'Romance and cringe is alive and well in Love Is Blind UK'

Netflix launched the UK version of its hit dating show Love Is Blind today, with its promos asking a familiar question: "Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never seen?"

To which anyone with any sense would have presumably responded, "Duh, of course you can. Millions of actual blind people have proved that already." Netflix would probably prefer you not to mention blind people though.

The presenters, Emma and Matt Willis, have even been given a clumsy-sounding way of avoiding the B word. They say 'Can you fall in love sight unseen?' instead — and I’ve yet to hear them say it without getting the impression they know it sounds like corporate gobbledygook.

Offending the sensibilities of the blind community could be the least of Netflix’s concerns though. I suspect this show will cop flak from many directions.

For a start, it’s a boy meets-girl format so there are no gay contestants — 'logistical issues' apparently. There also appears to be a lack of representation when it comes to (obvious) disability. And, without wishing to put too fine a point on matters, the thirty contestants are big gym workout fans plucked from what might be called the 'easy on the eye' end of the market.

However, given the recent controversy caused by the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, Love Is Blind’s biggest critics could be those who still care deeply about the sanctity of marriage.

In case you haven’t seen the hit US version of the show, I should explain that in common with Married At First Sight, the aim of this show is to throw couples together in a whirlwind marriage.

To be fair, Love Is Blind isn’t quite as brutal as MAFS in that respect. The 'newly-engaged' couples are allowed to get to know each other and each other’s friends and family (for all of three weeks!) before deciding whether to actually say I do at the altar.

Nevertheless, some may still feel it makes a mockery of a divine institution. Netflix would perhaps counter that it is merely a reflection of modern society’s views on marriage. The producers have clearly taken steps to head some of the criticism off at the pass.

Booking Mr and Mrs Willis to host was a sensible move. Emma in particular adds a certain gravitas to proceedings. You feel that with her experience and reputation she wouldn’t be hosting this if she thought it was in any way iffy.

Read more: Love is Blind

• Love is Blind UK’s red flags and scandals identified by dating expert (Yahoo Life UK, 10 min read)

• Love is Blind UK's line-up in full (Yahoo TV UK, 16 min read)

• Inside Emma and Matt Willis' marriage as they host Love is Blind UK (Yahoo TV UK, 6 min read)

"I think everyone's in there, pretty much, I think, for genuine reasons," Emma said in pre-show publicity. "You only really get through it, through the whole experiment, if you're there for legitimate reasons." OK, Emma. I’ll pretty much, I think, take your word for it.

Also, unlike Love Island, the cast is drawn from a more mature age range — 27-38 — with the majority well into their thirties. (Note: Cynics may claim Netflix simply did this to avoid being accused of exploiting malleable young adults.)

The implication being that these are serious people who have not entered into this project lightly. Based on the opening episodes, I’d go along with that — to a certain extent.

Some of the conversations that take place in the specially-designed 'sight unseen' pods are evidently more akin to the discussions you might see on Davina McCall’s excellent 'older-folk' ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad than they are to the delightful poolside nonsense Love Island serves up. In the very first episode, the contestants talk openly about love, loss, the meaning of life, and fertility issues.

The problem is your average reality show viewer doesn’t really want to watch a bunch of sensible people fall in love and live happily ever after like. Obviously, one or two success stories would be nice, but the viewers want to be entertained as well.

To have any hope of making a mark, Love Is Blind: UK will need to serve up conflict, despair and failure. You may not like it, but them’s the rules. As luck would have it, the programme’s format is very much geared to achieving that aim.

In fact, if the opening episodes are anything to go by, the UK version has every chance of matching the hit rate of its overseas counterparts. At the last count, six seasons of the US version have brought us 178 participants, 11 marriages and two divorces.

They have also sparked a number of complaints from contestants who claim all is not as it seems on air and off it. I find that a little surprising, to be honest. After all these years of reality television, you’d think anyone involved in a contemporary show would go into it with eyes wide open.

And if that sounds exactly like something someone who is trying to justify getting sucked into a programme like Love Is Blind: UK would say, then OK — you got me.

I was sold the minute the opening episode’s cliffhanger brought us a bloke going down on one knee to deliver a rhyming marriage proposal through a wobbly partition wall to a woman with whom he’d shared a couple of chats but who he had never actually seen.

Romance — and cringe — are very much alive and well, my friends.

I’m off to buy a hat.

Love Is Blind UK part 1 is streaming on Netflix, with more episodes launching on 14 August and 21 August.