Swiping America is being called a “rom doc” by its producers, Stephen Warren and Johnnie Ingram (We’re Here); it’s basically a reality series that takes four New York singles — Kris, Reagan, Kesun and Ash — and sends them on an eight-city trip across the United States, where they can swipe right or left on potential dates pre-selected by the producers, then go on dates with the matches.
Opening Shot: As we see scenes of New York, and pictures of eggplant emojis and sexts, a narrator says “This is New York; city of dreams, land of lust.”
The Gist: In the first episode, the four singles find themselves at a massive ranch near Asheville, NC. Asheville was selected because of its arts district, high concentration of young creatives, and relative progressive politics. The four go on “date zero” meetups with the people they match with, then they hang out at the ranch house and talk to each other about the people they meet. Over the next couple of days, they then go out on real first dates with the person they vibed with the best.
There are no eliminations or cut flowers proffered to promising candidates. The group simply moves to the next city, and the singles decide whether they want to stay in touch with their dates or not.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Swiping America is part dating show like Indian Matchmaking, part strangers-on-a-road-trip show like Road Rules.
Our Take: We were highly annoyed by the fast-cut, disjointed first fifteen minutes of Swiping America. To varying degrees, all four singles felt like they were reading off scripts rather than speaking in real terms about how frustrating dating in New York can be. Reagan felt especially fake through her initial interviews, displaying her various bold outfits and giggling a lot.
But once the group got to Asheville, the narration was dropped and the four settled into a nicely-paced dating and travel show vibe. Everyone opens up and starts to be themselves. And they’re all open to finding someone for the long term, not just dating around.
The swiping gimmick is just that; to be honest, because the producers pre-select the swiping candidates, it really isn’t much different from the singles being set up by a matchmaker or just being shown pictures and a fact sheet.
While the dates can feel a bit contrived: Ash, who considers herself a “soft masc” type of lesbian, goes foraging with her selected date, with a crunchy-granola guide who talks about eating roadkill bear for dinner. More or less, though, the dates feel like the same kind of first dates people go on in real life. Even when there isn’t a spark, the conversation is generally easygoing and fun, because the “date zero” weeded out any uncomfortable interactions.
What we appreciated more was that, by the end of the Asheville segment of the trip, the four singles had bonded over their shared experience, and they even talked about how the friendships they’re forming with each other might be the best thing to come out of the trip. We think that’s the part of the show we’re going to enjoy the most.
Sex and Skin: At a gas station, Reagan and her date Ross kiss off camera, but we see a subtitle that says “(kissing noises).”
Parting Shot: Reagan, who has become more relaxed during the Asheville trip, and more open talking about her Mormon upbringing and shyness about sex, despite her outgoing nature, talks about why she doesn’t want to mention her son to daters. She feels that may have to change as the trip continues if she wants to forge more than superficial connections with her dates.
Sleeper Star: Kesun and Kris don’t get as much screen time with their dates as Ash and Reagan do, but then again their dates weren’t as interesting (Reagan even brought her date home). So we’re interested in seeing more interesting dates from them. That being said, we’ll give this to Reagan’s dog Mosie.
Most Pilot-y Line: The group does a cold bath exercise once they get to their ranch in Asheville which made us roll our eyes. Why even bother with contrived activities like this?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Believe us, the annoying first fifteen minutes of Swiping America made us want to skip the series, but once it settled into its dating groove, and the singles opened up and bonded, the “rom doc” aspect became pretty enjoyable to watch, thanks to four likeable singles.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.