Television series
Dating Around
Dating Around strips away the performance from dating shows. Each episode follows one real single through five blind dates, unfiltered and unglamorous. No host, no producers meddling, just the awkward silences, genuine laughs, and small moments of connection that make up actual dating. It's intimate without being cruel.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy watching real people be funny, awkward and occasionally wise across a run of short, documentary-style sit-downs, and you like seeing who someone turns out to be over a single drink.
Skip it if you want a story with a plot, since every episode restarts with a new person and the romance never builds into an arc you can sink into.
What it asks of you: Around half an hour an episode, twelve in total over two seasons, easy to dip into and out of, with a light touch even when a date falls flat.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Love Is Blind2020
The same Netflix appetite for real-people romance, but with a wilder premise: strangers get engaged before seeing each other. Produces genuine emotional stakes and surprising tenderness alongside the chaos.
But The spectacle can overshadow the people. It's manipulated toward drama in ways Dating Around deliberately resists.
First Dates2013
A gentler take on the same format—real single, real dates—but shot with warm, observational humour. Focuses on the small talk and vulnerability rather than the manufactured conflict.
But Less cinematically slick. If you want polished editing and dramatic arcs, the production feels almost too quiet.
The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On2022
Another reality romance series that uses structure brilliantly to reveal character. Couples test their relationships through dating others, creating genuine tension without needing to fake the stakes.
But It's messier and more soap-opera-like. People behave badly. If Dating Around's restraint appeals to you, this might feel gratuitous.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dating Around
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
High Score2020
Both are observational documentaries about human connection and authentic moments, told without irony or cruelty.
A documentary series about video game history that seems completely unrelated until you realize Dating Around and High Score share the same DNA: observational, generous, genuinely curious about how people connect with things they love. High Score makes you care about technical specs and arcade cabinets the way Dating Around makes you care about strangers' nervous laughter.
But If you don't care about gaming culture, the specific subject matter won't matter. And it's not trying to entertain you through romance or conflict.
More like this (7)
Couples Therapy2019
Real couples, real therapist, minimal editing—you watch actual relationships shift and break and sometimes heal over the course of an hour. Deeply unglamorous and surprisingly moving.
But Intensely heavy. This is not light viewing. Some sessions are painful to sit with, and there are no neat resolutions.
Made in Chelsea2011
A dating show disguised as a drama series. Young Londoners navigate relationships and social hierarchies. Absurdly entertaining, with real emotional beats hidden beneath the posturing.
But Heavily scripted and frankly artificial. The opposite of Dating Around's authenticity. You're watching people perform versions of themselves.
Single's Inferno2021
Korean reality dating on a desert island. Wild premise, genuine connection-building, and a sensibility that's less about romance-as-spectacle and more about how people actually open up.
But Subtitled, and the island survival element can distract from the dating itself. The show's rhythms are different from what Western viewers expect.
Love on the Spectrum2019
Follows autistic singles navigating dating and relationships. Tender, funny, and completely unsentimental. Shows dating as the everyday, awkward, hopeful thing it actually is.
But The framing as a 'special' population might feel othering to some viewers, even though the show itself avoids that trap.
Minx2022
A comedy about a women's magazine in the 1970s that incidentally has some of the best romantic chemistry on television. The dating moments feel earned and real within a larger narrative.
But You're signing up for a workplace comedy first, dating second. If you want pure focus on romance, this dilutes it.
Insecure2016
Issa Rae's series about friendship and dating in Los Angeles captures the actual texture of modern romance—the texting, the mishaps, the false starts. Hilarious and heartfelt in equal measure.
But The dating is woven into a larger show about work and friendship. Romantic storylines shift and sometimes fade. Not all about the dates themselves.
Shrinking2023
Both centre on moments of genuine human connection and vulnerability. Both are interested in what people reveal when they stop performing.
A comedy about a therapist who starts breaking his own rules. Some episodes are about his patients navigating dating and relationships with brutal honesty. It has Dating Around's interest in how people actually talk when barriers drop, plus the depth of someone trained to listen.
But It's a narrative comedy, not a dating show. The dating is subplot to bigger themes about grief, trauma, and masculinity. Tonal whiplash between funny and heavy.
Recommended by
Easy, Polyamory: Married and Dating, The Undateables, Are You the One?, Temptation Island, Ex on the Beach, Sexy Beasts, Indian Matchmaking, 90 Day Fiancé, Single's Inferno, Farmer Wants a Wife, Take Me Out, Paradise Hotel, Elimidate, Love is Blind: Nederland, Love Is Blind: México, My Mum, Your Dad, I Love New York, The Pickup Artist, Naked Attraction