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    Netflix Adds Disclaimer to Indian Show After Anger Over Hijacker Names

    The series, based on a 1999 plane hijacking, prompted backlash on social media. Critics claimed it wrongly portrayed the Islamist hijackers as Hindus.Netflix expanded a disclaimer for Indian audiences with a fictional series inspired by the 1999 hijacking of a plane by Islamist militants, after social media users and a high-ranking member of India’s ruling party accused it of portraying the hijackers as Hindus.“IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack,” released last week, became the latest production by a Western streaming giant to find itself in the cross hairs of India’s Hindu nationalist movement, which has been accused of building up an increasingly intolerant atmosphere in the country.The series shows five Islamist militants hijacking an Indian Airlines flight from Nepal to India, and their interactions with the plane’s crew and passengers. In the show, the hijackers refer to themselves by code names, including “Shankar,” a common name for Hindu men.That prompted anger among many social media users, with some accusing the producers of playing down the Muslim identity of the hijackers. A national official of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Malviya, said the series’ use of the hijackers’ aliases “legitimized their criminal intent.”“Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814,” Mr. Malviya, who oversees information technology and social media for the B.J.P., wrote on X on Monday.India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting summoned a Netflix executive to discuss the government’s grievances about the show, according to local media reports.“For the benefit of audiences unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer in India has been updated to include the real and code names of the hijackers,” Netflix said in a statement on Tuesday.During the actual hijacking of the flight, over eight days, the militants forced the pilots to fly the plane to a number of locations, including Dubai, and then Kandahar, Afghanistan, which was ruled by the Taliban at the time. The plane’s passengers were freed after India released three Pakistanis who had been held under terrorism charges.The Indian government said at the time that the five hijackers were from Pakistan and used code names, including “Shankar,” in front of the passengers and crew to conceal their identities.Before the show’s release on Aug. 29, its director, Anubhav Sinha, told Scroll, an Indian news site, that his goal was to present the event “exactly in the manner in which it happened.”The updated disclaimer on Netflix now says the series “does not make any claims of authenticity or historical correctness” of the events featured in it. It also lists the hijackers’ real names: Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim and Shakir.This is not the first time major streaming platforms have faced pressure from Hindu nationalists in India.Netflix in January removed a film after Hindu nationalists said it mocked Hinduism. The makers of a 2021 Amazon series cut some scenes after critics accused them of disrespecting Hindu gods. More

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    New Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in September: ‘The Perfect Couple’ and More

