Even by the standards of trash reality television, this week’s
Bachelor episode was disgusting.
I admit that I watch the Bachelor. It’s mindless
entertainment that airs early in the workweek when I really like to turn my
brain off for a couple hours. I’ve even been quoted by the New York Times about
watching the show, so you can consider me an expert.
I knew this season was going to be trouble before it even
began. For one, the last season featured a smart, powerful Black Bachelorette,
Michelle Young. More than any previous lead, she saw through bullshit quickly
and instantly. The “villains” of that season rarely lasted more than a night or
two after their villainy had been revealed. She had arguably the most
impressive final four of any lead in the show’s history.
There were two red flags about this upcoming season. First,
none of those final four from Michelle’s season were selected to be the next Bachelor.
Second, the ratings for Michelle’s season were not good.
It led to the current season, where white ex-football player
Clayton Eichard was chosen despite showing zero charisma or excitement during
his time on Michelle’s season. To be extremely clear – I have nothing against
Clayton. He seems like a nice guy. He doesn’t mean harm. But he is hopelessly
out of his depth as the Bachelor.
The other issue was the promotion of the upcoming season,
which focused endlessly on drama, fights, and women heave-crying while hunched
over. There wasn’t even a hint about the show being about finding love. If you
cared about Clayton finding his person, you were in the wrong place. Watching these
ads play out endlessly over the end of the college football season on ESPN
worried me.
It turned out to be even worse than I imagined.
The first few episodes have been focused almost entirely on
two blonde villains. The first, Cassidy, was a standard issue show villain, who
rubbed all the other girls’ the wrong way by monopolizing Clayton’s time and,
oh by the way, she had a guy back home waiting for her. We’ve seen it a hundred
times on this show. She got her one week in the spotlight. Then she was found
out. Then Clayton sent her home.
Okay, I thought. This is boring and repetitive, but it’s not
offensive.
Thanks to the show’s next villain, Shanae, it become
extremely offensive.
Shanae become embroiled in a one-side feud with fellow
blonde Elizabeth – yes, Clayton really likes blondes – for reasons that no one
seems to understand. I assume it’s jealousy, but it’s not really clear. Shanae
hated Elizabeth from day one, and immediately started bullying her. Elizabeth apologized
to Shanae for not listening to her during a conversation and confided that she had
ADHD. Shanae, in return, mocked her for it and then claimed she also had ADHD.
For the next two episodes, Shanae relentlessly bullied
Elizabeth. The other girls in the house clearly got sick of Shanae, though it
initially remained hidden from Clayton. The producers turned a pretty gross bullying
situation into a running gag about shrimp, which was so tone deaf that I find
it hard to believe none of them realized how bad it was making the entire show
look.
At any point, the show’s producers could have stepped in and
ended the madness. They did not. They wanted this nonsense to continue, and
they got it. Clayton sent Elizabeth home while keeping Shanae, essentially
blaming the victim of bullying for being bullied. It was a disgusting, terrible
look for a show that’s received its fair share of criticism for doing this in
the past.
The nonsense didn’t stop there though. The girls went on a
football challenge and, surprise, surprise, they all wanted to tackle Shanae
because they hated her. Even in a post-challenge conversation, one of the Black
girls, Sierra, told Clayton that Shanae is the problem. Clayton’s response? He
asked Sierra why she kept tackling Shanae.
Hello producers, can no one step in and save this guy?
Of course, Shanae crashes the date she wasn’t invited and
Clayton responds to the intrusion by making out with her. Clayton’s decisions
are not being made by his brain or his heart. It was unsettling to say the
least, with Shanae ending the show by tossing the winning team’s trophy into
some bushes and calling them all out.
Clayton tried to hop on Twitter after the episode Monday
night to get out some regularly scheduled, contract-mandated tweets, and the
Bachelor viewers lit his ass up. Despite asking people to wait for the Women Tell All and
even trying to play the victim, he finally came around this morning and
apologized for how he treated Elizabeth. I appreciate the effort.
But Clayton isn’t the one who should be apologizing. We do
this all the time with the Bachelor. Tired storylines. Insulting segments. Producers
who should know better constantly putting people into disgusting situations on
national television to drive ratings.
As a pro wrestling fan, it reminds me of when I finally gave up on WWE. I knew it had been bad for years, and I didn’t want to support it,
but there wasn’t really anything else to watch to get my pro wrestling fix
until AEW came along.
After last night, I don’t really feel like supporting this
franchise anymore. I’m a guy, so I doubt they care if I toss in the towel. I’m
not the audience they’re targeting. Still, it’s a bummer. It’s a show I used to
like. I’m sure I’ll find something better to do with my two hours on Monday
night – hey there’s another similarity to WWE.
For those who still enjoy the Bachelor, good for you, and I
hope it improves.
For those of you like me who were disgusted by the producer’s
actions, we can turn the channel off. There’s better things to do with our time
than reward producers for bullying a woman on national television for money.
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