After a week of Virgin Island headlines chronicling viewer reaction ranging from the ‘uncomfortable’ to the ‘creeped out’, Channel 4 has another show to leave you itching for the remote.
If you’re in search of something that also mines the sexual lives of people and is billed as a unique experiment, enter Open House: Great Sex Experiment.
Now on its third season, the show explores what it claims is ‘one of society’s greatest taboos’. Virgin Island takes on celibacy and in Open House its monogamy that’s in question.
The sexperiment follows monogamous couples in the journey of opening up their relationship. The couples involved are sent on a sex retreat at a country house we have to presume wasn’t just booked on AirBnB, hosted by long-time non-monogamous couple Jess and Thom.
Jess and Thom then help the couples open up – in both senses of the word – with activities like erotic group games and then maybe more. The noisy night vision footage might mean you end up watching this one through your fingers.
Like Virgin Island, there is a therapeutic element. The show has a new relationship therapist this season, who is there to help couples navigate the emotions of opening up what can be long term relationships and decide if that’s something they genuinely want to do.
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One couple opening up their relationship are childhood sweethearts Chloe and Paul, who have never had sex with anyone but each other. After Chloe shared her previous attraction to women, the couple have a threesome with another woman in tonight’s episode.
Then there’s Mark and Tanith, who believe they can rebuild trust after an infidelity by opening their relationship. Or Welsh couple Jonny and Sarah, who have been trying to get into bed with other people for years, but keep losing their nerve.
In the episode airing tonight, Tanith and Paul are also coping with the fact that their partners spent their first night at the retreat having sex with multiple other people, while they both slept alone.
In most cases one part of a couple will be more enthusiastic or more jealous than the other. The emotional fallout is perhaps the most compelling part of the show, especially if the slurpy nighttime footage isn’t your thing.
Open House: The Great Sex Experiment airs at 10pm on Channel 4.
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