You know it’s a dry season of Love Island when the most interesting drama from the show involves two contestants bitching about another, over seemingly nothing. Last night, Olivia Hawkins and Shaq Muhammad showed their disdain for Tanyel Revan, claiming that she keeps talking to guys ‘for convenience’ and isn’t actually interested in any of the men she’s been entertaining – namely, new bombshell Jordan Odofin.
‘I feel like I’m going to have to tell Jordan, cause if you were putting the effort into someone and they weren’t feeling you, you’d want to know,’ Shaq told Olivia – to her agreement. But the wildest part is, Tanyel has only been doing exactly what everyone else has, getting to know Jordan at a normal pace and hoping their compatibility shines through.
In fact, he’s been talking to fellow contestant Ellie Spencer at the same time, and she’s been open about the fact that she likes Jordan’s personality, she’s just not 100% sure they have the same sense of humour. Is that a crime? It certainly seems so in Love Island world, where cuddles are expected within hours of meeting someone and ‘I love you’s’ swapped within weeks.
The public though, are firmly on Tanyel’s side. In fact, many are questioning the intentions behind Olivia and Shaq’s bitching session and raising the very valid point that we’ve barely seen a spark between Olivia and her very convenient partner, Kai Fagan, either. To sit there judging Tanyel for not being in a solid couple yet, questioning her motives merely from getting to know numerous boys and not being sure about them, hasn’t sat well with viewers.
Because aren’t all of us more like Tanyel in the real world? One of the least relatable parts of Love Island is how quickly contestants seem to fall for each other, with Tanyel’s journey of bad dates and unsure talking stages much more understandable.
And it seems to be a running theme, scrutinising Tanyel for the slightest thing – last week, Olivia raised similar concerns about her character when questioning her friendship with Ron Hall. She even took issue with a joke Tanyel made about new boys coming in after her lacklustre crush, Spencer Wilks, was booted out the villa. At this point, it feels like Tanyel only needs to breathe, and other Islanders are coming for her.
Perhaps it’s editing manipulation, perhaps it’s producer intervention, but it seems as though Tanyel is the new easy target to become the series villain - despite not actually doing anything wrong. At this point, Islanders would be better off creating entertainment by showing us actual relationship drama than picking apart the season favourite. Justice for Tanyel!