    A glitzy mystery starring Nicole Kidman arrives early this month; later, a new true-crime series tells the troubling tale of Lyle and Erik Menendez.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of September’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘The Perfect Couple’Starts streaming: Sept. 5Reminiscent of both “The White Lotus” and “Big Little Lies,” this adaptation of an Elin Hilderbrand novel is part murder mystery and part social satire, covering the secrets and prejudices of two families at a Nantucket wedding. Eve Hewson plays Amelia, a middle-class gal about to marry into a rich and famous clan, led by the pot-smoking patriarch Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber) and his hyper-judgmental wife, Greer (Nicole Kidman), a best-selling author. When a member of the wedding party turns up dead on the beach, the police interrogate the guests, gradually piecing together a story that involves deceit and old grudges. Directed by the veteran art-house filmmaker Susanne Bier (who also directed the Netflix hit “Bird Box”), “The Perfect Couple” is less about the crime than it is about the delusions and pretensions it exposes.‘Rebel Ridge’Starts streaming: Sept. 6After making a foray into literary adaptation with “Hold the Dark” (2018), the writer-director Jeremy Saulnier gets back to the lean pulp thrills of his critically acclaimed “Blue Ruin” and “Green Room” with his latest movie. “Rebel Ridge” features an original Saulnier script about a military veteran named Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), who has a run in with some swaggering rural southern cops. The officers seize his money, then conspire to punish him further when Terry pushes back. AnnaSophia Robb plays a court clerk who helps Terry dig into the rot spilling downward from the corrupt local police chief (Don Johnson). Although the film deals with the serious contemporary social issue of civil asset forfeiture, in spirit it has a lot in common with the likes of “Walking Tall,” “First Blood” and other old-school action pictures in which one man takes on a whole town.‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’Starts streaming: Sept. 19In 2022, the producer Ryan Murphy and his frequent creative partner Ian Brennan delivered one of Netflix’s most-watched mini-series with the Emmy-nominated “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” a dramatization of the life and crimes of a notorious serial killer. The next season of their ripped-from-yesterday’s-headlines anthology series pluralizes the title — from “Monster” to “Monsters” — and covers the brothers Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) Menendez, who murdered their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloë Sevigny), in 1989. The cast also includes Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson, the attorney who attempted to paint the brothers in court as the victims of an abusive father, and Nathan Lane as Dominick Dunne, the Vanity Fair columnist whose reporting on the trial was filled with gossipy detail about the Menendezes’ upscale Los Angeles lives.‘Twilight of the Gods’ Season 1Starts streaming: Sept. 19Zack Snyder’s latest Netflix project is this adult-oriented animated series, set in the lusty, violent milieu of Norse mythology. When Thor (Pilou Asbaek) disrupts a mortal wedding and instigates a devastating massacre, the bride and groom — the warrior Sigrid (Sylvia Hoeks) and a king named Leif (Stuart Martin) — set out on a mission of revenge. Soon, they and their soldiers find themselves caught up in ancient rivalries, involving the likes of Loki (Paterson Joseph) and Odin (John Noble). Snyder and his “Twilight of the Gods” fellow creators, Eric Carrasco and Jay Oliva, don’t spare the gore or the nudity as they tell a tale that stretches from the underworld to the land of giants, with a Hans Zimmer score to help set a grand, epic tone.‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 1Starts streaming: Sept. 26Based loosely on the personal experiences of its creator, Erin Foster, the romantic comedy “Nobody Wants This” stars Kristen Bell as Joanne, a popular podcaster who riffs on sex and dating alongside her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe). Then Joanne meets Noah (Adam Brody), a sweet and funny rabbi who recently broke up with his longtime girlfriend and has since been fending off a steady stream of his congregants’ daughters and nieces. The show is partly about how an agnostic exhibitionist and an emotionally reserved, deeply religious guy overcome their differences and form bonds, with each other and with their respective sets of friends and family. But it’s also about two middle-aged people searching for some grounding and direction in their hectic lives.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Stream These 12 Titles Before They Leave Netflix in September

    A lot of great movies and TV shows are leaving for U.S. subscribers this month. Watch them while you can.A wide array of terrific titles are leaving Netflix in the United States in September, including three beloved CW comedies, a movie musical classic, a recent family favorite and two of Eddie Murphy’s best. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)‘Beverly Hills Cop’ / ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’ (Sept. 3)Stream ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ here and ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’ here.To supplement the July release of the Netflix original “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” the service added the first two outings of the long-running franchise, quintessential examples of the ’80s action-comedy. (They didn’t bother with the much-derided “Beverly Hills Cop III,” to no one’s objection.) The 1984 original introduced Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a wisecracking Detroit street cop who invades the tony environs of 90210 to investigate a friend’s murder. The director Martin Brest cleverly mixes hard-hitting action sequences with flashes of character-based comedy, all held aloft by Murphy’s confidence and charisma. The 1987 sequel was directed by the master stylist Tony Scott, so it feels a bit more like a straight-up action picture (albeit a fine one), but Murphy still teases out big laughs where he can find them.‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’: Seasons 1-4 (Sept. 5)Stream it here.The best TV comedies are frequently the outgrowth of a singular sensibility, like Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Lena Dunham’s “Girls” and Tina Fey’s “30 Rock.” Add to that list this CW series from Rachel Bloom, the star and co-creator, who infuses the formula of the television rom-com with generous volts of manic, theater-kid energy. She stars as Rebecca Bunch, an unhappy Manhattan corporate lawyer who abandons her career to follow an old summer camp crush to California. With its oddball musical numbers, candid depiction of mental illness and winking inversions of romantic conventions, it’s a true, terrific original.‘iZombie’: Seasons 1-5 (Sept. 5)Stream it here.That same year, the CW debuted this wryly funny and thankfully light addition to the seemingly endless canon of undead television entertainment. The charming Rose McIver stars as Liv, a young doctor whose ill-advised ride on a cursed booze cruise turns her into a flesh-eating zombie. She makes the best of it, taking a job at a morgue, where there’s an endless supply of fresh brains — which she soon discovers hold the memories of their deaths, turning the show into an unlikely but enjoyable crime procedural.‘Jane the Virgin’: Seasons 1-5 (Sept. 5)Stream it here.Our CW trifecta concludes with this sparkling and screwy telenovela spoof, which ran on the network from 2014 to 2019. Gina Rodriguez found her breakthrough role as the title character, a waitress and would-be writer who takes a vow of chastity until marriage, then finds herself in a state of near-constant challenge to that vow. Rodriguez is a spark plug, playing Jane with equal emphasis on the heart, mind and libido, while Jennie Snyder Urman, the creator and showrunner, introduces endless and frequently preposterous romantic entanglements without subverting the genuine warmth at the story’s center.‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ (Sept. 19)Stream it here.The director Halina Reijn assembles a gifted ensemble cast — including Maria Bakalova, Pete Davidson, Lee Pace, Rachel Sennott, Amandla Stenberg and Chase Sui Wonders — in this inspired mash-up of locked-room whodunit and “Spring Breakers”-style party movie. Davidson is a spoiled-rotten trust fund kid who hosts a rager for his friends as they ride out an incoming hurricane, and it’s all fun and games and drunken revelry until guests start turning up dead. Reijn threads a delicate needle here, making her characters flawed but not quite loathsome, and sending up current trends of online activism and halfhearted wokeness without punching down.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The Interview’: Jenna Ortega Is Still Recovering From Child Stardom

