Tangled web

Love Net
Friday,7.00 pm,Channel V
Love Net is a dating show that helps you meet your online chat buddy and check how truthful he/she has been while chatting online. So basically,both the online friends volunteer to meet in person through the show,but they must do some snooping about the other before the actually meeting. This involves meeting and questioning their friends,visiting the places they hang out at,meeting colleagues and even going to their houses. Through this they find out how closely their friend hewed to the truth while chatting with them facelessly and,in some cases,using pseudonyms. Finally,the two chat buddies go on a date,which is when the drama kicks in,with plenty of cross-questioning and fights.

VJ Manish does a great job at being casual and fun,with a nice dose of sneakiness. VJ Alisha can be irritating to watch and hear and we wish she’d stop with her Shakira impressions. The others on the show are the participants—the two chat buddies and everyone in their live—-their friends,enemies,colleagues,maidservants,room-mates and,bizarrely,beauticians.
The participants seem genuine and most of their actions don’t feel scripted. They all fit the cliché of friendless and attention-seeking Internet chat addicts. The show can also get quite addictive in parts,especially during the investigations when you can’t help but be amazed at all the lies that have been doing the rounds.

While the concept is interesting,it should have been implemented five years ago when Internet dating was a lot more popular. There is also one part of the show that involves the two people snooping around the other’s house. The host and one participant walk into the other participant’s room and ransack the entire place in order to find ‘clues’ about them. This section is definitely not needed. Who would like an unknown guy to walk into their bedroom and go through their greeting cards,clothes and sex toys – just so that he can find out more about them?
Verdict:
It’s a show that will satisfy your voyeuristic instincts. If peeping into other people’s closets is not your cup of tea,then you can safely stay away. Though once you start watching an episode,you won’t be able to switch channels since the participants and all their drama can be quite entertaining.