I want you to think about the last truly stupid decision you made. How bad was it? Bad? Well, don’t worry. Whatever you did, I’m sure the contestants on Netflix’s Back with the Ex did worse. The show, which premiered last month on the streaming service after airing in Australia in spring 2018, gives four couples three weeks to try getting back together after time apart. Each pair spends a few nights in a fancy hotel room outfitted with champagne and rose petals, then takes turns cohabitating in each other’s homes, and finally takes a vacation to a swanky destination, like Paris or New York, before deciding whether or not to make it official and get back together.

If this sounds painful to watch, well, it is. Back with the Ex is one of many reality shows that garners views by guaranteeing audience members the chance to watch someone else do something truly uncomfortable. From its clickbait-ey catchphrase (“What if the love of your life was also the one that got away?”) to the assorted tasks the couples undertake that are clearly engineered to stir up drama, the show is a tacky rendition of every reality show trope in the book. Its saving grace, then, is actually the squirmy, awkward feeling it elicits in viewers. The sheer discomfort the couples inspire, plus their occasional and much-needed heartwarming moments, ground a show that might otherwise seem choreographed down to the last cutaway. Back with the Ex’s absurdity makes it almost worth the watch.

Of the four couples, two are periodically entertaining but mostly forgettable. First up are Jeremy and Meg, who dated on-and-off for seven years before Jeremy literally fled the country to escape the relationship. They’ve been separated for four years now, but given that Meg had to take a break to go hyperventilate in the bathroom during their initial reunion, those wounds definitely seem fresh. Then there’s Cam and Kate, high school sweethearts who broke up three years ago after Kate cheated. Both pairs are kind of insufferable and kind of fine. We’ll leave it at that.

The other two couples, though, each offer a story wild enough to single-handedly carry the show. Diane and Peter are an intercontinental duo — she’s American, he’s Australian — reuniting after 28 years apart. Each has raised children and been through a divorce but admits to having thought of their relationship in the many years since they dated in their twenties. They are obviously the most lovable pair of the bunch, not least because they are the oldest and by far the most sexually active. (A verbatim quote: “We also spent a lot of time horizontal… and vertical! And upside down!”) Their giddiness at being with each other is undeniable, infectious, and genuine. Their story alone keeps the show from feeling entirely canned.

At the other end of the spectrum, watching the final couple, Erik and Lauren, is like watching a car crash or listening to a couple argue on an airplane: shocking, nauseating, and completely engrossing. They started dating 12 years ago and averaged a breakup per year for six years before Erik dealt the final blow over text. Now, Erik is the one who wants Lauren back. He is an emotionally manipulative chauvinist pig, she is woefully blind to reality, and their sex life is weird weird weird. At times they are hard to watch, and not in a fun way. But the show’s most curious and interesting moments occur between the two of them, as the audience watches the power dynamics of their relationship invert when Lauren learns to use her own voice and maybe (maybe!) stop herself before she makes another phenomenally poor decision. Here, Back with the Ex veers into what could qualify as bad-good television — funny, infuriating, and the sort of thing you only have to feel a little guilty about having watched later.

Back with the Ex was originally published in The Yale Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.