    If you have a tween daughter, as I do, you know that Jenna Ortega is a big deal. In 2022, Ortega starred as the title character in Netflix’s “Addams Family” reboot, “Wednesday,” and quickly became beloved by viewers for her character’s snarky, dark and brutally honest personality. The show was a hit, and suddenly Wednesday — and by extension Ortega — were everywhere: on merch, on the streets for Halloween and all over the internet doing her meme-able dance moves. It was the kind of star-making, culture-saturating role that is life-changing for a young actor. It was also, as Ortega told me over the course of our two conversations, completely disorienting to become so famous so fast.Listen to the Conversation With Jenna OrtegaThe actress talks about learning to protect herself and the hard lessons of early fame.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppOrtega didn’t appear out of nowhere. She started as a child actor on the Disney Channel, played the young version of Jane in the CW series “Jane the Virgin” and later starred in the “Scream” and “X” horror franchises. Now she is 21. Her next big role is in the new movie “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, which opens nationwide on Sept. 6. (Burton also directed several episodes of “Wednesday.”) Ortega plays the daughter of Winona Ryder’s character, and she told me that they bonded over each having found enormous success in Hollywood at a young age.When we spoke — I caught her in Ireland, where she was filming the second season of “Wednesday” — I found Ortega to be a thoughtful and curious person who, like many young people, is still finding out who she is. “I’m just navigating,” she says of this stage of her life. “I’m on my own little personal expedition.” Only she is doing it under the glare of a massive spotlight.When did you first see the original “Beetlejuice”? Honestly, I can’t really put a date on it. I feel like I had to have seen it maybe when I was 8 or 9. I was terrified of everything when I was younger. I actually had a recurring nightmare about Beetlejuice. I saw a really terrible Halloween costume before I really knew what the movie was, and I think that the mold and smearing, bleeding green and black Party City makeup gave me a scare. I just remember that image, and then I watched the movie later, and I thought, Oh, man, this is what the guy was dressed as. This is just as scary.What were your nightmares about Beetlejuice? I shared a room my entire life growing up. I was the bottom bunk on a bunk bed, and I had a dream that Beetlejuice would come down and swing around the banister to my bunk wearing a Superman cape, and he would offer me grape juice and say, “Got any grape?” More

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    For Nava Mau, ‘Baby Reindeer’ Felt Private. Then It Blew Up.

