I Kissed a Girl review – the sweetest, most touching reality TV in a long time

Like a lesbian Love Island, singles flirt, cry and snog on the terrace while openly communicating their feelings. It’s heartwarming stuff – but there is still plenty of drama and endless partner swaps

First, let’s start with the premise: 10 singles are sent to a villa – sorry, masseria – in Italy in the hopes of finding love. They’re each coupled up – in this case, sealed with a kiss from a total stranger – before staying together in a big group bedroom. As the days go on, new cast members enter the masseria. If they don’t recouple in time, someone has to leave. When they’re not taking part in challenges designed to reveal more about their interior lives, they’re plopped around on bean bags gossiping. Sound familiar? Yes, BBC Three’s I Kissed a Girl, presented by Dannii Minogue, is essentially the same premise as Love Island except – and this is the crucial bit – it’s for queer women only.

When my friends and I used to imagine what a “lesbian Love Island” might look like, we used to joke – affectionately, excitedly – that it could easily spiral into chaos. Maybe they’d become attached too quickly and never recouple, making the format redundant (a stereotype known as “U-hauling”). Maybe they’d swap exes constantly (something we tend to do more than our straight counterparts, due to smaller dating pools). Or maybe they’d never be sure if they were friends or lovers, lovers or friends, each caught in a cycle of grey area “What are we?” until the show wound to a close (another stereotype attached to young queers new to the dating scene).