The Golden Bachelor is a morally corrupt nightmare
As it turns out, a Bachelor season where people are actually looking for love and not just a Revolve sponsorship is a major bummer
TV Features Entertainment, Culture
Hello, it’s your friendly neighborhood Golden Bachelor recapper here. We’ve been on a long, strange trip over the past nine weeks. If you’ve been on it with me, the rest of this essay shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. If you’re new to the mansion, well, here’s my confessional: I hate The Golden Bachelor.
Before you tell me to zip it (shout-out to my girl Kathy), hear me out. I’m not a romance-hating cynic and of course I think seniors should get a second chance at love, or at least a shot at a sick new Reformation wardrobe like some of these ladies are sporting. I mostly don’t hate Gerry, and I definitely don’t hate any of the women competing for his heart. But the show sure does.
Seven weeks ago, I sat down to review my first episode of The Golden Bachelor. I had jumped in a bit late; this was episode two, where the women do a sexy photoshoot and Gerry and Theresa split a milkshake with two straws, dance to “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and talk about their late spouses. I was touched and even a little teary-eyed as these brave septuagenarians stepped way out of their comfort zone and put their hearts on the line in a way I’d never seen on television before. I typed out the headline “The genuine vulnerability of The Golden Bachelor is setting it apart from the franchise,” fully believing it at the time.
I wasn’t the only one. The Golden Bachelor (which airs its finale November 30) has received breathless praise from outlets such as The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. Fans and critics alike have celebrated the representation it provides, the freedom with which its contestants are able to express themselves and their desires, and perhaps most notably, how different and refreshing it is to watch a Bachelor season where people are actually “here for the right reasons”—i.e., to find true and lasting love.
But it’s somewhere around this last part where the producers should have looked long and hard at themselves in the mirror and thought, “Hmm, maybe it isn’t the best idea to create a situation where older women who’ve protected themselves against heartbreak for years or even decades are encouraged to break down those walls just to experience the kind of debilitating hurt they’ve feared all along. Maybe we shouldn’t put people’s children through the rollercoaster of seeing their mom happy and in love with a man for the first time since their dad died, only for that man to leave her on live television mere hours later. Maybe, just maybe, we should finally admit we’re just a goofy show people mostly use as an excuse for a wine night and we should do what we’ve always done.”
That didn’t happen, of course. The Golden Bachelor is running exactly like a Bachelor season should. But as it turns out, a Bachelor season where people are actually looking for love and not just a Revolve sponsorship is a major bummer.
While the Bachelor franchise has always claimed to show real romance and real heartbreak, both of those things have been largely unbelievable on the regular seasons for almost a decade now. Sure, there’s been a handful of engagements and a whole lot of tears, but there’s still an underlying understanding that this is mostly just for show. Those emotions probably feel vital and all-encompassing in the moment, but that’s more due to producer manipulation and the haze of alcohol than any actual sense of commitment. You’re not really watching people’s entire worlds get shattered while you giggle and do face masks with your friends.
That’s not the case with The Golden Bachelor. This show is very, very real. Tonight, Gerry will hand out his final rose and propose to either Leslie or Theresa, a person he will likely spend the rest of his life with. The other woman will watch an entire life path she had grown attached to wither and die on national television. Neither woman knows just how deeply Gerry has fallen for the other, and neither wants to say goodbye. Neither does Gerry. In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, host Jesse Palmer teased the finale as “the most emotional goodbye anybody’s ever seen on The Bachelor, Bachelorette, or Bachelor In Paradise.”
I believe it. I haven’t seen the episode yet, but even just in the preview Gerry is shown choking out the words, “The only time I’ve ever felt worse in my whole life is when my wife passed away, and this is a goddamn close second.” That’s not heartache. That’s trauma. And that’s just Gerry. We haven’t even seen how the eliminated contestant reacts to her rejection yet, much less how the winner responds to the knowledge that Gerry struggled this much with his decision. If second runner-up Faith’s silent sobs in the “Women Tell All” episode are anything to go by, this is about to be really, really ugly.
“Had I known this is how much pain I would cause someone, I would have never taken the first step on this journey,” Gerry says later in the clip. Maybe next time, the show should actually listen to the people they claim to be so inspired by and leave the roses on the bush.