    Mau is up for an Emmy for her performance in the hit Netflix series, making her the first transgender person to be nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.Voting is underway for the 76th Primetime Emmys, and this week we are talking to several first-time Emmy nominees. The awards will be presented Sept. 15 on ABC.The experience of filming “Baby Reindeer” was so meaningful for Nava Mau, she said, that she would have been fine if it had never come out. But it did in April, and then the seven-episode thriller did what few could have predicted: It became a global phenomenon. The breakout television series of the year so far, “Baby Reindeer” is among Netflix’s most watched shows ever.Its success is even more surprising given the intensity of its central themes: sexual assault, shame, stalking and self-loathing. Based on the real experiences of its creator, writer and star, Richard Gadd, it follows a struggling comedian named Donny who is traumatized by a predatory producer and later stalked by a sad woman named Martha, played by Jessica Gunning. “Baby Reindeer” is one of Martha’s nicknames for Donny.Mau played Teri, a successful therapist and the love interest for Donny, whom she met on a transgender dating site. Teri sees the world more clearly than the other characters but experiences trauma of her own. In July, Mau received her first Emmy nomination, for best supporting actress in a limited series, one of 11 nods for the show. She is the first transgender person to be nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.Mau, who was born in Mexico City and raised in Texas and California, said the story resonated with audiences for the same reasons it resonated with her when she read the script.“Richard demonstrated such courage in portraying these characters as truthfully and beautifully as they possibly could have been,” she said in an interview. “There’s such ugliness in the story and such pain, and yet the humanity of every character is never sacrificed. I think that kind of storytelling allows for people to lower their defenses and really engage with the themes and the emotions that are being presented to them.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Netflix Documentary ‘Daughters’ Shows Reality of Girls Separated From Imprisoned Fathers

    The Netflix documentary doesn’t gloss over hard truths as it follows participants in the Date With Dad program.It’s not unusual for a documentary to be a tear-jerker. Stories of unusual connection or unusual bravery tend to make for good cinema, so when the film features real people, it’s even more affecting. But even by those standards, “Daughters” (on Netflix), directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, is extraordinarily moving.The film focuses on the Date With Dad program, which Patton has led for more than 12 years as part of her community work with Black girls. The children are brought to the prisons where their fathers are incarcerated for a party with dancing, refreshments and opportunities to take photos and talk. Socials like these might be run of the mill for many Americans, but for these families they’re extraordinary: Prisons have increasingly stopped in-person visits (known as “touch visits”) between family members, resorting instead to video and phone calls. Furthermore, incarcerated people can be moved from institution to institution, sometimes far from their families. For some fathers, these events may be the only time during their sentences that they can interact with their daughters in person.The film focuses on several girls, ages 5 to 13, as well as on their imprisoned fathers. The men who are eligible to participate in Date With Dad are required to first attend a 10-week coaching program led by a mentor. These sessions are captured in the documentary, and feel a lot like group therapy. Rae and Patton spend equal time with the girls and the men, letting us listen as they talk about their hopes, their fears, their relationships with their own parents, their regrets and a lot more. Women, too, are part of the story: For many who have been pushed into operating as both mother and father, it’s a fraught decision to even allow their daughters this contact. Their strength is remarkable.There are a lot of tears in this documentary, for the subjects and the audience, too. But “Daughters” is a remarkable study in how to tell this kind of story without twisting into sentimentality. I had assumed “Daughters” would conclude with the dance, with the glad reunions, tears, joy and the promise of closer relationships, but Rae and Patton are more invested in candor than in a happy ending. They’ve constructed the film to show the range of emotions that the girls have toward their fathers, even at the dance, where some are overjoyed and weeping and others are clearly struggling with their feelings.After the dance, the film continues to check in with some of the subjects for several years, exploring how the program affected their futures but also how their fathers’ continued imprisonment profoundly shaped the girls’ lives. Plenty of it is good. But rebuilding a family torn apart by the often unpredictable prison system is hard work, and it doesn’t always go the way we want. When hope does exist, it’s hard-won. And “Daughters” lets us feel all of that, too. More

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    New Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in August: ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘Kaos’ and More

