Love Island Adria

Plot

The first weeks

The season opens in a luxury villa on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, not on the Adriatic at all, a fact that irritated much of the audience from the first minutes. Eleven islanders arrive and couple up: among the women, 28-year-old Loren from Sydney, 26-year-old hostess Mili from Smederevo, 22-year-old costume-design student Drina from Čačak, fitness enthusiast Lara from Montenegro, and Tara from Montreal, born in Teslić in Bosnia and Herzegovina; among the men, 24-year-old influencer Vukašin from Zrenjanin, model Valentin from Novi Sad, Gašper from Ljubljana, padel-center host Roberto from Zaprešić, and British-Serbian former basketball player Anthony.¹³

On the very first evening, before the couples have found their footing, viewers voting through the app pick the theme of the first villa party, a Hawaii party.¹⁴ Then the first bombshell walks in. Jovan, muscular and unattached, has the right to take any girl he wants, and he takes Lara from Anthony. Anthony is left standing as the only single person in a villa built for couples. The Lara–Anthony–Jovan triangle becomes the engine of the first week, complicated further by new arrivals and a string of kisses in every direction.^{13 • 15} The week ends with a recoupling in which the boys choose their partners, and the villa reshuffles around them.¹⁵

The audience takes over

The islanders are asked to judge which couples are together for the wrong reasons, and they deliver their verdicts expecting them to decide who stays and who goes. Then the producers hand the decision to the viewers instead. The public votes for its favorite couples, and the vote count, not the islanders' opinion, decides the exit.¹⁶

Jovan and Marija Tereza receive the fewest votes and must leave the villa on the spot. The islanders, who believed they controlled the outcome, watch the result land, and the elimination becomes the emotional high point of the season so far.¹⁶ On the way out, Jovan and Marija Tereza admit that their relationship never got past friendship.¹⁷

Mid-season shuffles

By episode 16 the villa is running on fresh triangles. A truth challenge drags secrets into the open, a new love triangle forms around Anja, Stefan, and Mijo, and Valentin tries to work out where he stands with Drina after the arrival of Alja. The episode ends with a "Ladies Choice" recoupling, in which the women pick their partners and the resulting decisions do not sit easily with everyone.¹⁸

Characters

• Lara (from Montenegro), a fitness enthusiast and the season's first prize in a tug of war, taken by bombshell Jovan on night one and at the center of the opening triangle.¹³
• Anthony, a British-Serbian former basketball player, left as the villa's only single after Jovan's arrival, the sympathetic loser of the first recoupling.¹³
• Jovan, the first bombshell, whose night-one raid sets the whole season in motion and who later leaves with Marija Tereza after the public vote.¹⁷
• Drina, a 22-year-old costume-design student from Čačak, whose relationship with model Valentin is tested by Alja's arrival.¹⁸
• Valentin, a model from Novi Sad, uncertain and increasingly visible as the mid-season drama moves to his couple.
• Anja, Stefan, and Mijo, the villa's second great triangle, opened by a truth challenge.¹⁸
• Dragana Mićalović, the host, a well-known Serbian actress taking her first major presenting job.³

Interpretations and controversies

The premiere drew immediate criticism on social media, and not about the romance. Viewers were baffled that a format named "Adria" is filmed not on the Adriatic coast but in Spain, and that the cast is overwhelmingly Serbian: one widely shared comment counted "7 or 8" Serbs among 11 contestants, alongside one Slovene, one Croat, and one Belarusian, asking what kind of "Adria Island" that was supposed to be.¹³ The casting and location choices became the show's first talking point before any couple had properly formed.