136 Comments
“a person he will likely spend the rest of his life with.”Not a chance in hell.I just don’t see how, if I believe myself to be in love with a man, I can watch his “emotional goodbye” with another woman he told he was also in love with, and not feel pretty betrayed. Sure, I’m the first choice, but that’s gonna hurt when he had led me to believe I was the only choice. I would not feel this was an honest person.But I also wouldn’t be on a show competing for a man’s attention, so there’s that.
It’s like just because the people on this version are old the public doesn’t think they’re going to be just as attention hungry and in it for the money as the younger people, which is a foolish thing to think.
That’s true. No healthy, normal, non-famewhore person would go on this show, so I hope that’s the case for these people as well. I hope the tears and heartbreak are all for show. Half of me is sure it is, but the other half thinks it’s real, even if stupid. The heightened environment of the show probably leads them to think they are really in love. Of course they’re not, but they think they are, and that’s sad and a bit pathetic.
I think the likelihood of a 60+ woman who didn’t grow up in the social media / influencer age is doing this entirely for exposure is probably less than for some 25 year-old “marketing advisor” from Miami or Dallas. Granted I haven’t seen a minute of this show so maybe these women do all have massive online followings and are trying to monetize their appearances, but I put moderately more credibility into their rationales for being on the Bachelor than a “normal” season.
Reality TV has been a thing for 30 years now, they know what reality TV is.
I think the likelihood of a 60+ woman who didn’t grow up in the social media / influencer age is doing this entirely for exposure is probably less than for some 25 year-old…Anyone choosing to appear on a TV game show is doing it for exposure or cash. And electronic social media venues like AOL and CompuServe are older than the Internet.
I thought that was a not so subtle and dark nod to them being old and therefore don’t have as much time to break up before, you know, death.
That’s preferable to believing this is actually going to end in a long-term relationship, which is just stupid.
And that’s just a defeatist attitude. Robert DeNiro shows us you’re never too old to get divorced.
Mick Jagger even shows us we’re never too old to have children we won’t be alive to take care of.
And Al Pacino that you’re never to old to accidentally impregnate a woman!
“Being led to believe I was the only choice” in a game-show designed around competing for someones affection, is about as clear-cut as cognitive dissonance gets.
Hence the last line of my comment which says literally that.But cognitive dissonance does exist, especially when they are each being literally told that they are the only one for him. They’re gonna be hurt.
I definitely prefer the seasons where the dude is straight getting down with every woman on the cast, because everyone knows none of those relationships are going to amount to anything so why not?
“ but that’s gonna hurt when he had led me to believe I was the only choice.”
This is not an accurate representation of what the show is.
I’ll have to take your word for it! I’ve never watched an episode, but I do read the recaps, and the recap said that’s what he told at least two women (that they were the only one for him, or they were the only one he could see himself with or something like that).
The very nature of the show precludes thinking you were the only one at any point.
I mean you are free to tell them that all you want. It doesn’t change the fact that he said it to them with a straight face both times. It doesn’t change the fact that their feelings are going to be hurt when they find out he was lying.
Sadly you can’t do much about stupid.
True, though I tend to believe that people are allowed to believe things other people tell them. It’s one thing to know that you aren’t the only one he’s seeing. It’s another to be told “I’m in love with you and only you out of all the other women.” It’s stupid to go on the show in the first place, but he’s still the one in the wrong for telling baldfaced lies.
I just don’t see how, if I believe myself to be in love with a man, I can watch his “emotional goodbye” with another woman he told he was also in love with, and not feel pretty betrayed. Especially if he boinked that woman (and a couple others) the night before he proposed to you.On the regular show anyway.
And on this show! If I recall correctly he had sex with both of the top two one after the other, telling them both he loved them. And then had the nerve to act like he felt guilty about it. Like dude, where was this guilt when you were doing it??
Yeah, they kinda painted that religious girl as a prude for backing out after spending a weekend listening to her roomies talking about their overnights. It’s so fucking weird they put them in that situation.
