Blogging The Bach: Where's Alex?

Greetings, rosebuds! Are you enjoying Ben's season? Am I? Yes I'm enjoying watching but on some level it's "same old, same old," which is to be expected on the 20th season of anything. And it turns out the network/producers are making a big deal about this 20th anniversary season, with a big special planned for February 14th, Valentine's Day, natch.

On Monday night's after-the-show show (Bachelor Live,) Chris Harrison mentioned that the anniversary show will feature the biggest gathering of former Bachelors in the show's history, but they've got a problem. They can't find Bach #1, the original, Alex Michel. I'd read before that Alex has gone underground where all things Bachelor are concerned, apparently wanting to leave that strange episode from his younger years behind him. So in these days of social media, is it really possible to disappear? Harrison asked viewers to call in if they have any info about the missing Bach, and he also spoke directly to Alex, on the (unlikely) chance he was watching, saying "Come home, brother, come home." Will he? Can Alex Michel stay hidden now that the full force of Bachelor Nation has been set upon his trail? My guess? Probably not.

In another promo for the big show, producers are posting, once a day, the "Top 20 Moments" from 20 seasons of the Bachelor, starting Tuesday. Similar to what I'm doing with the GOP presidential candidates, I'm going to keep a running list:

20. Jake and Vienna, after the break-up (link)
19. Trista's fantasy suite confession (link)
18. Ali leaves Kasey on a glacier (link)
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.  

This should be fun. If Jake and Vienna's awkward break-up is only #20 who knows what we'll be re-living as they count down to number one. (I assume that will be Jason dumping Melissa on the After The Final Rose show and immediately taking up with Molly. Stay tuned.) I watched a few seasons of the show when it started in 2002, but I was AWOL for Jesse Palmer, Charlie O'Connell, Travis Stork, Lorenzo Borghese, Andrew Baldwin and Brad Womack's first turn as the Bach, so some of this stuff will probably be new to me. As I think about it, if anyone had said back in the Spring of 2002, when this all started, that we'd still be gathering on Monday nights to watch The Bachelor in 2016, they would have been laughed out of the room. To put it another way, when Alex Michel made his debut as the first Bachelor, current Bachelor Ben was 12.

As for the actual show this time around, some random thoughts:

Our host Chris Harrison "writes" a blog at Yahoo after each episode airs and I've enjoyed reading it during prior seasons, but this week it felt like he's just phoning it in, with comments so generic they could be from any prior season:

... our first stop in Las Vegas got our trip started with quite a bit of drama, and also quite a bit of romance. 

It's [the hotel] a great place to be but obviously every woman wants to get out of the hotel and onto a great date with Ben. As we move through these weeks, time with the Bachelor becomes more and more precious and every woman is hoping to get that one-on-one time with Ben. 

JoJo got the first date card and she was thrilled and excited at the same time. 

Really Chris? Quite a bit of drama? Thrilled and excited at the same time? Aren't you afraid you're giving away some state secrets with all this detail and insight? 

I've decided that to succeed on the show, it's better not to get the First Impression Rose (FIR) or to go on the first one-on-one date. Why? Human nature. Women who get the first rose or first date can't help assuming that they're special in the Bachelor's eyes, then they frequently look pretty silly a few episodes later when they're all upset that the Bachelor is actually dating and kissing other women. (The universal question: Haven't they ever watched the show before?) That brings me, of course, to Olivia, who got this season's FIR and is now acting all kinds of weird and talking about Ben as her "husband." Last year on Chris Soules' season, Britt fell victim to the same misjudgment and went from front-runner to "sent home in tears" because she couldn't handle the process, even though it happens on every show, and is in fact the entire basis for the show. Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky has said that she knew who her final two would be by the end of the first night, but she had to go through the process with all the guys. Otherwise there's no show.

For this season we've gone back to the original format of a rose ceremony at the end of each episode. Last season several episodes ended with drama of some kind or another, followed by the words "To be continued." It was frustrating and felt manipulative, and as I remember, producers got an earful on Twitter. Bachelor Nation was not happy. This time around, so far at least, we're back to the way things are meant to be. Yay! 

In other Bachelor franchise news, remember Jade, from last season? (Posed for Playboy, naked videos, Cinderella date, sent home after hometowns? Yeah, that's Jade. Here's what I wrote about her last year.) She was on Bachelor in Paradise (BIP) last summer, met Tanner from Kaitlyn's season and this past Sunday they tied the knot, in a ceremony that will be featured on the anniversary show. By my count that makes seven Bach franchise couples who have gotten married: 3 Bachelorettes (Trista & Ryan, Ashley & J.P. and Desirée & Chris,) 2 BIP couples (Lacy & Marcus and Tanner & Jade,) 1 Bachelor (Sean and Catherine) and 1 outlier (Jason Mesnick, who initially got engaged to Melissa, then dumped her and got back with his runner-up, Molly.) Kaitlyn and Shawn are still together too.

That's all for now, rosebuds. Meet me back here, same Bach time, same Bach channel, for more of Ben's journey to love.