I am a grown woman; an educated professional woman. I make these statements not to brag, but to help explain my confusion. What am I confused about, you may wonder. The answer is “Bachelor in Paradise”.
I freely admit that I have been sucked into ABC’s Monday and Tuesday night reality-drama be it “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette”. But until this summer I had done an outstanding job of avoiding the third show in the wildly successful franchise, “Bachelor in Paradise”.
For those of you unfamiliar with the premise – or pretending to be – the first two shows are about an unattached man or woman who is bombarded by over 20 attractive people looking to fall in love leading eventually to wedded bliss.
This has been going on for dozens of seasons, and even resulted in several apparently happy marriages. But “Bachelor in Paradise” is different. This is a show of shorter duration and the participants are all rejects from “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette”. They have only just completed season four, so it is also a newcomer to “The Bachelor” franchise.
That’s right. They are people who should have gone home, back to their non-public normal lives away from the cameras and the world of reality TV. Maybe I could forgive someone for subjecting themselves to Paradise once, after all it is a gorgeous Mexican beach location, and everyone deserves a second chance. But by the time a third chance or more rolls around, things just get ridiculous. Clearly, these are people who want to be in front of cameras more than they want love.
Yet there I was, all summer, escaping hurricanes, Russian scandals and other news transfixed by the foolish love affairs of 20 and 30-somethings. I waited with baited breath to hear their inane, alcohol-infused conversations, watching the women display too much flesh and the men pump too much iron.
Why? Why Bachelor in Paradise?
Now that the show has ended for the season, I have been asking myself that very question. Sure, the host Chris Harrison is good looking and charming – shoot, he should be the next “bachelor. But there are charming good looking men on every network. Many of them are shirtless and pumping iron, or flexing muscles. So that cannot be it.
And the promos leading up to the show promised a scandal that resulted in shutting down the show for several weeks. I love a good scandal as much as the next person, but that was covered on the show in the first two weeks and concealed even faster in the media. Still, I stuck with it.
In truth, I don’t care about these men and women or whether they find love or not. It seems highly likely that these pairings will not last. The odds are firmly against them. Yet when last night ended in a proposal I joined the studio audience in wiping away a stray tear.
So, embarrassing as it is to admit, something about this insipid program with its immature but attractive people appeals to me – and obviously to millions of others as well. There are people who write blogs about it, watch it together and speculate on the outcomes. I was invested enough to DVR each episode to insure I wouldn’t miss a moment.. But now it is over and I have no clue why I watched. Seriously. I feel like this confession is the equivalent of airing some dirty little secret.
[bctt tweet=”Do you share my secret? Do you know why you watch? #bachelor #paradise #amwriting ” username=”madisonmichael_”]
Who shares my addiction? Do you share my secret? Do you know why you watch? Is it for the compelling drama, or perhaps to watch couples end their search for romance in a miserable train wreck of sobs and recriminations? Is it the voyeur checking out the young nubile bodies in skimpy bikinis? Could it be your romantic side hoping to see real, honest to god, true love?
If you know, can you please, please help me understand? I am totally baffled.