I don’t watch a lot of TV but I do like watching Married At First Sight. From a psychological position I am always fascinated by the participants motivation to join a cast like this and understand how hard it is for anyone to be exposed in this way in the quest for love and perhaps the celebrity and fame that runs alongside while the series aires. This series of Married At First Sight Australia has also been shrouded in the tragedy of Relationship expert Mel Schilling’s brave terminal cancer post announcement to the world on Instagram.

After watching this series and revelations week there have certainly been a few revelations. It was shocking to see how each group, the women and the men when put in a room together to share their red flags and green flags about their individual partners with the group supposedly there for moral support how each group handled things.

Surprisingly it was the men who were empathetic towards to one another and genuinely supportive behaving in a kind caring way you may associate with the “gentler” sex.

The women on the other hand already with rivalries established went after one another like vipers. Ganging up and tearing down in the most ruthless of fashions.

The main culprits were so far “sweetness and light” Brooke and already established scrapper Gia posturing for position as the “Head Mean Girls” and ironically using the argument of others not being “Girls girls” as they ruthlessly attacked the girls they had singled out. No surprise Gia still had Bec in her sights after previous confrontations but then Brooke and Gia waded in on nice, balanced Stella in defence of Mel who in spite of behaving quite poorly with her partner Luke decided to take the wounded bird position during revelations week when it was discovered his family launched an attack on her on social media defending him.

Stella paired with Filip, the voice of reason made one mistake saying there were two sides to every story, not in any way attacking Mel but equally in defence of Luke and all hell broke loose. Maturely and I believe to diffuse the situation somewhat she apologised to Mel unnecessarily in my opinion but opting to be the bigger person in this instance only went to show the other women in poor light.

Even all too much for quietly spoken Rachael paired with Stephen, she found herself piping up against Brooke and Gia pulling faces, laughing and being combative which left everyone in our house questioning if they were drunk?

When things got really out of hand and quite nasty, towards Alissa, paired with David; it was the oldest member of the group Rebecca 51 who said “that’s enough” sternly and the super bitchy behaviour was curtailed.

We certainly saw a side to model Brooke who had appeared well rounded, balanced and mature until this point in the series.

I think the show editors have lost the plot when the action is focused more around the in fighting than the actual relationships, the point of the show.

And maybe it’s a reason why these women can’t maintain and build relationships when they can’t even be pleasant and supportive of one another whilst being filmed for a television series. It shows me they are not self aware enough to understand how they might come across to others and the audience at large.

For the first time in Married At First Sight history it’s the men I feel sorry for and I do consider myself a girls girl.

The best part of revelations week for me was hearing Steve talk opening about his red flags with Rebecca, gaps in humour, her constantly talking and not always being sensitive to his need for peace and quiet time and confessing Rebecca was moving at a much faster pace than him when it comes to intimacy. He talked about Rebecca not being his usual type airing all red flags and no green flags which did surprise the group. As a viewer we just thought “he’s just not into you”

Rebecca, when she stepped up to face the girls her account of her relationship with Steve was completely different to Steve’s which uncovered the unforeseen differences in a relationship in the early stages and how people aren’t always open and transparent with their partners. Steve wasn’t thinking about the impact his contribution would have on Rebecca, the camera doesn’t lie. It would have been better for him to speak directly to Rebecca first about his feelings, not easy, than share all his negatives concerns about his pairing on camera with the group.

To sum up for me, producers are too focused this year on showing the conflict within the group, instead of the conflict within the relationships.

I cannot see either Gia and Brooke going the distance in the experiment. Brooke is already over her partner Chris; irritated by his “whining” and sharing with the group during revelations week (throwing him under the bus) his controversial comments on his audition tape about needy people, girls who use self tan and fat people.

Gia has come out of the gate super confident in her match Scott who doesn’t even know remember her eight year old daughter’s name.

They were very physically attracted to each other early on but as her nemesis Bec has pointed out things that burn bright early can fizzle out and the slow burners may end up outlasting the pairs that begin with a bang.

Looking forward to seeing how things pan out and just hope the bitchy scraps within the group are overtaken by better more interesting relationship psychology content and personal growth for the couple within the relationship breakdowns on the couch with the experts.

These are my favourite parts of the show when the mirror is held up and participants have to actually own their behaviour.

I cannot wait to hear what the women in particular Gia, Brooke and Mel have to say when they have to face themselves and their partners with the experts and in front of the group.

After hearing the emotional tribute led by relationship expert John Aiken for his colleague Mel Schilling an expert on the MAFS shows in Australia and the UK since 2016 this series is the last opportunity to see the “graceful and kind” woman fans of Married if First Sight have watched and enjoyed on screen over the last 10 years.

For me the show won’t be the same without Mel’s kind but firm hand and listening style when it comes to relationship coaching. She will be missed.