솔로지옥, known internationally as Single’s Inferno, took the world by storm when it premiered its first season on Dec. 18, 2021. Upon release, the South Korean reality dating show quickly gained international popularity and became the first South Korean reality show to chart on Netflix’s top 10 most-watched TV shows globally.
In the show, contestants are introduced to one another on a deserted island, known as “Inferno,” presumably coined after Dante’s 1312 Inferno. In order to escape the island and travel to “Paradise,” an all-expenses paid luxury hotel suite on the Korean mainland, contestants must successfully match with another participant.
Due to the show’s immense popularity, it was quickly renewed following the end of season one, and to date, there have been four seasons. The fourth season of Single’s Inferno just wrapped up on Feb. 11, 2025, amidst many complaints.
A primary complaint viewers have with the show in general is the lack of diversity among contestants, and not in terms of race. Being a South Korean reality show, it’s a given that the contestants are Korean, but viewers are unhappy with the monotonous nature of the participants themselves. Due to being casted through Instagram, the vast majority of the show’s contestants throughout the years have been models, along with a scattering of actors, fitness and pilates instructors, dancers, and artists, most of them rich. Viewers are tired of these unsurprising occupations, especially given that a key point of the show is that contestants may not reveal their ages or occupations except in Paradise.
I agree with this general complaint, although I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with casting models and artists. I think that it’s a given that popular social media models, actors, and artists — musicians, dancers, painters, etc — usually have more time and money on their hands, as well as being more attractive than the average people you pass on the street. I do think, however, that it would be beneficial to the show to stop this method of Instagram casting and instead open applications to be a part of the show. This way, there would be a greater diversity of contestants, which audiences like, as proven by the immense popularity of Nadine Lee, Harvard Neuroscience and Computer Science student, in season two, as well as more recently season four’s hot, respectful accountant Kook Dongho.
A widespread complaint specific to this season has been the obvious screen time bias in favor of contestant Lee Sian. The 25 year old model and ex-Kpop trainee caught many eyes, including mine, the moment she was introduced to the show, and collected more as time went by. As she was juggling the attention of three men at once — actor and ex-UDT Yuk Junseo, barista Kim Jeongsu, and actor Jang Theo — she was given hours of screen time throughout season 4’s twelve episodes, often to the loss of other contestants. Especially as the show drew to a close, the latter episodes seemed to almost solely focus on Sian and her love troubles. This drew outrage from viewers, especially as Sian’s screen time often seemed to directly take from that of fan favorites such as Jang Theo and interior designer Bae Jiyeon.
In my opinion, it’s silly and pointless to get worked up over such editing and screen time choices. Single’s Inferno is a television show, meaning that although it is a reality show, the team behind it must do their best to make the show as entertaining as possible in order to draw viewers, meaning highlighting drama, strife, and conflict — in this case, Sian and her struggle to make a final decision, as well as the men’s tussle for her attention. It’s similar to season 3, when much of the season’s hours were dedicated to pianist Shin Seulki and the three men who picked her as their final choice.
Ultimately, I didn’t enjoy season 4 of Single’s Inferno as much as some of the previous seasons. I thoroughly enjoyed season three and its cast, with the original first season following as my second favorite. However, I would rank season four above season two, which in my opinion had a relatively dull cast and series of events, with the exception of Kim Jiyoung (Dex), who saved the season for me.
Single’s Inferno is a wildly popular reality show that is going steady even four seasons in. Since the completion of season 4 last week, season 5 has already been announced, set to film this summer. I personally find the show compulsively watchable and genuinely entertaining. Although at the end of the day it is just an unserious reality dating show, I’ll likely continue to watch the seasons as long as they are released.
