I absolutely hate how Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark turns casual dating into a chaotic game

Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark is Netflix’s latest dating experiment, hosted by Chloe Veitch and relationship expert Spicy Mari. The premiere season aired episodes on May 21, 2025. The concept brings together singles and their casual flings—also known as “sneaky links”—to see if late-night connections can turn into something deeper.

Through activities, challenges, and late-night calls, the cast is expected to figure out who they truly connect with. But after watching the series, it’s hard not to question the structure of the show. The cast members—like Colt, Angelique, Manny, Nicole V, Brandon, and Avery—are asked to navigate romantic choices while being thrown into group tasks and unpredictable situations.

Sometimes, these setups feel more like games meant to create drama than real chances to connect. Whether it’s Colt choosing between Angelique and Kelsey, or Manny unsure about Nicole V or Avery, the constant changes make it hard for anyone to know what they really want.

By the end of each episode, the mix of fun, flirting, and pressure feels more like a messy game show than a true search for love.

---

The tandem bike activity and whipped cream game feel more like setups for chaos than connection in Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark

Watching the activities take place on Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark, it’s hard not to see the show as a series of forced choices rather than an experiment in building real relationships. The tandem bike challenge was one example—where the cast had to build a bike with their sneaky link and ride it to a bonding box.

Chloe told the group, “In front of you, you have a half-built tandem bike,” and while it seemed fun at first, it ended up exposing cracks in the connections. Colt and Avery were praised for their “perseverance,” but Colt admitted in a confessional that he wasn’t sure he had made the right choice, while Manny and Samira struggled to align during the activity.

The whipped cream game in a later episode took the messiness up a notch. Chloe asked the group to play a spin-the-bottle game with a twist: “Either put the whipped cream on yourself and let them lick, or put it on them and lick it yourself.”

The game might have been lighthearted, but it blurred boundaries between participants like Manny and Nicole V, who had already expressed no romantic interest in him. Instead of helping couples strengthen their connections, the game created unnecessary confusion and complicated an already unclear dynamic.

---

Casual dating doesn’t always need rules, but Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark makes it feel like a competition

What makes Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark feel chaotic is the way it treats dating as a game with winners and losers. The “Link Lowdowns” after every major activity ask participants to make a choice—who they want to pursue moving forward. But the choices rarely stick.

Manny, for example, picked Nicole V as someone he saw a “future” with, but she quickly shut it down, saying she didn’t feel a “romantic connection.” Meanwhile, Colt chose Angelique over Kelsey but later called Kelsey, asking if she was okay. The lines of commitment feel temporary, almost like a game of musical chairs.

The show’s structure makes it hard for genuine connections to develop. Just when couples like Zoe and Travis or Brandon and Avery start to settle, a new challenge or new motel guests are introduced to shake things up. The end of a recent episode teased fresh arrivals, which will likely restart the cycle of mixed signals and shifting pairs.

In my opinion, Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark is less about exploring real relationships and more about creating a dating environment that’s designed to keep everyone guessing. That’s not how meaningful connections form—that’s just chaos.

---

Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark episodes are available to stream on Netflix.