The 90 Day Fiance franchise has been a success since it touched down on TLC in 2014.
The reality TV staple has grown arms and legs as spinoff after spinoff has popped up on TLC and Max.
In 2020, 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 4 burst onto screens at the height of stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was one of the most unhinged seasons of reality TV that year.
Introducing us to Big Ed Brown, Lisa Hamme, Geoffrey Paschel, Varya Malina, David Murphey, Avery Warner, and Stephanie Matto, not a single scene was wasted because every storyline was engaging, outrageous, and highly watchable.
It’s the only season of 90 Day Fiance with any rewatch value because everything that happens is so shocking.
How can we forget Lisa calling out Usman’s music video director for choosing a woman for her husband-to-be’s music video?
Lisa Hamme acted like a kid
Her outbursts were juvenile, but it was interesting to see how much Usman let her get away with before their relationship imploded.
Lisa didn’t want a man to love. She wanted someone she could boss around to do whatever she ordered him to do.
Thankfully, she was a one-season-wonder and didn’t become the face of the franchise like Big Ed, who has terrorized countless women with his horrible comments.
Despite his flaws, he delivered good TV when he complained about the low thread count of Rosemarie Vega’s sheets.
He was one of the most high-maintenance people to appear on the show at that point, and fans created meme after meme, making his ego explode. It’s a shame that he’s one of the worst people to grace the show and continues getting called back.
David’s obsession with finding Lana was shocking
Then there’s David and his obsession with finding the mysterious Lana in Ukraine. The editing heightened the tension as viewers eagerly awaited the next development and theorized on social media as though they were trying to unmask A in Pretty Little Liars.
We’re still in shock that Lana existed and that David continually tried to find her, even if there were continual red flags that should have told him something was wrong with the situation.
Matto’s relationship with Erika Owens may have seemed fake for them to get on TV, but it wasn’t without drama, so it still towers above many of the others to hit the franchise.
Their arguments only highlighted the lack of similarities between them, but somehow, they lasted a near enough full season, only for Matto’s friends to appear at the reunion and blame EVERYTHING on Erika.
Stephanie Matto and Big Ed Brown are similar
That was… a choice. Matto is another Big Ed in that she was asked back for additional shows, yet she never finds lasting love.
Geoffrey and Varya were another odd couple because there were visible issues between them, but they’ve somehow gotten married and Varya is in the U.S. as Geoffrey spends several years in prison.
The back and forth surrounding their storyline left us questioning everything for a very long time, but the big shocker is that they’re still together. That didn’t seem possible on the show.
Warner and Ash Naeck also clocked in to give good TV, but how could they really move forward after Naeck’s sexist seminar? The most shocking thing about that was that it was televised.
No other season comes close to 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 4
Then there was Darcy Silva returning to go off on Tom Brooks and yelling that he never loved her.
It was something else, and somehow, despite countless seasons since, the franchise has never come close to that level of crazy.
Nowadays, we find ourselves fast-forwarding past many segments because the sole intention seems to be for the cast members to get Instagram followers, brand deals, and everything else that reality TV stars seem to get.
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days is currently on hiatus. Season 7 is expected to premiere in the back half of 2024.