Love Island, Glastonbury and an international football tournament were once the holy trinity of a long, hot summer – but now in its 11th series, does the ITV reality show still measure up? Throw in the upcoming general election and there’s no shortage of meme-worthy events vying for our attention. As former Islander Molly-Mae Hague infamously put it, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. So is Love Island worth spending precious time on? We’re only an hour and a half into the current series, but the launch episode delivers a last-minute twist that makes tuning in again irresistible.
The series opener ticks all the usual boxes within minutes: a cheesy opening sequence to introduce the contestants, sweeping shots of Mallorca and at least two twenty-something women looking for men who are “tall, dark and handsome”. The Islanders enter in groups of two or three now, which is a welcome way of speeding up the launch episode – especially as their VTs were all released online last week.
