🏝️ Introducing the "Love Island" (UK) Fav/Block List for Season 8 (Weeks 1-3)
Updated weekly, after Week 2
In the U.S., fans of the Greatest Reality Dating Show In The Universe don’t get to stream new episodes early enough to vote for our favorite islanders and couples—the tax we still pay for winning the Revolutionary War (fact).
Here, beginning after Week 2, I’ll blog about the islanders I love and love to hate because there is no other official capacity for doing so. Please join me and bring your friends! This is the “Love Island” (UK) Fav/Block List for Season 8.
Week 3
We’ve just been granted two islanders in one day, making the current islander count 14. This week, I’m ranking the Girls first, with last week’s ranking in parentheses (“-” if their ranking stayed the same).
Girls
1. Paige (-) — Shout it with me: Protect Paige!
2. Gemma (4) — Hasn’t been asked about her relationship in at least a week, and isn’t begging to be either. (See: Mornings on the terrace.) She knows, what a few of her fellow islanders apparently don’t, that that’s how you make it far in this game. No attention, no problems 🤷.
3. Tasha (2) — Been a confounding week since showing up in the Bottom Three of the first public vote, but I think her boy is mostly to blame.
4. Danica (NR) — Must be shellshocked not to be picked by Davide at the recoupling, 24 hours after he kissed her. Hasn’t caught any breaks in the villa, and finds herself (again) in a couple with a boy not interested in knowing her on a romantic level. Her time may be running out, but she’s genuinely been a good house guest.
NR. Antigoni — Big hair, bigger personality. Could have a long run in the villa, but getting picked by Davide looks like an unlucky draw.
6. Indiyah (-) — Has a personality; turns out she just had a bad case of Ikenna.
7. Ekin-Su (3) — Trapped herself by going back to the Jay chat a second time, and now she’s scrambling. I’m astonished by how badly she fumbled that.
Boys
1. Jacques (-) — Can’t help that Jay speaks a different bro code; that when he says “crack on,” Jay hears “go on, take her.” Maybe Jay’s dead to him, but he’s handled it like a champ with the only person who really matters.
2. Jay (3) — OK, maybe too assertive. (Way too assertive!) But looked at another way, it’s fair to take the approach that the most authentic way of getting to know someone in the villa is by coupling up with them.
3. Luca (4) — Fine, I guess.
4. Dami (6) — The public did him a favor, but it’s still weird he never broke it off with Amber. Will we get another Malin/Terry situation?
NR. Charlie — Has been hard to read in the two minutes he’s been here. But, come on, Ekin-Su? Really?
6. Andrew (2) — He might be OK if he’d just shut up. Guy can’t leave his girl alone!
7. Davide (-) — Licked the face off one girl, then turned around and picked another. Just me waiting for this to be a bigger deal…
Weeks 1-2
Having just sent Danica into the villa, there are now 14 islanders (7 couples) in the villa. Boys rankings are up first, ordered from Favorite to Least/Blocked.
Boys
1. Jacques — Game-wise, he’s playing it perfectly. He’s the villa’s ultimate guy’s guy, is in a popular couple and has Gemma as a life raft. But no one gets away with this; there must be a few skeletons in his closet. When will they come out?
2. Andrew — To his credit, he knows he hasn’t been tested yet, which is a level of clarity above average in this group. But my wife noticed he has weird nipples, so that’s obviously a character flaw.
3. Jay — Carrying out a secret affair with Ekin-Su is a hell of a start. He’s got to be the betting favorite first to intercourse and I don’t think he even needs The Hideaway to get there—they’ve got the Terrace!
4. Luca — So obsessed with Gemma, he’s maturing in reverse, and how little she has had to do to get him there is astonishing. He cannot cope. I give it two more weeks that if he hasn’t made things official, he’s walking through a glass door. (Sorry, bro.)
5. Ikenna — Gigantic person, thinks he’s definitely in the happiest romantic relationship of his life. No notes.
6. Dami — Walks everywhere on his tip toes, probably, because he’s so afraid of doing or saying anything wrong.
7. Davide — You know it’s bad when your Italian accent can’t close the deal.
Now, it’s the Girls turn.
Girls
1. Paige — Happy to be there; even happier to have been untested to this point. But the question’ll be asked sooner or later. Would she let out her claws if someone comes for her man or politely step aside? Paige, don’t be a Camilla. (Or do? 🤷 She finished runner-up and now has kids with him.)
2. Tasha — Deserves her fanfare, but I still find myself low-key scared of her? Is it just me, or do others think she has a wild side yet to reveal itself?
3. Ekin-Su — I’ll repeat something I said to my wife the other night: Ekin-Su, perhaps the best player of the game ever? A real go-getter, and she’s racking up Wins. You keep being you, Ekin-Su!
4. Gemma — Would eat me alive, but I’d go along. (Pretty sure that’s what’s happening to Luca.) Still feels like she’s the most likely, out of the girls, to make it to the end, but her decision to save Davide at the last re-coupling is a really tough look.
NR. Danica — Da-nee-ka gets No Ranking because she’s brand-new to the villa, not because she’s already screwed.
6. Indiyah — A+ for effort, I guess, but I’m bored to death.
7. Amber — Got to go on the first date outside the villa (📈) and subsequently peaked (📉). If her time is coming to an end, at least she had tennis on clay.
