Netflix Reveals Renewal Fate of Popular Reality TV Series for Season 3
After Netflix subscribers finish their eight-episode binge of Indian Matchmaking Season 2, they can already start to look forward to a new season. The streaming giant has officially renewed Indian Matchmaking for Season 3, meaning elite Indian matchmaker Sima Taparia will help even more singles find romantic connections.
Netflix actually made the renewal well before Season 2 ever dropped. Back in March 2022, the streamer announced that the hit series would return for Season 3, with Taparia set to return. The renewal was made alongside a string of announcements regarding Netflix's reality TV lineup, with the streamer also greenlighting two additional seasons of Love Is Blind, which is hosted by Nick Lachey and Vanessa Lachey and follows singles as they attempt to find love connections in "pods" without actually seeing each other," as well as three new dating shows – an all-queer edition of The Ultimatum, a U.S. version of Love on the Spectrum, and Jewish Matchmaking. The latter of those series is from the producers of Indian Matchmaking and "features singles in the US and Israel as they turn their dating life over to a top Jewish matchmaker. Will using the traditional practice of shidduch help them find their soulmate in today's world?"
Originally premiering in 2020, Indian Matchmaking stars Taparia, who gets to know a number of single millennials – "from Houston to Chicago to Mumbai" – who are over app dating, and want to try more traditional methods of meeting romantic partners. Taparia pairs her single clients based on their career ambitions, personality, astrological compatibility, and family dynamics.
Following the series' debut, however, the Emmy-nominated series faced fierce criticism for its portrayal of arranged marriages and for what many viewed as an endorsement of gender stereotypes, colorism, and classism. In a statement to VICE World News, Srishty Ranjan, an anti-caste activist, said," arranged marriages in India are very much caste-based, so when you have a show that features a matchmaker going through biodatas that [explicitly] mention caste, or say the women should be 'flexible,' you're promoting ideas that harm Dalit women like me."
Addressing the backlash in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in August 2021, series creator Smriti Mundhra said, "I would like to think that the conversation the show brought up, and the way it crept into the zeitgeist, was a part of it. That conversation is really important and welcomed. It wasn't something that I feel vindicated over."