The best thing about Love Island USA this summer is the…friendships?

Gen Z’s dating habits are re-shaping TV’s smuttiest show.

On Love Island USA, a show purportedly about pursuing heterosexual romance in an obnoxiously-lit villa in Fiji, the two biggest stories this season are not about sordid, spontaneous hookups; devastatingly hot bombshells in skimpy bikinis leaving broken hearts in their wake; or what scandalous behavior the night vision cameras have caught on tape. Instead, it’s an intimate friendship between two men and the girls sticking up for one of their own.

Viewers this season are focused on the depth of Bryce and Zach’s friendship. Some fans believe that the pair’s platonic chemistry is deeper and stronger than any romance Bryce and Zach have found with their female castmates.

Friendship is also top of mind when it comes to the show’s women and how they’re moving through this game. They’ve essentially unionized, as much as any group can on Love Island. They yell “BOOOOOoooOOO!” at the men together. They call out bad behavior. They give each other pep talks — routinely delivering the kind of speech that could empower someone to run through a brick wall. And in the moments when they’re feeling rejected and scorned, they focus their ire on the men who dumped them, not the new women they’ve chosen.

That friendship taking center stage on a famously depraved reality TV dating show feels a little shocking. It’s like serving up BLTs and having everyone rave about the bread — a welcome surprise, but not what we all came here for.

Everyone’s a girl’s girl on TV. Until they’re not.

But, to longtime viewers (and at least one psychologist), this turn toward platonic friendships isn’t so much an anomaly but a natural evolution.

The reason Love Island USA is as popular as it is now — and it is very, very popular — is because of how its young, hot cast members have subverted the will of the show. Instead of fighting each other for the attention of the opposite sex, the show’s contestants have decided it’s about the friendships they make along the way — even as they weather “sexy” “games” that might, say, simulate a strip show or require contestants to put on lacy lingerie and chef’s hats and, then, play musical chairs, cheeks bare, rushing to sit on stools that are topped with cakes. The cast is also made to sleep in one large bedroom (with multiple cameras) and share beds — a conceit that’s yielded spicy, shocking content in past iterations.

But no matter how hard the show pushes them toward NSFW (and borderline not safe for life) situations and encourages them to compete for attention, the beautiful Gen Z guinea pigs of Love Island continue to turn the format on its head and play by their own rules. And viewers love seeing powerful friendships unfold. In that sense, this shift away from sex and coupling and toward platonic connections is a direct reflection of a lot of what we know about Gen Z’s dating habits.

Do people really watch Love Island for…friendships?

Three signature Love Island challenges

While every season of Love Island is unique, and the producers continue to find new ways to torture contestants, there are some constants: the challenges. These mini games have no prizes; they are designed to titillate; gyrate; humiliate; and, perhaps, in some cases exfoliate the island’s unlucky inhabitants. Here are three signature ones:

Heart Rate Challenge: The castmates........

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