Go ahead, take a trip to HBO Max’s FBOY Island
Nikki Glaser hosts FBOY Island, a new reality dating series from The Bachelor producer Elan Gale and Love Is Blind’s Sam Dean
TV Reviews HBO
Multiple new TV series beckon visitors (and viewers) to some idyllic locale, only to complicate their getaways within moments of their arrival. HBO Max’s FBOY Island isn’t nearly as heady as The White Lotus or the upcoming Nine Perfect Strangers—nor, as a reality dating series, does it intend to be—but trouble is still brewing in paradise, along with hookups, bromances, and, by the end, some necessary self-reflection.
FBOY Island is the creation of Elan Gale, who’s worked on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and Sam Dean, an executive producer for Love Is Blind and Married At First Sight. Their new dating show is less marriage-minded than some of their previous efforts, but the stakes are still high for the three beautiful women at the center: Nakia Renee, CJ Franco, and Sarah Emig. Having all dated men who require two phones to keep up with all of their “prospects,” they traveled to FBOY Island (really, somewhere in the Cayman Islands) to cavort with 24 strapping dudes, half of whom purport to be nice guys, and the other half who admit they’re fuckboys. (Now you know what the F stands for!) Why would they waste time with fuckboys, who, as the term has been warped to mean by non-Black people, are just the latest iteration of womanizers? There’s the rub: The three female daters don’t know which hard bodies fall into which group. Neither, it seems, do all of the men, though some guys can’t help but give themselves away.
That twist comes early on in the series, but its effects reverberate throughout the 10-episode first season. Despite the help of a production team and host Nikki Glaser, who revels in skewering the sentient Axe body spray commercials bunking in the cabanas, it’s hard for CJ, Sarah, and Nakia to determine who’s looking for something meaningful and who’s just looking to get some. As the guys themselves note, potential can be very seductive, which is why the ability to make someone believe you have a future together is one of the marks of a fuckboy—or, in the Island’s preferred parlance, an fboy. (This bowdlerized phrase is one of the few instances of restraint on the show.) More importantly, since anyone can say they’re a nice guy or insist they’re not an fboy, what does that self-affixed label really mean?
That’s the big question that these three women (and, to a lesser degree, their suitors) wrestle with, when they’re not having pool parties, yacht parties, water balloon fights, and dance contests. Along with possibly finding love, having a good time is paramount on FBOY Island. Tension quickly dissipates after every confrontation, as the fboys and nice guys befriend each other. Some of those bromances are stronger than others; one guy seems ready to blow his chance with one of the women just to stand by his bud. Is that fboy shit, or a nice guy move? If you ask the woman in question, it’s just bad strategy—because, while it’s not made abundantly clear, there is a $100,000 cash prize at stake.
As many people noted in the lead up to the premiere, FBOY Island sounds like a show that someone on 30 Rock would have pitched and/or watched. The series certainly acts more like a comedy than the more straightforward matchmaking shows like The Bachelor, but the emphasis is on silly fun. Aside from a few dust-ups, FBOY Island is downright pleasant—fans of the genre might actually find themselves wanting more drama. Even “Limbro,” which is where fboys are exiled after being eliminated, is right on the beach. The camaraderie among the women is also refreshing: Sarah, Nakia, and CJ quickly bond, helping each other suss out the fboys and coming to each other’s aid during dates. It probably helps that they’re never really in competition with each other; to each their own fboy. But they’re all likable and clear-eyed about the choices they’re making, even when those of us watching at home might want to yell at the screen.
That kind of reaction can’t be avoided in this kind of show, but unlike its namesake, FBOY Island isn’t trying to have fun at the women’s expense. Nakia, Sarah, and CJ aren’t kept in the dark for long: The rules shift, and the men’s backgrounds are gradually revealed. Doing away with most of the intrigue only heightens the tension; just because the women know which of their suitors to stay away from doesn’t mean they’ll run straight to the nice guys. Some decisions are still kind of baffling, but then, who among of us hasn’t occasionally ignored their own better judgment? It’s to the women’s credit—and to the show’s, for choosing to focus as much on their dynamic as their chemistry with the guys—that their missteps feel relatable.