I think she even told him up front she wasn’t OK with her boyfriend, if that’s what he was claiming to be, sleeping around.OTOH, I remember a guy on BiP getting blasted for sleeping with two of the girls in a weekend at Coachella. I guess cause it wasn’t part of the show?
That’s the fundamental flaw here. Sexual chemistry is important and usually something you determine over the course of a lengthy relationship, not a few weeks in a fantasy environment. And definitely not while you’re making the same determination with three other women at the same time. How does a women not say to herself as she’s receiving the rose and he’s coming in for the kiss “where has that mouth been in the last 24 hours and how many times did he brush his teeth??”
Right, and her feelings for him could completely change after seeing all the one-on-one stuff she didn’t see during filming.
And how could they not? Can you really spend your life with a man who was fucking around literally simultaneously with allegedly falling in love with you?
This is where Disney will start enforcing “The death do you part” line.
I mean, there’s a chance in hell, but the bachelor/bachelorette shows have a 19% success rate, which is 30% below the national average.
lol Nice odds.But it turns out I was wrong about her being pissed about his activities with the other woman. Turns out she doesn’t give a shit that the man claiming to love her was also fucking someone else and telling them the same thing. Who knew?
“I’ll have to take your word for it! I’ve never watched an episode, but I do read the recaps, and the recap said…”“I mean you are free to tell them that all you want. It doesn’t change the fact that he said it to them with a straight face both times. It doesn’t change the fact that their feelings are going to be hurt when they find out he was lying.”“If I recall correctly he had sex with both of the top two one after the other, telling them both he loved them. And then had the nerve to act like he felt guilty about it. Like dude, where was this guilt when you were doing it??”
So… All of those are things you wrote. You’ve never watched the show. You’re commenting – as much or more than just about anybody else here – on the recap of a show you’ve never watched. You’re speaking definitively, as though you’re some sort of subject matter expert (based solely on recaps of a show you’ve never watched; I keep coming back to this because it’s stupid and funny). You’re using expressions like “It doesn’t change the fact that” and “he was lying” and “If I recall correctly” and “had the nerve to act like he felt” when you can’t “recall” what you haven’t seen, and you can’t evaluate whether someone feels something (or is just acting like they feel something) or whether that behavior required “nerve” when you don’t know what they did, what they said about what they did, how they felt, or whether what they said about how they felt required any acting at all.
And then the capper:
“But it turns out I was wrong about her being pissed about his activities with the other woman. Turns out she doesn’t give a shit that the man claiming to love her was also fucking someone else and telling them the same thing. Who knew?”
Who knew, indeed? How could you have possibly been wrong about a show you’ve consumed entirely through other people’s recaps?
In conclusion: Part of me is tempted to suggest that you should shut the fuck up and stop being so opinionated about behaviors you haven’t observed based upon secondhand descriptions of those behaviors on a show you say you haven’t watched. But my strongest reaction to all of this is that you are the perfect encapsulation of contemporary society in 2023, and I have no notes.
“I typed out the headline “The genuine vulnerability of ,” fully believing it at the time.”So it was your first reality TV viewing experience, eh?“The Golden Bachelor (which airs its finale November 30) has received breathless praise from outlets such as The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.”Remember when those were respectable publications?
Did you read the whole article. The people are apparently very earnest in their desires. That’s the whole point. The normal Bachelor raises no concerns. The Golden Bachelor contestants are experiencing more serious emotional trauma.
I don’t believe for a second that it’s not performative.
So you have been watching the show? Because I haven’t. And I can easily imagine it may be more real for a bunch of seniors than young starlets looking to make a name.
No, I think the last time I watched reality TV was the season of Wife Swap with the crazy woman who thought the mandalas were Satanic. That’s about the time when I realized all of reality TV is staged and performative. It hasn’t changed in the time since then.
you have way too much to say about a show you’ve never seen.
So exactly how much am I allowed to say about this show?
You know, so I can entirely ignore your restrictions going forward.
