Love Island is a cultural phenomenon in the UK. Over the past several years, the reality dating competition has become a summer staple of British life for those who watch it. It's popular enough that US audiences now have their own version of the show that airs on CBS.
Some fans of the US spinoff may not have seen the UK original — and they're missing out. Even though the American Love Island follows the format of the original very closely, it's just not the same. There are several reasons why the original Love Island is still the best.
More Content
Love Island typically runs from the beginning of June through the end of July, but it packs a ton of content into those two months. That's because the show airs every night of the week as the contestants live out their Love Island lives in real time, Big Brother-style.
Do the math and that comes out to roughly 60 hour-long episodes of Love Island over the course of just eight weeks. For TV fans who like to dive deep into whatever they're watching, getting into Love Island pays dividends. The American version runs shorter, so the results don't feel quite as grand.
Britishness
Frankly, half the reason the original version of Love Island is so entertaining is the Britishness of it all. A new viewer who doesn't know the difference, for example, between an Essex girl and a "Geordie" (someone from Newcastle) will start to figure it after enough hours of viewing.
And then, of course, there are the accents. Geordie, Mancunian, Scouse, Yorkshire, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and everything in between. It seems like every islander has a different manner of speech, all of them novel to American ears. Love Island is a British creation, and it works best as a British series.
Steaminess
In the States, Love Island airs on CBS, not cable, so it's fairly well censored down to its TV-14 rating. Broadcasting standards in the UK aren't as strict, especially not after the evening broadcasting watershed. This means Love Island is a little more adult in its home country, with more sexual content.
The UK Love Island also contains stronger language. When the islanders get into heated exchanges, the cursing goes uncensored, and it can get quite descriptive. This may or may not be to an individual viewer's taste, but those who are up for a little more steaminess will prefer the UK Love Island.
Better Catchphrases and Slang
Americans and Brits share a language, but it should come as no surprise that each group has a lot of their own slang. Getting into British Love Island means learning a whole glossary of new terms that take some getting used to at first, but that makes the show a lot more fun.
It won't take long for an American viewer to figure out how someone's acting if they're "buzzin'," being "muggy" or just "cracking on." And if a lad grafts a bird with good craic on the first night but pies her off the next, that's all right, because it's still early days, innit?
More Emotional Investment
When a Love Island series starts, everyone looks their best and is down to have a good time, so all the fun is very surface level and delightfully shallow. But dedicated viewers who watch an entire series spend an hour every day with the people on the show for two months straight. It's impossible not to get to know the islanders and care about them — or strongly dislike them — over time.
Due to gameplay, some of the islanders come and go in a matter of days while others start on Day 1 and last for the entire series. Fans inevitably will find themselves rooting for certain players and genuinely wanting them to find happiness in the villa. The relationships on Love Island USA are more superficial.
Innovative Twists
The UK Love Island is the original, and the American adaptation changed very, very little about the format. That's good, because why fix what's not broken? From Love Island's Casa Amor to the baby-raising challenge, the most iconic parts of the original series show up in the US version.
So far, though, CBS' Love Island hasn't tried much that's new and unique. Not all of those fun elements, like the infamous lie detector test, were in place from the start in Britain's Love Island; they were added over time. If new twists are going to enter the villa, it'll probably happen on the other side of the pond.
Greater Popularity
The popularity of one version of a TV show over another may seem at first like a shallow reason to prefer it, but not when you consider the implications. In the age of fandoms, getting into a TV show is about more than just watching the show; it's about joining the community.
Since Love Island is so huge in the UK, there's more of it to dig into outside the broadcasts. The UK's Love Island cast become true celebrities. For those who are inclined to follow them after their time on the show, British tabloids continue reporting on them and their lives for years. There's just more to sink one's teeth into when obsession with the show takes hold.
Availability
The original, British Love Island may be an import, but it's not difficult for American viewers to find. Every episode of the original series is available to stream on Hulu. In fact, it's been there since before the premiere of the US version ever went into production.
This raises the question of why anyone needed an American spinoff of the show in the first place. The UK original is the essential version, and it already gave US audiences everything they needed before CBS delivered the spinoff. That's why, for any American who wants to pick just one version of Love Island to watch, the British Love Island is still the one.