Jealous, friends

[Hazir]

First, I have to tell you that I have an addiction; the addiction is called 90 day fiancée and it comes in several variaties. It had been around long before I stumbled upon it in its third season and now I am actually paying TLC (d-player) to be able to see all seasons and all iterations (happily ever after, pillow talk, before the 90 days, quarantaine though I will draw a line in the sand and I decided to not include Stacey and Darcy (at least for the time being).

The premise of this reality TV series is that Americans get involved with a partner from another country and that the partner comes to the USA on a K-1 visa. The visa allows the partner to come to the USA and stay there for 90 days. At the end of the 90 days a legal marriage has to be in place or the foreign partner has to leave the country. You have to be literally crazy to allow a TV show film your life and interview you and then run amock with the footage. Seriously, this is only worth it if you make Kardashian style money with it (I never watched , but I am of this world and I know they got insanely rich by sharing their brand of madness).

But besides all that I noticed something strange; with a certain regularity there are people on this show who were friends with the American partner before the relationship started. And sometimes these friends are raving mad at their 'best friend' actually spending time with the person they're going to be married with. And I am not talking about saying that they miss hanging out together, but really mouth foaming abuse being hurled at their friends for being less available.

It made me wonder; is this a thing nowadays? That friends actually think they can claim the same level as attention as a partner/spouse?

[Dreadnaught]

This show is a cauldron of somewhat abusive relationships. When I've stumbled on it I watch for a full hour but have to stop because I find it simultaneously fascinating, engrossing and painful. I then feel shame.

[Aimless]

First, I have to tell you that I have an addiction; the addiction is called 90 day fiancée and it comes in several variaties. It had been around long before I stumbled upon it in its third season and now I am actually paying TLC (d-player) to be able to see all seasons and all iterations (happily ever after, pillow talk, before the 90 days, quarantaine though I will draw a line in the sand and I decided to not include Stacey and Darcy (at least for the time being).

The premise of this reality TV series is that Americans get involved with a partner from another country and that the partner comes to the USA on a K-1 visa. The visa allows the partner to come to the USA and stay there for 90 days. At the end of the 90 days a legal marriage has to be in place or the foreign partner has to leave the country. You have to be literally crazy to allow a TV show film your life and interview you and then run amock with the footage. Seriously, this is only worth it if you make Kardashian style money with it (I never watched , but I am of this world and I know they got insanely rich by sharing their brand of madness).

But besides all that I noticed something strange; with a certain regularity there are people on this show who were friends with the American partner before the relationship started. And sometimes these friends are raving mad at their 'best friend' actually spending time with the person they're going to be married with. And I am not talking about saying that they miss hanging out together, but really mouth foaming abuse being hurled at their friends for being less available.

It made me wonder; is this a thing nowadays? That friends actually think they can claim the same level as attention as a partner/spouse?

A small number of millennials and zoomers approach life as if it were a TV show, and nobody wants to be written out of their show, or be forced to play second fiddle to some Season 3 upstart. All kidding aside, there is, I think, a higher expectation these days—in some groups of younger urban people—of maintaining friend-time, and obv a reality show is gonna dial that up to eleven for dramatic effect.

[Hazir]

A small number of millennials and zoomers approach life as if it were a TV show, and nobody wants to be written out of their show, or be forced to play second fiddle to some Season 3 upstart. All kidding aside, there is, I think, a higher expectation these days—in some groups of younger urban people—of maintaining friend-time, and obv a reality show is gonna dial that up to eleven for dramatic effect.

So it is a thing? Partners who are not friends yet should assume they go lower on the totem pole ?