There are 10 distinct reasons I just cannot stan this season (Season 24) of The Bachelor. And I reveal them all on my most dramatic blog post, yet ??
Well, Bachelor fans, this Season 24 of The Bachelor is coming to a close.
We’ve watched Bachelor Peter ride the struggle bus through the last seven weeks of DRAMA, and he has chosen his Final 4. I’ve tried to support. I really have. But after last night, I’m just really feeling the need to get some things off my chest.
Namely: How disappointing this season has been to watch.
I love The Bachelor (and Bachelorette)! It’s my not-even-slightly-Guilty Pleasure show I watch with my mom armed with a notebook (with 30 contestants, it’s necessary) and a glass of red wine. We know most Bachelor couples don’t make it. We like to root for our favorites, anyway! It’s all good fun 🙂
But this season has not been good fun. In fact, it’s been a veritable cornucopia of cat fights, bullying and gaslighting. And that’s just on the women. Factor in Bachelor Peter, whose “Nice Guy” M.O. has been so toxic to the contestants they literally haven’t. stopped. crying. all. season. and you’ve got some issues even the biggest Bachelor fans can’t just laugh off.
So these are the 10 reasons I, personally, am SO disappointed with this season of The Bachelor. Feel free to chime in with your own!
1. Bachelor Peter’s Affection Is Blatantly Color-Influenced
This is such a hard one to say.
I don’t want to believe it.
But I have to call it like I see it, and no one called it better than Saturday Night Live in their sketch, “Pilot Hunk” (with JJ Watt playing the titular role):
“Tune in to watch him deep kiss the white girls and high-five the black girls,” the voice-over says.
:Insert groan-because-it’s-true here:
Victoria F. and Sydney were the only women of color this season Peter really kissed like he meant it. And it wasn’t just the black women who didn’t get their fair share of the kisses. All three Asian women were gone by Week 6, and Tammy was the only one who got any on-screen kisses.
The first of which she secured after she’d handcuffed the Bachelor’s hands behind his back. Just saying.
Side Note: I know this isn’t just a Bachelor Pete thing. It’s happened on all of the seasons.
2. Girl v. Girl Match-Ups Abound
This I blame 70% on production, but it’s still disheartening to see so much girl-on-girl crime on a weekly basis. (Even Peter recognized it in this interview with Entertainment Tonight!)
Seriously, think about it:
Week 1 was… well, it was Week 1. In other words: A bit of a cluster.
Week 2 was Kelsey v. Hannah Ann
Week 3 was leftovers of Kelsey v. Hannah Ann, then Alayah v. Sydney
Week 4 was Alayah v. both Victorias
Week 5 was Tammy v. both Kelsey and Sydney
Week 6 was Tammy v. Mykenna… with a literal Girl v. Girl sit-down! Can you even?
In a world that constantly pits us women against each other, I wish we had more examples of girl-to-girl empowerment. This show is in a unique position to deliver that but, as a slave to ratings, it won’t. Probably ever. Which brings me to…
3. Producers Are Stirring the Pot Double-Time This Season
You can smell it right? It’s in every “confessional” interview, every snarky one-liner, every contrived conversation between two women you’ve never seen spending time together.
In a way, I feel bad for the contestants. I’m sure they’re good people. So I wouldn’t want to be there when they have to watch this season back and be reminded of some of the things they said and did.
Because you just know a producer said something like, “Wow, Kelsey sure drinks a lot,” to get Tammy so worked up about it.
Same with specifically putting Victoria F. on the Cedar Point date… at which her ex, singer Chase Rice, was performing.
Same with getting Alayah to come back after being sent home.
Same with having Hannah Ann open “the wrong bottle” of champagne.
Seriously, Bachelor producers? What exactly are you trying to achieve?
4. The Stigma around “Never Being In Love Before” Needs to Be Cancelled
JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS NEVER BEEN IN LOVE DOESN’T MEAN S/HE IS INCAPABLE OF IT, GOSH!!
I felt like screaming at the TV during Peter’s Week 6 one-on-one with Hannah Ann. The girl is 23 years old, dude. Give her a break! Not everyone is lucky enough to have found someone worthy of their love by that age.
Also, what the actual heck is so bad about being someone’s first love? To be the one to show them what it is to trust someone, share with someone, and care about someone on a level deeper than anything they’ve ever experienced?
As a romance writer, I have to say I just don’t get the hang-up.
5. Ditto for the Emphasis on “Age”
I’ll be the first to admit I was nowhere near ready for marriage at the age of some of the Bachelor contestants. So I understand why some people could be surprised to hear these young women are so ready for marriage. But I CANNOT get behind the ridiculous ageism that pervades this show season after season.
No one can tell you you aren’t ready for marriage. Just like no one can tell you you should be ready for marriage! Why are these women constantly coming at each other for being “too young” and “not ready for this”?
Side Note: At least it’s not coming from the Bachelor, himself, this time. We all remember Arie’s freak out over wise and beautiful Bekah M.’s tender age of 22, am I right?
And speaking of Arie’s season…
6. I Miss Arie’s Girls
Yes, Arie was a Nonfat-vanilla-latte Level Snoozer of a Bachelor. But you know who wasn’t? The awesome women on his season!
Interesting, obviously intelligent, and stunning in each of their unique ways, I saw my own friends in that group of supportive, caring, emotionally intelligent ladies. It was clear they had somehow managed to band together against whatever drama-heavy narrative the producers probably hoped for, rarely talking about each other negatively to confession cameras.
