Virgin Island: has reality finally gone too far?

"Exploitative", "reprehensible" and "surprisingly empathetic" are just some of the adjectives critics have used to describe "Virgin Island", Channel 4's controversial new reality show.

The series follows 12 virgins between the ages of 22 and 30 as they embark on an intimacy course at a luxury "hands-on" retreat, where sex experts try to help them lose their virginity.

'Visibly upsetting'

"Just when you thought the barrel had been scraped", Channel 4 has "managed to shave some final dregs from the very bottom", said Claudia Connell in the Daily Mail. This show is "turning the genuine concerns of the poor souls" who are participating into "cruel" and exploitative "low-rent entertainment".

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It's an "icky, uncomfortable sexperiment" that puts "already vulnerable people" into "visibly upsetting" situations, said Emily Baker in The i Paper. Yes, the participants are there of their own volition but watching a therapist "slide his hand up a young girl's thigh" as she "visibly squirms" makes for "unpleasant TV".

You'll need to "have a cushion handy to hide behind", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph, and keep your finger "hovering over the mute button" of your remote control lest you "die of second-hand embarrassment". The first episode left me marvelling at how the virgins can be "awkward in the company of the opposite sex", but somehow don't mind an entire camera crew filming them. There's "no way on Earth" I'll be tuning in for episode two.

'More complex than it first seems'

But it does turn out to be "surprisingly empathetic", said The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson. I ended up feeling "less cynical about the show" than I thought I would be, partly because bringing these 12 people together "seems to override" their sense that they're "not like everyone else". Their courage is "admirable" and "touching" and, although "Virgin Island" might "sound like an Alan Partridge pitch", it's "more complex than it first seems".

It touches on "some interesting topics", said Vicky Jessop in London's The Standard, including why people are "increasingly abstaining" from sex. One of the therapists suggests that our "cultural obsession with porn and rom-coms" has led to a preoccupation with "perfectionism".

But, while it's "heartwarming" to watch these shy people "open up and get experimental" as they're "chivvied along" by therapists, one can't help but feel that this really should be taking place "behind closed doors".

Beyond the "slightly ludicrous" title, the series has "noble ambitions", said Annabel Nugent and Victoria Richards in The Independent. Although there was no sex in the first two episodes, that seems to be the "direction in which we’re heading". "Here's hoping" the participants' experiences with sexual surrogacy will have "lasting positive effects".