    This month sees the return of “Emily in Paris” and a superhero ensemble, along with a heartbreaking documentary about the daughters of imprisoned men.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of the most promising new titles in August. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ Season 1Stream it hereThe charming young actress Emma Myers (seen recently as an irrepressibly cheerful werewolf on “Wednesday”) gets a starring role in this adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel by Holly Jackson. Myers plays Pip, a sweet but somewhat naïve British schoolgirl, who for a class project decides to reinvestigate the death of a popular teen and her boyfriend — a crime that her small town’s local police force classified as a murder-suicide. To get closer to the truth, Pip relentlessly pesters her peers and tries to cozy up to her worldlier, more party-minded classmates. “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is a mystery series with a somewhat unusual hero: an awkward amateur detective who is learning as much about herself and her neighbors as she is about the crime.‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4Stream it hereThe fourth and final season of this surreal superhero series brings back the world-saving, reality-bending Hargreeves family for one more adventure, set in another of their many timelines. This time, the siblings find themselves stuck in a world where none of them have superpowers, and where some new enemies intend to take advantage of their sudden weakness. Based on a comic book franchise created and written by Gerard Way (the lead singer for the rock band My Chemical Romance), “The Umbrella Academy” retains the wildness of its source material, converting Way’s love of science-fiction and teen angst into a visually imaginative, absurdly funny and frequently unpredictable show about a fractious family whose members have to learn over and over that they are stronger together.‘Daughters’Stream it hereFor over a decade, Angela Patton has helped lead a program called Girls for a Change, which offers resources and guidance to young women whose lives have been affected by poverty, crime and incarcerated parents. Patton is also the co-director (with Natalie Rae) of the documentary “Daughters,” which takes an intimate look at one remarkable G.F.A.C. program, which gives imprisoned men an opportunity to attend a dance with their daughters. The film spends time with the children and their fathers, both in the weeks leading up to the dance and in the weeks after. “Daughters” blends hope and heartbreak into a story about how broken families can stay broken for generation after generation until someone makes an effort to fix them.‘Emily in Paris’ Season 4, Part 1Stream it hereSeason 3 of this breezy romantic-comedy series ended with the American influencer Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) suddenly single after a breakup with her boyfriend Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), prompted by her feelings for the seemingly unavailable Gabriel (Lucas Bravo). Season 4 will be released in two parts (the second comes on Sept. 12) and will see Emily contemplating new romantic opportunities while still dealing with her attraction to both of the men in her life. As always, this new set of “Emily in Paris” episodes will emphasize the glamorous locations and fashions of Europe, as the heroine shares her travails and her travels on social media — often to the consternation of her friends, colleagues and potential lovers.‘Kaos’ Season 1Starts streaming: Aug. 29The fantastical comedy “Kaos” imagines a world where the gods and heroes of Greek myths are still around in our modern times, meddling in mortals’ lives and receiving their tribute. Jeff Goldblum plays Zeus, whose immense power and popularity doesn’t keep him from feeling anxious about his legacy and future. Aurora Perrineau plays Eurydice, who receives a dire prophecy that shakes up her relationship with her pop star husband, Orpheus (Killian Scott). An eclectic cast — including Janet McTeer as Hera, Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, David Thewlis as Hades and Stephen Dillane as Prometheus — fills out the creator Charlie Covell’s satirical epic, which deals with the perils of fame and fortune and the dangers of divine caprice.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    On Netflix, a Very British ‘Love Is Blind’

    The creators of a new version of the reality show, in which contestants agree to marry before meeting face to face, sought to challenge a nation’s archetypal reticence.Tom Stroud, a 38-year-old advertising consultant, sits on the floor of a 12-foot-square room on the reality dating show “Love is Blind: U.K.,” facing a blank wall. On the other side is Natasha Waters, a 32-year-old job counselor, who has just told Tom that he’s everything she’s looking for in a man. He’s flattered — but he needs to let her know that he’s interested in somebody else.“I can feel how good you are,” he begins tentatively. “Um … but … I’m thinking about, sort of, um,” he trails off. He stares off into the distance, sighs heavily, fidgets with a ballpoint pen. “I need to be really honest with you …” he says, after a long pause. “I don’t know if it’s romantic love … it could just be friendship.”It may be no surprise to learn that Stroud is from Britain. This is, after all, the country’s archetypal reticence on display — a contrast to the freewheeling earnestness and candor of the six seasons of the American version of “Love is Blind.” The greater emotional restraint of contestants on the spinoff show is one aspect that makes it extremely, unmistakably British.Nazleen Karim, the showrunner and an executive producer of the series, acknowledged that this inhibition had been a possible concern. “Initially, we were like, ‘Will the Brits be able to emote and be as effusive as the U.S. cast?’” she said in a recent video interview.“We knew the format of the show was so strong, and that the emotion would get there, but part of us was thinking, ‘Will they be able to do it? Will it take them more dates?’” Seeing that process play out against “the stereotype of the stiff upper lip,” she said, was part of the attraction of taking the show’s format outside the United States.That format, in which a group of men and women conduct a series of blind dates from different pods to decide whether to get engaged before meeting in person, builds on the success of other American shows, such as “The Bachelor” and “Married at First Sight,” that have combined marriage with reality TV. The most popular British show in the same style, “Love Island,” is not centered around wedlock.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More