Love, laughs and a whole lotta drama: I Kissed a Girl was the best dating show of all time

When I Kissed a Boy premiered last year, it was a great time to be gay. We finally had our own Love Island equivalent that was messy, heartwarming, filled with drama and had Dannii bloody Minogue in the driver’s seat. It almost had it all, except that we didn’t get to see queer women having the same experience. I watched I Kissed a Boy longing for it to do well beyond the gays I knew watching it so it would get renewed for an all female season – and when the prayers were answered by the time it came to an end it was just the icing on the cake. We all knew that I Kissed a Girl would be as great as I Kissed a Boy, but now the show has wrapped with its explosive reunion I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind that it excelled over its predecessor. But how did the show get it so perfect? Here’s what made I Kissed a Girl the best dating show of all time.

A truly amazing and diverse cast

I think what I Kissed a Girl’s ultimate success came down to is this truly brilliant cast of queer women. A complete spectrum of femme to masc and everything in between, a mix of different races and vibes and a complete cocktail of personalities. Bi girlies and lesbians hobnobbed around that masseria like they were born to do it. I look back on I Kissed a Boy and think of a masseria divided, and a cast who seems to have increasingly stopped speaking to each other. I definitely had my favourites and those I wasn’t as keen on, but with I Kissed a Girl that just has not happened.

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What a cast

Everyone brought something to the table. Even late arrivals made their mark. Some of the cast didn’t get into any proper couples whilst in there and just left in a great mood after accepting they haven’t found anyone, and you still found yourself excited to see what they’d been up to. It all just clicked wonderfully. I could have watched them all have a chat and a laugh forever, even when they weren’t trying to spice things up and make some moves on the terrace. A likely place for Fiorenza to be, whose eyes and moves will go down in history as some of TV’s suavest.

Even when one of the cast acted in a way I thought was out of order in an argument, I still found myself warm on them – like when the girls called out Priya and Naee for getting rid of Abbie and Lisha. Both sides of the argument made total sense – and whilst I was on the side of Priya in that fight, you could relate to the hurt and shock of Cara and Georgia and see where they were coming from. It made for television you wanted to root for, because you couldn’t wait to tune in to see these girls patch it up and continue their hot queer summer in style.

It was educating and moving every single episode

I have been out as gay for a long time and have had loads of lesbian friends beside me through those years and, naively, thought I was well versed in lesbian terminology the same way I am with gay culture. How wrong I was. Every episode felt like an insight for me, and that’s before the emotional stories had me weeping on the sofa.

It takes a lot to be as vulnerable as a lot of these girls were on TV, opening their heart and being honest and true to themselves. What made it even more moving is seeing how they’d evolved by the time of the recently filmed reunion, the final episode of the series. It was just lovely seeing how they’d grown since the show and what effect having a joyous summer surrounded by their peers with no straight interference had had on them.

‘Lesbian Princess Diana’

They deserve their moment in the spotlight

At this year’s Mighty Hoopla over the weekend, the girls of I Kissed a Girl in attendance got to live their celebrity life for the first time. The likes of Amy, far and away the breakout star of the season, was heralded the ‘lesbian Princess Diana’ and crowd surfed along the shoulders of one of the festival’s tents waving a Palestinian flag and created one of the weekend’s most striking moments. They deserve to go on to big things.

I Kissed a Girl was the best dating show I’ve ever watched. It had it all. Only having as few episodes as it did felt like a disservice to these girls who gave us everything. The drama was shocking, the honesty was refreshing and the lack of desire to stay on the show for the sake of fame from a cast who were so well chosen was simply euphoric. We need more.

For all the latest reality TV news and gossip like this rundown of the Instagram accounts of the I Kissed a Girl cast and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.  

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• A rundown of the vibey Instagrams of the I Kissed a Girl cast

• Love Island’s Paige speaks out about Finn’s ‘fling with MAFS star’ and it’s getting salty

• Just three months into the year, these eight Love Island couples have split up in 2024

Images courtesy of BBC.