Sometimes hooking up can be fun and superficial, and sometimes it can lead to something more serious. That’s the premise of Netflix’s new dating show Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark, in which a group of six singles arrive to a resort, only to learn that the people they’re being set up with are people they’ve previously had short-lived hookups with. While everyone is initially shocked, some of the participants seem game to test out this experiment, but most… just want to hook up with everyone else.
Opening Shot: A montage of a group of singles splices together footage of them entering the villa they’ll be living in for the next few weeks as they discuss the fact that they’re all here searching for love. True love, “like my Mom and Dad have,” one of them says.
The Gist: Six singles, three men and three women, arrive to a motel where they’ll live for the next couple weeks and search for love. This assembled group have all been enjoying their freedom and hooking up with people with no strings attached, and claim they’re all ready to move into the next phase of their life and look for commitment.
What they don’t know is that there will be six additional singles arriving to the motel, six folks they know intimately: they are the people they’ve been in a past “situationship” with or hooked up with… their “sneaky links.” (What’s weirder is that neither person in any of these couples expected to see their sneaky link there, which kinda makes you wonder how production found them all and was able to cast them?) And from there, the premise of the show posits that perhaps maybe true love can be found right beneath our noses: maybe the one you love is already the one you’re sleeping with. Host Chloe Veitch, who herself knows a thing or to about sneaky reality dating shows having won the first season of Netflix’s Too Hot To Handle, arrives to explain the surprise to the contestants, revealing that the show is about to test these folks to determine if the physical connection that already exists between these couples is enough to grow into something deeper. Joining Chloe is relationship expert Spicy Mari who is going to act as a guide and therapist for the contestants, helping them figure out what they’re really looking for.
Right off the bat, the contestants are forced to spend the evening together talking, and in some cases, it seems like the pairs have talked more during these conversations than they ever have before. Interestingly, almost all of them are able to have open, honest dialogue about what they’re looking for, and in most cases, they can admit that they have either closed themselves off to their sneaky link or kept things superficial because they feared a deeper connection. (All but one of the couples, Nicole V. and Logan, seem like there is at least a respectful connection already which could be worth pursuing. Nicole and Logan however, are shown going to bed alone without really speaking.) It’s actually impressive how self-aware most of the participants are about their wants and wishes for this experiment.
The thing is, it’s not as though these couples are bound to each other – everyone is single and is allowed to test out their feelings for anyone else here, so the question is, will some of these sneaky links form a deeper bond, or will some of them pair off with someone else’s old partner, creating jealousy, confusion, and complications? The answer is yes.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Both Sneaky Links and Too Hot To Handle feature a dating pool of proudly promiscuous contestants, and while the premise of the shows is somewhat different, they both share an element of surprise when the contestants realize there’s a major plot twist. On Too Hot To Handle it’s that they’ll have to abstain from sex in order to win, while on Sneaky Links, it’s that their dating options are…overly familiar. I also get slight Love Island USA vibes thanks to the coupling up (and re-coupling) of the contestants as they tend to wear their jealousy and hurt feelings out in the open.
Our Take: Sneaky Links is fun because it takes a bunch of self-aware, sex-loving folks and asks them to really think about what they’ve done. Is this really what they want for themselves? Is that person they’ve been sleeping with really worth it? The show obviously doesn’t position these questions in quite that way, but everyone here is forced to examine whether or not their true love has been right there in front of them this whole time.
Pretty much all of the people who have agreed to appear on the show admit that they’re tired of sleeping around, and with Spicy Mari’s help, they’re asked to get introspective and in touch with their real wants and feelings. (Eventually, the contestants who make it to the end of the process are even asked to meet their partner’s family to “go public” with their relationship). The show is filled with plenty of salacious activity, but it’s also an interesting experiment in seeing the cast start to take the process seriously rather than just trying to have a good time. While not all the couples make it to the end, and most of them don’t leave with the one they came with (no spoilers!), it’s a fun ride to see how these daters evolve over time and – gasp!– maybe even grow from the experience.
Sex and Skin: There’s plenty of sex-positive conversation and low-light hooking up under the covers after dark.
Parting Shot: “Hopefully this doesn’t backfire on me,” says Colt, a participant who arrived with his sneaky link named Avery, but currently finds himself rolling around in bed with a woman named Angelique.
Performance Worth Watching: Many of the contestants will definitely be interesting to watch, especially because some of them seem to have formed crushes or connections already with people they didn’t know before. But Nicole V.. and Logan both seem like intriguing ones to watch, Nicole because she seems guarded and less open than most people who appear on dating shows, and Logan because he seems sweet and like he genuinely might get hurt during this experiment.
Memorable Dialogue: “I’m moving out of my ho phase because I do want someone to raise a family with and grow old with,” contestant Angelique says at the beginning of the series.
Our Call: STREAM IT! Sneaky Links feels familiar, combining elements of a lot of other shows we’ve already seen, but the contestants also seem genuine and, even if their relationships don’t necessarily last forever off-camera, they seem well-earned and it’s fun to watch them evolve.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.