My obsession with Blue Therapy – the most explosive reality show of the year
The YouTube show following two black couples as they talk to a relationship counsellor has had millions of fans in a frenzy
There are different levels of going viral. Some stories only go big on black Twitter. Something that feels like a phenomenon sometimes doesn’t move beyond the confines of blue-tick Twitter. But I know something has gone truly viral when it reaches the “auntie WhatsApp groups”. Auntie WhatsApp groups, made up of first-generation African women of a certain age, are very much their own beast, primarily populated by chain letter prayers and Covid-19 conspiracies. Rarely does the pop culture I engage with intersect with my mum and her friends. But this changed a few weeks ago when it became apparent we had all been feverishly messaging about a show called Blue Therapy.
Blue Therapy, a six-part reality show on YouTube, which concluded last week with its final reunion episode, sees couples Paul and Chioma and Jamel and Deborah talk (or more often, bicker) through their relationship problems with a softly spoken therapist named Denise. So far, so VH1 Couples Therapy. But the show captured the black British zeitgeist, breathing new life into tired dating debates. And while televised reality shows continue to lose viewers by the season, Blue Therapy managed to rake in millions of views globally.
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