Is Soulmates the least romantic show about love ever? – British GQ

There was before the test and theres after, says a man looking directly into the camera, as tranquil spa music tells you that this is a very deep and meaningful statement. Cut to a couple running towards each other for a passionate kiss, then to more people looking at you through the screen, as they tell you how happy they are: I met my match. I cant imagine life without him. She made me feel alive again for the first time in years.

If this sounds like an advert for Match.com to you, then youre not far off. The company in this instance, however, is Soul Connex, a fictional matchmaking service that serves as the premise for Amazon Primes new series, Soulmates. Set 15 years into the future, the company has capitalised off the discovery of the soul particle, offering clients the chance to be matched with their genuine soulmate after a quick test. It soon becomes the test, seemingly all anyone can talk about, be they dinner party guests or chat show hosts. Attending weddings between people who have only known each other for a couple of weeks after being matched becomes the norm, so too does sitting down with your spouse to break the news that youre not soulmates after all, because the test said so.

Soulmatesis available to watch now on Prime Video.

Cowritten by Brett Goldstein and Will Bridges, the latter having worked on Black Mirror, the portrait of sci-fi romance that Soulmates paints is terribly bleak. An anthology series that explores different ramifications of the test in each episode, as is often the case with doom-tech concepts, the most unsettling thing about Soulmates is not the technology itself but the way it changes us as humans. Chance, whirlwind romances and close bonds forged over years of companionship are all thrown out of the window for a sense of certainty. Whether youre happily married or happily single sans test, the swaths of loved-up couples in the streets will always leave you wondering, Could I be happier?

Take Soulmates first case study, for instance, Nikki (Sarah Snook) and Franklin (Kingsley Ben-Adir). They found love in college, before the soul particle was discovered, and are now parents to young children, living a frantic but content existence. But then Nikkis brother takes the test and finds a wife, while her neighbour breaks up with her husband after discovering her soulmate is in Argentina. When did we stop being the normal ones? she asks Franklin, as a couple gush about being matched together on her futuristic, transparent iPad. Every time the test is mentioned, be it in friendly conversation or on the radio, you see the seed of doubt in her mind blossom into something bigger. At the end of the episode, Nikki picks her children up from Franklin and his soulmates new house. Is this better? he asks her when alone. The fact that the question is even on Franklins mind indicates that the answer is probably no. But its too late. The tests damage has already been done.

Thats the main takeaway from Soulmates, that any technology designed to find a persons one true love will generally do more harm than good. In one episode, a man is coerced into cheating on his partner by a catfish soulmate, making you wonder if the connections people form with their matches is genuine or merely a placebo effect. In another, a couple attempt to find a way to incorporate their soulmates into their existing relationship, experimenting with polygamy so that they can each have two cakes and eat them. Some endings are more hopeful than others, but theres a quiet sadness to each episode that tells you that things may have turned out better if that soul particle was never discovered. The excitement of romance is replaced by the mundaneness of inevitability. What if this person is the one? becomes What if this person isnt the one?

Some of the greatest love stories ever told are drenched in heartache and sorrow, but those emotions are intrinsically linked to passion, somehow persuading us that two teenagers dying for each other is the pinnacle of romance. There are no Montagues or Capulets in Soulmates. Instead, the sorrow comes from the loss of faith in falling in love naturally. Before Nikki and Franklin break up, she recalls giving birth to their first child at home, the three of them snuggled together in the aftermath, blissfully in love. Those are the moments that bond people together for the rest of their lives, whether it was written in the stars or on a birth certificate. Do you think wed still be retelling Romeo And Juliet had they double checked their soulmate status before their accidental suicide pact? Of course not. Its their determination, despite their inability to fact-check their feelings, that tugs at the heartstrings. Romance isnt dead yet, but if Soulmates is to be believed, its technology that will put the nail in the coffin. May it rest in peace, while us humans find the next thing to engineer excitement out of.

Soulmates is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

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Is Soulmates the least romantic show about love ever? - British GQ