Which is unfortunately more than I can say for Peter’s gals who oftentimes seem more concerned with putting each other “in their places” than falling in love.
It’s disappointing at best. Un-feminist at worst.
7. If I Hear about Some Girl’s “Truth” One More Time…
Ladies. I’m sorry. But get off your g*d* high horses and speak like normal humans! I JUST CANNOT ANYMORE with these rambling soliloquies rife with phrases like “I spoke my truth” and “That’s my truth” and “Don’t question my truth.”
HOLY GUAC AND CHIPS, PEOPLE. JUST STAHP.
I’m especially looking at you, Victoria P. Because your alternative facts “truth” turned out to be a big ol‘ lie.
8. The Emotional Extortion is Gross
Not gonna lie, I was physically boiling last week when Peter started grilling Hannah Ann at dinner about “being ready for this.”
After learning she wasn’t in love with her previous boyfriend, he says: “I guess I’m just… Why do you feel… Do you 100% feel like this is what you want? You’re 100% ready? You do? How are you so confident?”
Poor girl looked like a job candidate who’d just been thrown that ridiculous interview staple: “Tell me about a time you failed.” Except she was also expected to expand on how she could somehow guarantee she wouldn’t fail this time around.
How, just, gross. And completely unfair.
And you know what? Peter wouldn’t stop being a dick — leaving Hannah Ann stunned and confused, alone at the dinner table — until she timidly crept back to him in tears, visibly shaken. And suddenly power was back in his hands. And the rose was awarded. Ew.
And this isn’t the only instance of him power-playing the women like this. Any time one of the contestants expresses being even slightly unsure, just a toe not all-in, Bachelor Pete seems to throw a low-key tantrum until they cry. In many cases they need to tearfully apologize and/or confess their burgeoning “love” for him. Only then are they rewarded with a rose. Ew.
9. But So Is the Girls’ Meanness
We’re at Week 7 and, honestly, I still don’t like enough of the women to fill one handful. They’re all, just, so mean!
And what’s crazy is that we didn’t always see it coming! Take Tammy. She was sassy, down to earth, and seemed like she didn’t take herself too seriously… until, holyshit, she was suddenly on a singular mission to pick off every woman one by one!
And quiet, never-been-done-right-by-a-man nurse Victoria P.? Why did she suddenly become a liar liar pants on fire? How completely unnecessary!
And what about level-headed Sydney suddenly going full-on Real Housewives on Tammy’s ass?
Look, a little petty snipping is expected on The Bachelor. Put 30 women with different personalities and different life experiences in a house together to compete for a guy and there are bound to be conflicts. Especially with the booze flowing and no other distractions to occupy their time (Bachelor contestants aren’t allowed TV, movies, music, e-books, phones, nada).
But the women this season seem to be out for blood. It’s been exhausting to watch. So I, for one, am so glad I don’t need to see them interacting anymore.
10. Turns Out the Nice Guy Isn’t So “Nice”
The number one reason I’m so disappointed in this season is, I’m so sorry, because of the Bachelor, himself.
Thing is, I loved Peter on Hannah B.’s season. He was kind, generous, understanding, and always smiling, and he started his own season with that same Nice Guy energy. Unfortunately over the course of this season that Peter has slowly petered out (pun intended 😉 ).
Because from the moment Hannah B. showed up to “host” his Week 2 date he began to reveal what kind of Bachelor he was really going to be: indecisive, needy, and oh-so-PARANOID.
Peter constantly tattles on the women to each other, goading them with actual quotes so they can go back and fight over them. He’s always ditching his group dates to encourage some petty drama. He facilitates sit-downs between adversaries so he can, what, preside as judge? And dude’s been rolling over and allowing producers to dictate his moves for the ratings since Night 1.
Someone needs to explain to Peter that even “Nice Guys” can’t be liked by everyone. By trying to be on everyone’s sides, he ends up on no one’s side. And then everyone involved feels disrespected and “under-recognized.” (Claps to Deandra for calling him out.)
Bottom Line: He doesn’t ever seem to have his women’s backs. And that’s not nice. Not nice at all.
I want Peter to find love.
I want “the process” that be believes in so fiercely to work.
For the girls, too. I want them to go on to find lasting love, if not on The Bachelor then perhaps on Paradise? Or, even better, in the real world like Bekah M. did. ?
(SPOILER: Who else stans confident, worldly, and therefore dumped Kelley finding a partner in the real world who will someday take her to “ride some alpacas” in Peru since she didn’t get to this time around 😉 )
I’m a Bachelor fan, but more and more I’ve been feeling like the show is in need of a bit of a Cher Horowitz-style “soul makeover.” This petty pandering to low-ball dramatics is stale AF, and I think we’re all over it. It’s time for The Bachelor to support its contestants, not pit them against each other for ratings.
Or lure them to romantic locales just so they can be dumped on camera properly (lookin’ at you Season 22 producers).
I can’t be the only one craving a less dramatic, more romantic TV love story, right? A show that feels both aspirational and inspirational, the way we feel after finishing a really great romantic novel?
Please be better, Bachelor. Respect your contestants and your audience. After sticking with you for 24 seasons, I think we deserve it.
*Note: Obviously I realize The Bachelor is a highly edited television show. So it’s highly possible that I’m more disappointed with the show/producers, rather than the contestants involved. That being said, I don’t believe any of the cast are forced to say things they don’t mean. Encouraged, maybe, to say things out loud they would normally keep to themselves. But not forced.
[All show screenshots are from the “Bachelor Nation” Youtube channel.]
