Friendzone

Friendzone is a documentary-style reality show on MTV that gives young individuals the chance to open up about their secret romantic feelings for their friends by planning an elaborate date for the two of them. These friends are often best friends that have known each other for years and a lot is at stake when one of them puts their romantic feelings out there.

During the show, these love struck people recruit their crushes as a wingman or wingwoman to help them plan the perfect date. The crushes agree to help out, thinking that they are planning a date for their friend and their mystery date. This pretense also serves as a way for the person with the crush to get a sense of what their crush likes. Many times they will ask the crush to help them with outfits as well as other specific pieces of advice surrounding the big date including how they should present themselves, what they should talk about, and how they should treat their date. Since the crush does not know that they are the date, they feel free to give candid advice about what they prefer in a romantic interest.

Most of the time, the people on Friendzone who have crushes on their friends are emotionally torn about their secret crushes. They fear that both their friendships and hearts will be broken. Because the friends are defined as just friends, the audience does not know until the last few minutes whether or not the crush returns the romantic feelings that their friend has for them.