There can't possibly be anyone left over the age of ten who watches "The Bachelor"/"The Bachelorette" thinking that the show is really about romance and finding true love. There are probably more people who watch pro wrestling who fail to grasp that the shows are "booked" - the vignettes, the outcomes, some of the moves, and some of the trash-talking by the characters is written by others, and the wrestlers are actually cooperating in choreography with each other to put on an entertaining show. (It would be interesting to hear from the pro wrestler who was on this season a comparison between his roles.) The difference is, pro wrestling can be watched in-person and on live broadcasts in which mistakes and performer-improvised aspects will be included. And people can and do really get seriously injured. And, of course, the industry now openly admits the nature of their programming. In contrast, the people behind "The Bachelor" seem to fear that being open and honest about the nature of the show would take away the fun of their show.
It is absurd for a contestant on this series to talk about what they were given by the star as a date. The settings and activities of those dates are arranged by the producers.
The entertainment value of "The Bachelor" series is mostly in 1) laughing at the stupidity of the whole thing; 2) noticing just how much the people behind the show will stretch credulity; 3) watching the train wreck of bizarre behavior and hokey acting by some of the performers; 4) guessing who is being set up to be the “star” of next season.
My wife watches the show and she shows me the "good" parts. It was rather easy to figure out that last season, on "The Bachelor", Ali was being set up to be the star of this current season of "The Bachelorette". It was also obvious that Jake made the decision he did because he knew people would forgive him for dumping the woman he chose; fewer people would if he picked the "good girl" and then dumped her. And there always is a dumping – none of them ever stay together. Thinking about that – none. Nonmatchmaking "reality" shows have actually ended up creating lasting couples, because the participants have something in common. This time, it appears that the break-up was timed to keep the two of them in the headlines after Jake's run on "Dancing With the Stars" ended.
In the latest episode of this season – Ali's season – a contestant left after it was revealed that… gasp… he had a girlfriend! And he had been seeing someone else in addition to her, too.
How many other participants on the show have a girlfriend or women he has been seeing back home? Probably most. There's no way everyone else on the show, aside from this guy, was completely unattached and seriously looking to settle down with someone they were going to be performing with on such a farce of a show.
The entire premise of the show is hard enough to believe. Twenty-five young, attractive, unmarried professional men (or women) have each closed all other doors and are wholeheartedly focused on winning over an attractive woman (or man) who is dating twenty four other men and making out with some of them on camera, spending time with them in hut tubs and overnight in nice hotel rooms. (I would suggest not promising exclusivity to anyone unless there’s a ring and a date.)
Do all of the guys really want to marry Ali? I'm sure most of them, if not all, would love to share a room with her overnight, and that all of them want to stay on the show as long as possible (at least when they start out), hopefully setting themselves up to be the next Bachelor… where they will get to star for a season and make out with various women. But there's no way that all of them really want to marry her. And, given the track record, there will be no pressure for them to do so should they have the misfortune of being picked by her instead of being picked by the producers to be the next Bachelor.
There there's the fact that everyone – from the guy who is supposedly quitting and running away from the show to his girlfriend who supposedly isn't part of the show - waits for cameras to get into place (sometimes coming to a remote city) before going ahead and doing what they were going to do. Kind of like pro wrestling television.
Don't get me wrong. I find the show entertaining, like watching an empty car burn. I just don't think it is doing positive things for relationships.
If you are also a viewer, are you there for the right reasons?
Click on my tag below to read my previous writings about "The Bachelor".
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
2 comments:
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People don't watch that show for the happy endings. They watch the show to see the epic fails that happen, and for the misery of the "losers".
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, there are more competition type shows on TV than any other type of show. Even Food Network, which used to be about cooking, recipes, and kitchen techniques, is becoming more and more like the other networks and their gladitorial approach to "entertainment".
I for one refuse to date anyone who watches this kind of crap. It tells me that they are just part of the rabble who revels in the misery of others.
Curiepoint, thanks for the comment. I agree to a certain point. However, I know a D-list (actually, probably more like E or F-list) guy who appears from time to time as himself on a well-known national show. He used to be in the enterouage of a late celebrity, and I befriended this guy after getting into a long conversation with him not knowing who he was or that he was at this place with me because he was with that celebrity.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, in addition to appearing as himself, he's also appears as various characters in contexts that are presented as reality - on talk shows, reality conpetition and noncompetition shows, game shows, quiz shows, entertainment news shows, syndicated courtroom shows, investigative reporting shows, and "man on the street" opinions on the news. This has really opened my eyes a lot about the nature of media, including news. Frankly, it is clear that the people who produce these shows have no idea (or don't care) that he played a different character who was also supposed to be real person on another show last month. And it doesn't matter on an "undercover investigation", because his face is blurred out anyway.
Unless we're talking the first season of a given reality show, the participants on that show know exactly what they're getting themselves into, and most are playing characters. As such, when someone watches "their misery", they are actually watching the pain a character is going through, not the real pain of the person playing the character.
I suppose on some level, some of the participants have a mental illness and it is indeed cruel to take advantage of them in that respect.
Before I married, I never had cable TV. I didn't have much time for TV. I pretty much limited my TV viewing to "The Simpsons", news, and one series at a time of an hourlong drama - usually one that would get the ax after a few seasons at most.