Non Threatening Boys*: “Montoya por favor” and Big Feelings

Words: Grace Barber-Plentie | Art: Bridget Meyne

I vowed in the summer of 2021 that I was done with watching dating shows. After a particularly harrowing episode of Love Island where one of the contestants went on a drunken rampage against her partner, the sun set and the sounds of whatever inexplicable slowed-down cover of a disco hit faded out. Whatever last drags of enjoyment I had from the show turned to discomfort. So you can imagine my surprise when, over the past weekend, I’ve been drawn into the Spanish dating show Temptation Island.

I am of course not the only one - one of the show's contestants, José Carlos Montoya (aka Montoya) went viral over the past weekend as he had the crash-out to end all crash-outs upon seeing footage of his girlfriend Anita cheating on him. What is Temptation Island, you may ask? This is a question I also had mere days ago, but of course as is the way of the world I've now watched several TikToks on the subject which essentially makes me an expert.

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P.S. We’re moving NTB* to a weekly publishing schedule! That means for paid subscribers, there’ll be a new post every! single! week!, and if you’re a free subscriber, you’ll get em bi-weekly as normal. This week’s post is free, next week’s will be for paid subs only, and on and on we’ll go, so make sure you get yourself signed up if you want to get the most of Non Threatening Boys*. OK mwah love you!