I love that people are going to the mattresses over the Golden fucking Bachelor. People legitimately will fight about anything. FWIW, I’ve seen episodes of The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I’m assuming that anyone who would sign up to be on a season of it would, in fact, be aware of the format beforehand. The show has been on for over 21 years. There have been (and continue to be) multiple articles detailing precisely how the sausage is made (if not multiple such articles per season). It is not an unknown quantity in any sense.There is absolutely no fucking way that any participant on the Golden Bachelor went into it cold, or with no knowledge of what the process and format would entail.Me? If there were a Golden Bachelorette, and I were single, and I were staring down the barrel of my own mortality, I would not toss all of my hopes into a fucking reality TV game show over, say, starting a profile on a dating site or going out to mixer events. Other people’s mileage apparently varies, for reasons I cannot fathom.That people are pretending not to get this point is…well, expected, really.
A few people, for some reason:
There’s a difference between saying that they did not know what the show entailed, which I did not, and saying they are genuinely being hurt by what happens when they are actually on it.
I understand. If they were actually going into this show looking for love, I do not have much sympathy. Occam’s razor, man. If someone’s looking for companionship, there are easier, less overt ways to find it. If someone’s willing to go through multiple auditions, screen tests, publicity, and the rigmarole of filming a season of one of the biggest reality TV shows in history? Speaks to a different motive.
As you get to retirement age, finding mates becomes almost as hard as finding jobs.
But he feels his uninformed opinions so strongly.
Ah yes, IContainMultitudes with their highly informed opinions on the reality of reality TV. That’s some good shit right there!
Boy you must love the smell of your own farts.
I’d rather be gross than be ignorant enough to believe reality TV is real.
Yeah, because that’s the alternative to being like you.
No, that’s the position you’re taking in this conversation: Internet poster IContainMultitudes believes that reality TV is real.Note that I’m only stating the position that you’re taking and calling it ignorant, not saying stuff like ‘Hurr hurr Murry Chang smells his own farts!’, because I like to have actual conversations instead of acting like a 4th grader.Happy Holidays!
Some of us manage to not watch reality television OR make a dozen posts showing off how sophisticated we are for not watching reality television.I for one never fucking watched whatever the fuck Wife Swap is.But you’re so fucking countercultural bro.
So you’re just harassing me then, got it. I’ll flag your posts for harassment then, for as much good as that does around here these days.
Opinionated asshole has thin skin.
Internet poster IContainMultitudes both believes reality TV is real and really isn’t good at talking to people like they’re human beings.
Actually, the people reacting to you in this thread have the most reasonable position possible:
You seem to be on the Internet, completely unironically, waving your cynicism around about a show you haven’t watched… and then – completely unironically – acting like the people reacting to you are ‘too online’ for wondering why the fuck you’re so opinionated about a show you haven’t watched. WHY, you wonder, would anyone have the temerity to be dismissive of your opinions about something you disdain because… reasons… without having actually consumed the thing about which you’re professing expertise?
Can you quote where I’m acting like people are ‘too online’? I definitely don’t think I was trying to do that. I’m having a damn discussion about a stupid ass reality TV show on a blog that’s a pale shadow of its former self and people are tossing ‘Hurr hurr Murry Chang smells his own farts’ shit at me, you think that’s something a reasonable person would do? Do you do that to people in real life conversations when talking about something so obvious as reality shows not being real?
“WHY, you wonder, would anyone have the temerity to be dismissive of your opinions about something you disdain because… reasons… without having actually consumed the thing about which you’re professing expertise?”‘Professing expertise’? Nobody needs ‘expertise’ to tell that reality TV is not real, it’s been well known for a long time. If you somehow think these women don’t know what’s up with reality shows just because they’re over 60, well, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d love to sell you cheap.
“Can you quote where I’m acting like people are ‘too online’? I definitely don’t think I was trying to do that.”
Sure:
“So exactly how much am I allowed to say about this show?You know, so I can entirely ignore your restrictions going forward.”-You“Oh no, internet user jmyoung123 may ignore my opinion about an article on AVClub.com about The Goddamn Golden Fucking Bachelor.Whatever shall I do?” -You “Ah yes, IContainMultitudes with their highly informed opinions on the reality of reality TV. That’s some good shit right there!” -You “Note that I’m only stating the position that you’re taking and calling it ignorant, not saying stuff like ‘Hurr hurr Murry Chang smells his own farts!’, because I like to have actual conversations instead of acting like a 4th grader.”-You“I definitely don’t think I was trying to do that. I’m having a damn discussion about a stupid ass reality TV show on a blog that’s a pale shadow of its former self and people are tossing ‘Hurr hurr Murry Chang smells his own farts’ shit at me, you think that’s something a reasonable person would do?”
