The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On Season 2 Review 2023 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
There are five couples on The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On: Antonio and Roxanne (together 4 years, she’s not sure she wants to be with a man whose ambition doesn’t match hers), Lisa and Brian (together 2 years, he’s waiting to be more financially secure before proposing), Ryann and James (together 7 years, he doesn’t believe in the idea of “one true love”), Trey and Riah (together 2 years, she’s unsure of what she wants in life and isn’t ready for long-term anything), and Kat and Alex (together 2 years, he says she drives him crazy).
For the first week, the couples will all break up (and henceforth refer to their partners as their exes) and casually date the other members of the opposite sex who are participating in the show. They’ll then pair off with one of them and live together for three more weeks to see what it’s like being “married” to someone else. At the end of the experience, the hope is that they’ll realize they came on to this show with their soul mate, or that they’ve learned that partner is not for them.
As the couples all get to know one another, one of the most interesting aspects is the fact that the ones who gave their partners the ultimatums all seem to be seeking each other out, perhaps because they’re all the partners who are more sure of their feelings about commitment. As the gang all meets up after their first day of dating one another, they try to have a candid, albeit very awkward (since their exes are right there), discussion about who they all are connecting with. And soon the awkwardness turns into tension when Lisa, who is in love with her partner Brian, starts to reconsider her participation in the show when she sees him talking to Riah. Lisa, who has previously seemed pretty reasonable, has a complete meltdown and runs off-camera.
Going into a show like The Ultimatum, you have to wonder whether any of the couples who would agree to be on it are actually truly happy and healthy together. After all, an ultimatum is basically the last straw, the death knell for desperate people who need an answer to some burning question. If you’re critical of the show for that reason (like I am!), rest assured, the producers of the show understand exactly what you’re thinking. They’ve even worked it into the script, having host Nick Lachey say, “Psychologists agree that giving an ultimatum isn’t exactly a good way to get someone else to do what you want. BUT, it is the very best way to get the answers that you need.” It’s as if saying that out loud justifies the whole series by at least acknowledging that the process we’re entering into isn’t going to be healthy.
I have to give credit for this season’s casting for making it engaging and addictive. The participants are all vastly different and filled with complicated layers: On the one hand, you have someone like Lisa, who seemed truly in love with her partner Brian but she becomes so enraged at him for doing what the show requires of him – talking to another woman – that she smacked him in the face when he was. On the other, you have Roxanne, who I found so annoying because she she constantly used the word “hustle” as a noun and repeatedly declared how ambition is the most important thing in life. Yet when Lisa starts to freak out in the final moments of the show, it was Roxanne who tried to calm her, even saying “Don’t be mean,” when Lisa called Riah “a Hooters bitch.” (Too late, meanness has already beenlaunched into the ether!) During episode two, Roxanne tells the group, after they’ve all witnessed Lisa’s meltdown, “Honestly, it’s only going to get weirder,” and y’all, that’s a promise that show keeps.