FBOY Island’s stumbles mostly involve the gameplay. The rules often seem arbitrary, goals shift, and the notion of an fboy remains nebulous. At least there are some recognizable traits to them; the concept of the nice guy is much more loosely defined. (“Boyfriend dick,” on the other hand, is so last year’s horny-people-at-a-resort series.) Over time, the lack of a clear definition for either term starts to feel more intentional, as the women observe that a lot of “nice guy” behavior is basic human decency, and fboys, like everyone else, can change. This points to the conflict at the show’s core: a desire to be more than a guilty pleasure, while dressing itself in all the trappings of one. Like its inhabitants, FBOY Island is a work in progress, but still worth checking out.
31 Comments
Here I was hoping for femboy island.
So you’re telling me this isn’t a scripted spoof of a dating show?
I figured it stood for Flamingos Barfing On You Island.
I remember once saying that nothing will ever sink beneath The Bachelor.I could not have been more wrong. I’m embarrassed at my naivete.
“We will hit the bottom of that barrel with a thud, and then, by God, we will keep heading downwards!” – Network executives
I mean…we as a country survived the Gong Show so I think we can survive this. As crazy as it sounds. the Gong Show was considered a harbinger of doom for all things cultural.
the Gong Show was considered a harbinger of doom for all things cultural.
i mean, maybe it was?
The Bachelor was prestige television when you consider what came before it. Before the bachelor you had shit like Temptation Island, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, Dwarf Holes, and who can forget the show that killed Roger Lodge’s career – Blind Date.
I mean, did it really kill Lodge’s career if it gave him a steady gig for 6 years? Funnily enough, Blind Date actually came back recently and its hosted by the very same Nikki Glaser as FBOY Island!
I miss the innocent days of MILF Island.
Exploring what actually makes for a decent dude/boyfriend and letting everyone joke around about it sounds infinitely less gross than selling bullshit prince/princess fantasies that were already outdated 20 years ago and treating it with faux-true love gravitas.
Thank jebus that HBO is finally imploding. Since the +Max merger I have just been waiting for that shoe to drop. It’s sad, but it was inevitable. I for one welcome our new mediocre Disney+ masters (but mostly hopes FX gears back up).
That’s the problem when the labels are so arbitrary and self-proclaimed, you don’t know who to root for. I want a series where the two groups of men are solidly defined: half are romantics looking for a life partner, and the other half are deceptive mad scientists looking for unwitting test subjects for their godless experiments.
Now I’m re-imagining the movie The Brain That Wouldn’t Die as a reality dating show. “Does he want me for my personality, or just for my body (to attach his decapitated wife’s head to)?”
Now you’re reminding me of that “Beauty and the Geek” show – either my sister or I knew one of the geeks in every season, so we watched more of that than I otherwise would have.
I’m pretty certain that an actual “nice guy,” if such a person exists in a non-cringeworthy way, would not be willing to appear on this program in the first place.
“limbro”Well shit, I’ve never been more tempted to watch a dating show.
Being as this is on HBO I’m assuming that the swearing isn’t bleeped, but is there uncensored nudity?I’m not going to be watching this, but I’m curious.
True fuckboys are always on the edge of getting merc’d. Sometimes, they cross the line doing fuckboy shit, and the aforementioned happens.
I was hoping this would be a parody.
Did you guys know that this was all faked? It was actually a peninsula.
It’s a whole archipelago. We’re doomed.
Guaranteed in a twist that one of the brah’s is gay.
This sounds awful, just like most ‘reality’ tv dating shows; hard pass.
I’ve seen the first two eps and I’m enjoying it. I don’t watch other dating shows, but this seems just silly enough to be in my wheelhouse. My theory is that one of the women is whatever the female version of a fuckboi is and will take the money at the end.
It sucks how much of TV is catered towards retards like you. Fucking moron.
My fiance is insisting this too, and he thinks it’s CJ.My favorite part is when they eliminate a “Nice Guy,” and upon the reveal are like, yeah, I know, it’s just none of us wanted to date him.
This show is really weird. I don’t know how to describe what makes it weird. Everyone feels a little stranger, a little less certain about what reality TV persona they’re trying to fill. There long periods of posturing and acting that are suddenly broken by moments of what feel like real confusion and distress.also they send the fuckboys who are voted out to jail which is funny
I was wondering if it was any good. But I think I’ll just stick to my gay porn.
We’re getting dangerously close to MILF Island becoming real
I watched the first episode of this. I will not be watching a second.