This Dating Show About Queer Scammers Could Be Your New Obsession

But it might also be really problematic. 

The world loves to see dramatic queers being extra, and there’s about to be a whole lot of that on British television sets. On the upcoming season of the MTV dating show, True Love or True Lies?, there are not one, not two, but five (yes, five!) queer couples.

According to Cosmopolitan, the reality show centers on eight couples who share a mansion together in Malta (where do I sign up?) competing for a cash prize. The twist is that only some of the couples are real; the rest are just scammers trying to win the money. If the contestants can figure out which contestants are fake and who is real, they have the opportunity to kick them out of the house. 

But the pretend couples want to fool everyone because if one of them is the last couple in the house, they win the money instead. 

In a statement, MTV says this season’s contestants are the “most diverse cast ever to grace a British television show,” and at least when it comes to LGBTQ+ people, they just might be right. True Love or True Lies? is going to give thousands of queer and trans people in England their first chance to see someone that looks like them in a loving relationship… or scamming for money. 

The second season of True Love or True Lies? debuts in the wake of MTV’s Are You The One?, which recently aired its first season with an all-queer cast. It looks like MTV is hoping to capitalize on the success by making all of its shows queer, which is the kind of pivot we like to see.

As for the queer couples on the show, we’ve got: Charlie and Chloe, who were best friends before Charlie transitioned and the two got together; Poppy and Parisa, a lesbian couple who have a hard time convincing men they’re just not interested; Shadia and Alice, both queer women of color; Timothie and Mahatma, a “gender-fluid-trans non-binary, plus-size, inter-racial, pansexual couple”; and a token white gay couple, Ryan and Scott.

My only worry is that some of these “queer couples” are actually pretending to be gay, which is not the kind of scam we stan. While I absolutely live for messy queers, I definitely do not live for messy straights pretending to be queer. Let’s hope this show treads lightly on an otherwise delightful premise.

True Love or True Lies?starts Monday, October 21 at 9 p.m. and airs every weeknight until November 4.

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