Soulmates: The Show About a Problematic Term

“By the writers of Black Mirror”. Well, color me intrigued. Black Mirror is one of my all time favorite shows, so I decided to give Soulmates on Amazon Prime a go. The premise seemed interesting enough: take a test and find your soulmate.

Everyone that knows Black Mirror knows the structure (and if you don’t, stop reading and go watch an episode): every episode deals with a different storyline that plays in the not too distant future. It takes a look at how technology disrupts our daily lives. Think of your elite status being determined by the rankings you get from other people, being able to erase the memory of people around you or ordering a robot that can mimic a deceased loved one.

Soulmates has a similar structure, but it has a main thread: Soul Connex and their test that allows you to find your soulmate. Sounds happy enough, right? Well, think again. People that know Black Mirror, know that it’s not the kind of series you watch whenever you want something to cheer you up. It often leaves you a bit bleak and contemplating on the episode long after it ended.

In Soulmates people can skip dating apps, blind dates, speed dating, you name it. They go immediately for the real deal. After you take the test, you’ll only find out the result once your soulmate has also taken the test and is in the system. This soulmate can be anyone: a friend, but also someone who lives miles away or is even deceased.

Every episode deals with a different outcome. What if your soulmate is not enough for you? What if you’re already married and your soulmate is not your current partner? What if your soulmate is dead?

The characters are often willing to sacrifice the life they’ve built for someone who is supposedly their soulmate. They associate it with “the love of their life” and the one they have to be with or else life will never be perfect. What I enjoyed about Soulmates is that it questions the term “soulmate”. I don’t want to spoil too much if you haven’t seen it yet, but you might’ve guessed it: in most cases people don’t end up with their soulmate and if they do, it’s not always the life they envisioned.

It shows how terms like Soulmate, The One, True Love; they just seem to be too all-encompassing. You can take a test and find someone that’s compatible with you, but on what grounds? What are the exact criteria? Does deciding against it automatically mean you’ll be unhappy?

Imagine there being a person out there that’s 100% compatible with you and will give you everything you’ll ever need, on every front. It’s just not the way the world works or how love works. I feel you meet an array of people in your life, to which you connect on various levels and at different points in your life. And it doesn’t mean that all these people are ultimately leading you to “your one soulmate”.

I feel it should actually work the other way around. That you find pieces of your soul scattered around, you find them with people all around you. Just the idea that there’s only one person out there that gets you and is your significant other seems insane to me. There’s never going to be a person that ticks all the boxes and that’s okay. Because that would mean that one person is enough, while family, friends and even distant acquaintances can fit a piece of the puzzle that makes up your soul.

Luckily Soulmates shows just that: that no matter how advanced technology might get, love and connections are still a very humane part of life. The heart still wants what it wants and no test can change that.