Dating apps give us the promise of love and sex – as well as heartbreak – with a casual swipe.
SBS’s award-winning documentary series explores online dating with sometimes excruciating honesty and humour – and it’s back for a third season.
In past episodes, a diverse range of contributors talked about such taboo subjects as ‘yellow fever’ (being fetishised as an Asian female) as well as being asexual, a virgin and dating when you have a mental illness.
In season three, everything is on the table for discussion once more.
In the episode ‘My Housemates Are My Parents’ we hear about trying to have a sex life when you’re an adult still living in your childhood bedroom. When you’re not sneaking around and finding a place to get intimate (the car anyone?), you’re fending off a barrage of questions from your mum about how dating apps work.
Cana, who appears in ‘The Swiping Game’ season three episode “Sizing Up Men’s Bodies”. Source: SBS
The episode ‘Do Bisexuals Have it Better’ explores whether being attracted to more than one gender really means more swiping options. But constantly being asked for threesomes and being called a ‘unicorn’ can have its challenges.
And what’s the dating market really like when you’re a person living with disability? ‘Access All Areas Dating’ reveals why it can be hard to find someone decent to swipe right on – and why it might be tempting to just hire a sex worker.
Madeleine, who appears in ‘The Swiping Game’ season three episode “Do Bisexuals Have It Better?” Source: SBS
There is also a whole episode devoted to exploring men’s vulnerabilities in ‘Sizing Up Men's Bodies’. Men bare their souls about weight, height, penis size and more.
“It was a real eye opener for the crew and something we don’t get to hear about often,” said SBS Voices director/producer Nia Nhung Nguyen.
All episodes are filmed from the intimacy of the contributors’ own bedrooms.
Nguyen said yet again, she was entering unknown territory with the episode themes.
“For me, the series has always offered the chance to learn something new from the stories of people with lived experience,” she said.
The ‘Sizing Up Men's Bodies’ episode saw the male contributors being extraordinarily candid about their insecurities.
Tari from ‘The Swiping Game’ season three episode “Access All Areas Dating”. Source: SBS
The ‘Access All Areas Dating’ episode, made in consultation with the Attitude Foundation, was an opportunity to present people with disability in a sexually empowered way.
Executive Producers Natalie Hambly and Danielle Teutsch said the strength of the series was that it used dating as a lens to explore a whole range of other issues.
“The contributors, as always, are the stars of the show. By turns funny, sharp, insightful and heartbreaking, they share their search for love in a way that is utterly modern, but timelessly human,” they said.
The pilot episode of The Swiping Game ‘’ won the at the 2021 Content Innovation Awards in London, an international award which celebrates companies that are helping transform the current global television industry.
Nikki, who appears in ‘The Swiping Game’ season three episode “My Housemates Are My Parents”. Source: SBS
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Season 3 of The Swiping Game airs at 9.20pm on SBS Viceland on Friday 17 February.
It is streaming now on , and is also available subtitled in Arabic and Simplified Chinese script. Visit our and Collections to view more.
