Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Cosmic Love’ on Prime Video, A Reality Show Where Four People Put Their Romantic Future To The Whims Of Fate And the Stars

In the reality dating series Cosmic Love (Prime Video), four people put their fortunes in love in the hands of fate and the stars. That’s right, they’ve agreed to let astrology decide who will be their marriage mate among the group of singles brought to the “Cosmic Compound.” Cue the setups, dates, fallout, and drama, all of it watched over by the all-knowing, all-seeing “Astro Chamber.” Cosmic Love joins Forever Summer: The Hamptons and The One That Got Away as part of Prime’s expanded roster of reality programming.

COSMIC LOVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The four “Elements” are arriving at the Cosmic Compound. Connor Shennan, a 26-year-old wildland firefighter, is “Air” for the purposes of Cosmic Love, and fittingly he’s arriving in the backseat of a chopper. Meanwhile, Maria Rodriguez – “Earth” – a 27-year-old makeup artist from Brooklyn, New York, says she’s always wanted to fall in love, but since she’s tried every other way, she’s ready to “try something new, something different, something out of this world.”

The Gist: Connor and Maria are soon joined by the other Elements. Phoebe Davis – “Fire” –  is a 28-year-old digital marketer and fitness competitor from San Diego, California, while Noel Allen, 30, is a personal trainer. He’s “Water,” so his arrival is by boat. The Elements have agreed to trust fate, be guided by astrology, and maybe find their perfect match, which is where the “Astro Chamber” comes in. It’s a glowing orb voiced by Cree Summer that has accessed and collated the birth charts, star signs, and astrological data of the four Elements, and will decide who they date based on that data. And with that, the “social experiment” Cosmic Love promises – everybody says “social experiment” a lot on this show – really kicks off, as its batch of singles enter the compound.

At a poolside mixer with the usual flow of cocktails, kisses, and hugs, the Elements meet the singles as everyone checks each other out. Singles Ana and Adrianna both seem enamored of Noel, while Phoebe makes an early connection with Caleb. After that, it’s off to the Elements Lounge for the “core four,” who each enter the Astro Chamber separately. The orb, shuttling between hues of pink and purple, rests on a large dais in an enclosed space lit with blacklights and fluorescents, and Cree Summer’s disembodied voice reveals which signs are the most typical matches. “That’s fuckin’ wild,” Connor says of the orb and the Chamber.

The Elements each take a single of their choosing out on a date, with Maria choosing Chris for a bouquet making activity, Connor taking Yana to launch primal screams into the vast desert, Noel and Adrianna attending a spa date, and Phoebe and Caleb forging metal hearts. But it’s after their self-chosen dates that the real cosmic fun begins. That evening, the Astro Chamber revealed the matches it’s made for the Elements, and points to the “Celestial Sanctuary” as the place in the compound where all of the astrological mate magic will unfold.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? When it comes to reality dating shows, you’re certainly more than familiar with one of the Islands, whether it’s Temptation or Love. (Cosmic Love’s showrunner actually came from Love Island.) But there’s a bit of Too Hot To Handle here, too, and even Joe Millionaire, in the sense that these Elements will have to trust the truth-telling of astrology when it comes to a potential match.

Our Take: They don’t appear in the first episode of Cosmic Love. But the astrologers whose readings and cosmic logic will fuel the Astro Chamber’s matchery are Tali Edut and Ophira Edut, also known as the AstroTwins, who’ve built an astrological empire with horoscope columns for Elle.com and their own site, as well as personal readings for the stars of earth and four books on the subject. So Cosmic Love has its bona fides in place, at least in terms of how horoscopes and astrology play in the modern media space. But are these people – the four Elements – really going to let fate be their absolute guide? What is this, Married at First Sight, or the desperation dramas that play out on 90 Day Fiance? And it’s notable that the Elements have already expressed a desire for their own choices to have more weight in the proceedings. Phoebe was overjoyed to be matched with Caleb, who she had already connected with personally. But what if the Astro Chamber decides that she and Caleb are star-crossed? Will the drama fill the sky with screams and tears and drama dust? Before Cosmic Love can even get to its marriage decisions, there’s certain to be a lot of the usual “relationship in a crucible” stuff so common to reality dating shows, when the principals meet and express their intrinsic connection before physically escalating and veering wildly into peaks and valleys of emotion. This Love might be written in the stars. But the dramas it promises are of the earthly reality variety.

Sex and Skin: The camera lingers purposely whenever the singles are gathered in their swimsuits around the Cosmic Compound’s pool area. And Noel doesn’t seem to own any shirts with functioning buttons.

Parting Shot: After the Elements had their chance to pick one single to take on a date, the Astro Chamber revealed its first match for each of them. While Phoebe is pleased with her match from the singles pool – “Holy shit, I knew there was something to astrology!” – Noel’s Astro Chamber match with Jazmin P has left Jasmine R in an emotional tizzy. “God, I hate this,” she says in a cutaway. “Take me home, I’m ready to leave.”

Sleeper Star: Jasmine R seems ready to hang up her singles spurs and high tail it for the real world after only one wayward match session with the Astro Chamber. But that would be a shame, because there’s already some juicy drama brewing between her and her single counterpart, Jazmin P.

Most Pilot-y Line: The Astro Chamber explains why the throng of singles on Cosmic Love are a different breed than, say, the tempters of Temptation Island. “These single men and women are astrologically matched with one of our four Elements. And as time goes on, I will reveal who is matched with who.”

Our Call: STREAM IT, especially if you’ve already been wrapped up this summer with the antics of the Love Island-ers. Cosmic Love is happily all-in on its somewhat loopy premise, and full of astrological jargon that’ll be a balm for any daily horoscope readers. But it also promises more reality dating drama than there are stars in the sky.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges