Netflix has recently been dropping many binge-worthy shows in the past couple of weeks. From season two of “Bridgerton” to “Inventing Anna,” there are a variety of options for your next watch. One show that’s on the scene now is “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On.” It’s safe to say that “The Ultimatum” is the messiest show on Netflix.
The show consists of six couples who have issues in their prospective relationships. The couples are Jake and April, Alexis and Hunter, Lauren and Nate, Colby and Madlyn, Zay and Rae and Shanique and Randall. One person in the relationship wants to get married and the other person does not. The person who wants to be married gives the other an ultimatum: either they leave the show married or they go their separate ways. However, in order to make their final decisions, they have to date other couples and try to find a better match for themselves. The couples have to choose a new partner to live with for three weeks. If they find someone who fits their ideals better than their original partner, they can choose to leave with that person and leave their original partner in the dust. The new couples for a three-week portion consist of Randall and Madlyn, Colby and April, Rae and Jake, and Zay and Shanique. Nate and Lauren and Alexis and Hunter have chosen to get engaged before switching to new partners. Many Twitter users believe that Nate’s intentions for proposing to Lauren were fake. Before he gets down on one knee, he tells Madlyn that he was going to choose her for the switch. However, before he gets the chance to choose, Colby gets the chance to pick and chooses Lauren. After that, Nate proposes to Lauren and she says yes leaving viewers confused since they had a number of issues before coming on to the show. This entire scene causes Colby and April to choose each other for the recoupling even though they were not each other’s first choice.
It is easy to see that many of the couples are not compatible. At the beginning of the series, you can tell that Madlyn does not want to be with Colby. She makes sly remarks behind his back and facial expressions whenever he says anything that she does not agree with. April and Jake are in the same situation. Jake is visibly tense around April. After he spent three weeks with his new partner Rae, he had to go back to April and spend another three weeks with her before their decision day. He started petty arguments with April and anyone could tell that he was visibly checked out. In the final episode, he told April that he wasn’t ready to get married. She assumed that his decision was because of Rae. He then proceeded to tell her that Rae and he were “not about to run together into the sunset.” However, he then proceeded to give Rae plane tickets for anywhere around the world after his conversation with April.
The entire concept of the show is dysfunctional. The couples are opening the door to basically allow their partner to cheat on them. The purpose of the show is for the couples to explore other relationships and see if there is someone within the group that is better suited for them. Yet, the participants contradict themselves. To illustrate, Shanique issued the ultimatum to her boyfriend, Randall. She claimed that she wanted him to participate in the process fully; however, she became hostile when Randall was furthering his connection with Madlyn after they chose to live together. Nonetheless, she still continued to build a connection with Zay and the two of them became very close before they switched back to their original couples. Zay and Shanique became very intimate throughout their time together which was an issue for their original partners.
The reunion episode raised a lot of questions. For starters, Madlyn and Colby ended up getting engaged, married and are now with child. The cast said that the show ended six months before the reunion; yet, Madlyn was seven months pregnant during the reunion. Viewers believe that she was pregnant before filming had ended which is one of the main reasons why Colby and Madlyn rushed into a marriage. Jake was seemingly bitter during the reunion because his relationship with Rae had ended and April had found her dream man. Shanique and Randall ended up getting engaged, but they broke off their engagement because they realized that they had a lot more issues than they originally thought. Rae and Zay broke up during the show, and out of everyone, they definitely had the most issues. It is clear that their communication is severed because they are still going back and forth over their prospective social media counts to this day.
Overall, I can say that the “Ultimatum” was an interesting watch. I definitely don’t think that I would ever participate in a show like this because the show was creating more issues between the couples. It is hard to think about your significant other dating someone else, but it is even harder when you have to see it. The cast members were obviously at their lowest points during the show because of the actions that they took. All in all, I would say that the “Ultimatum” is worth the watch.