

Sleeper Star: So far I feel as though I don’t know these contestants at all, other than their universal love for exercise. I’m sorry to say I don’t find any of them exciting.

Most Pilot-y Line: “When the hot summer sun sets your heart on fire, what choice will you make?”

Our Call: SKIP IT. Do you have infinite amounts of patience? Then Single’s Inferno might just be the show for you, because it’s the slowest of slow burns and the contestants – who all seem nice! And yet definitely not made for TV! – are just regular people who are awkward at dating and it’s hard to watch. What am I missing?

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.