A Red Carpet? Really? When it was announced that the premiere would be a live three-hour special, I figured it would be like the Women Tell All and After The Final Rose shows, with fans watching in real time in a large viewing room. We got to that eventually but first we had to endure almost a full hour of "red carpet arrivals." Note to producers: The Bach isn't the Oscars and Sean & Catherine, Des & Chris, Andi & Josh, et al, are so not Brangelina. The whole thing was way, way too self-referential and when I saw a bug at the top of the screen that said "first limo arrival in 58 minutes," I almost bailed. The DVR was running and I figured I could catch up in the morning, happily fast-forwarding through the boring parts. In the end I stayed, but just barely.
On the other hand, give the producers credit. They've been very savvy about building the brand of this show and utilizing social media to keep fans engaged. I heard the show was trending on Twitter last night, and as of 10.15 Tuesday morning as I'm writing this it's still at #3. I've said many times that the most entertaining part about the show is following the hilarious tweets in real time and it's still true.
Chris Soules may or may not have found his wife on the show but he's having fun bromances with the guys. Samantha Highfill at EW has dubbed Soules and Harrison "Chris Squared," Jimmy Kimmel is suggesting that Chris S likes him more than he likes the women, and one of the cutest moments in the whole show last night was Chris and Cody giggling in the cornfield.
In a previous post I wondered how the women were feeling as they anticipated the show actually being seen by people; presumably some of them are not having very good mornings now that their antics are out there for the whole world to see. Drunk Tara, a-pomegranate-is-not-an-onion Ashley S., Nicole with the pig nose on her face, Brittany in the weird white dress and MacKenzie who named her son Kale are just a few of the "girls" who may be wishing they hadn't gotten so caught up in the spirit of "I'll do anything to catch Chris's attention/get famous on television/get through this night." Some of those GIFs really will live forever.
Finally, a more serious thought. As far as I can remember, there's never been a female contestant who wasn't skinny. Looking good in a bikini is one of the unspoken requirements for going on the show in the first place. (In a perfect world, overweight people would be considered to look good in bikinis too, but for now we're stuck with conventional standards for attractiveness.) Last night that changed with Bo, age 27, who listed her occupation as Plus Size Model. Unfortunately she turned out to be just as much of a token as some of the non-white contestants in the past. Her driveway introduction was starkly different from all the others. Usually we see a pair of high heels stepping out of the limo, followed by a full-body shot of each woman in her evening gown and walking to where the bachelor is standing. Not so with Bo.
She just appeared, standing next to Chris in the driveway and photographed from the waist up. They chatted a bit then she was gone, with no shot of Chris watching her walk into the house. During the rest of the show, she was shown having a very short one-on-one conversation with Chris and one or two In-The-Moment (ITM) comments, then a couple of reaction shots during the rose ceremony and that was it. Of course there were several skinny women who didn't appear on camera much and didn't get roses but it's still depressing to me.
So now it's on to episode 2. Will Chris change his mind and let Kimberly stay? Who gets the first one-on-one date? Who has the first ugly-cry meltdown? Is anyone going to stamp their foot and ask When do we get to go to Barbados? Important questions all. At this point my fave contestant is Britt, who struck me as charming and not too cray cray. A drop-dead gorgeous, twenty-something waitress who lives in Los Angeles may have career aspirations that don't include decamping to Podunk, Iowa but for now she's clearly a front-runner. Meet me back here next week and we'll see what happens next.
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