Want to see: Hans Pays The Damage on Videoland

In dating, I am really quite a dodo, always have been. Now I thought I was up to date with all the apps. Tinder, Bumble, Happn, Inner Circle — yes, I know them all. How they work, not so much, but still. I prefer to meet people in the pub. Hopefully, I already have a drink in me and I'm a bit looser, and so is the other person. And even better if we can look at each other and BAM: love at first sight. Now at 31, I am slowly but surely realizing that life is not a romantic movie and that it never really works that way. But my inner romantic still hopes for movie-worthy scenes, but then in real life.

My inner romantic had never heard of sugardating, and a world has opened up for me with the arrival of Hans Betaalt De Schade on Videoland (now online, so you know what you have to do tonight). Here, romance seems to play no role in the world of dating, but for the Hansens and Grietjes moving in this world, it's all about one thing: money. Luxury. Private yachts. The most expensive champagne. Which is then paid for by their ‘Hans’.

These ‘Hansens’ are just sugardaddies, hence the sugardating. A bit of quid pro quo: they are the arm candy of the men, and in return, they get whatever their hearts desire. Or what should be on their hearts, because fake breasts can also be part of the deal. Thus, we follow friends and entrepreneurs Marianna and Dina in their glamorous lives, funded by the men.

Beforehand, I thought this would really be an incredibly ordinary kind of documentary, but I am completely into it. For me, because it is a gigantic far-from-my-bed-show, but it is still quite a treat to see how it goes. And maybe naively, but I didn't think this really happened this way. That some girls see this as a kind of job, something they can live off.

Really: just watch it. I found it bizarre. And to give my inner romantic a bit of hope in love again, I will now watch Beauty and the Beast or something. Something as sweet and sappy as a Disney movie can hopefully restore my faith in romance.