Catching up on this season of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, I had a thought that I’ve had multiple times but never really brogged about: what’s the possibility that there are some people on the show who are deliberately doing things knowing that it’s juicy television and will ensure their continued participation on the show?
Now I could be like 50 years late to the party and everyone else in 90 Day Nation is already aware that this is going on, or it can be more of a real question, in the sense that I’m watching the show, and I’m suspecting that some of the people or couples, are deliberately manipulating their storylines in order to remain on the show, where they can continue to hoover in participation money, get television exposure, and stay (in)famous and fresh in the eyes of viewers.
Case in point: Ariela, the girl from New Jersey who got knocked up by an Ethiopian guy, and moved to Ethiopia to have the baby and live there, hoping to actually grow and marry a relationship with the baby daddy, Biniam. Her original tour of the show was pretty straight forward, dealing with the culture shock, Bini’s family, her family’s resistance to moving, and then the eventual arrival of the baby.
But with this recent season, she brings her ex-husband to come and visit, insinuates all sorts of unfinished business with him, and then goes back to America for a routine medical procedure for her son, and then supposedly goes full dark side, gets a bunch of laughably gross plastic surgery, and refuses to return to Ethiopia, which is actually something that had happened to Bini in the past, where a former baby mama abandoned him.
Like, these are all things that I can’t help but feel are a little too orchestrated, too conveniently inflammatory for the show to exploit, and all the reasons in the world to keep Ariela on the show. She seems fairly bright and cunning, and I wouldn’t put it past her to do it, in order to keep TLC money coming in, and to potentially springboard all this cable tv exposure into something in the future, or to become a mainstay in the 90 Day Universe and get tapped all the time for spinoffs or specials.
I think Corey and Evelin, or the cuck and the bitch in Ecuador, are also gaming the show as well, because they need the money, and as doomed as their relationship is, I think they’re smart enough to realize that they need to keep the cameras rolling long enough to bilk as much money from TLC as they can before they can have the break up they’re destined to have.
However, this doesn’t apply to all cast members of the show; like the case of Jenny and Sumit, both of them are dumb as rocks, and Jenny can’t seem to understand that Sumit will never marry her, as he has an endless bag of excuses and reasons to never move forward. I never laughed harder than when he has suggested traveling to Nepal to circumvent Jenny’s visa issues, because his own passport was absconded by his ex-in-laws and he doesn’t seem to understand he’s a grown adult and can get a replacement.
Kenny and Armando are the layup of the season, Steven and Alina are too young and stupid to game the show, and Ellie and Victor are living too real of a situation, dealing with hurricane cleanup to be in a position to be gaming the show.
The point is, I’m just not coming to the realization, that there are clearly a lot of participants in the show’s history, where they’re gaming the system and artificially injecting plot lines and twists in order to remain on the show. Some more obvious than others, but there are obviously sometimes gamers amidst those seeking foreign love.
