Netflix’s ‘Offline Love’ trailer orchestrates reality romance without phones

Netflix has released the official trailer for Offline Love, a new Japanese reality series that attempts to recreate romance before the internet. We’re talking love letters, meet cutes, and promises to wait for each other at a planned time and place.

Filmed in Nice, France, Offline Love takes 10 men and women and sets them loose in the city without their phones, hoping for chance encounters that might spark connections. Of course, Nice is a large place, and the group could very easily spend their 10 days in the city without running into each other at all. As such, they’re still allowed to communicate via letters, getting to know each other and arranging to meet up.

This means there are no late night phone calls or flirtatious text messages — or any way to get in touch when plans change. Judging from the trailer, it seems as though Offline Love may help address the dire lack of yearning in the modern dating scene.

The 10-episode series will feature commentary by singer and actor Kyoko Koizumi, as well as comedy duo Reiwa Roman. 

Offline Love arrives Feb. 18 on Netflix.