I’m weighing in like a day and a half later. I don’t think any of it was particularly reasonable, but just because you showed up to a mud fight wearing white doesn’t mean your hands are clean. I’m just telling you what I saw.
“Do you do that to people in real life conversations when talking about something so obvious as reality shows not being real?”
If the point you’re standing on is SO OBVIOUS… and you’re making this point – to strangers – about a show you disdain and do not watch, I wouldn’t compare it to real life. In real life, a rational person would ask the most obvious question: Since you don’t watch the show we’re talking about, why don’t you shut the fuck up? You’re not participating in a real conversation, and you’re also not willing to acknowledge that your own behavior is not indicative of reasonable behavior in a real conversation.
“‘Professing expertise’? Nobody needs ‘expertise’ to tell that reality TV is not real, it’s been well known for a long time. If you somehow think these women don’t know what’s up with reality shows just because they’re over 60, well, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d love to sell you cheap.”
There you go again. You keep returning to what you see as the point – this is all stupid bullshit and you’re all rubes for engaging with it – but you’re not engaging with the part that I was actually pointing out: You were actively doing the thing you were criticizing other people for. While making a point you see as obvious. About a thing they consume that you don’t. Now that I pointed it out, you’re being defensive. So, again, if you want to treat this like a real conversation, let’s do that. In the parlance of a real conversation, YOU shouldn’t be PARTICIPATING. Your participation isn’t neutral and it’s not adding to the conversation. It’s detracting from the conversation. Why is that the case? You’re repeatedly making an obvious point, you’re being a hypocrite, and you’re talking down to people who DO consume a thing while wearing it as a badge of honor that you DON’T consume that thing. Your obvious point is correct. Your obvious point is obvious. Your obvious point has been made. If this was a real conversation, you continuing to engage in it instead of finding a new group of people to talk to or going to the bar or doing literally anything else? That kinda makes you the asshole here.
I don’t see those quotes as being ‘too online’ at all. In your world I start the conversation but apparently shouldn’t be participating in it, got you.
“If this was a real conversation, you continuing to engage in it instead of finding a new group of people to talk to or going to the bar or doing literally anything else?”If this was a real conversation the person who keeps calling me an asshole for no reason would get a kick in the nuts.
Anyhow, keep believing your reality TV is real, even though it’s 100% fake.https://www.google.com/search?channel=frs&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=golden+bachelor+liesFake fake fucking fakety fake.
“If this was a real conversation the person who keeps calling me an asshole for no reason would get a kick in the nuts.”
And now, they payoff!
Sort it out for me: Do you never leave the house? Do you walk around kicking people in the nuts all the time? Or are other people too polite to tell you when you’re being an asshole? Maybe you’re just a really burly dude and people are cared of you? Which one is it?
(And just to be clear: I’m not offering the option that you’re not actually an asshole in real life. That’s an intentional choice on my part.)
“I’m not offering the option that you’re not actually an asshole in real life. That’s an intentional choice on my part”Hey I’m sorry that you’re not good at making even slightly polite conversation, some people just aren’t great at that kind of thing. The best way to get good at it is to go out and talk to people without doing things like stating that they shouldn’t be involved in conversations that they themselves started or calling them assholes. Just learning some of the basic rules of how to discuss things reasonably is a great start, I bet you can do it if you try!
You think THIS is bad? ElectricSheep, elsewhere in the comments, is similarly opinionated for someone who claims to have never watched a single episode of the whole franchise…
Wow, you’re so cool!
How about you go F*ck off and troll elsewhere.
So you are completely ignorant on this matter and safely ignored.
Oh no, internet user jmyoung123 may ignore my opinion about an article on AVClub.com about The Goddamn Golden Fucking Bachelor.Whatever shall I do?
Yeah some smoking hot 26 year-old might be upset in the moment but can easily say “Oh well!” and move on to the next dude.
And the assumption seems to be that they can’t handle it? Seems a bit ageist, underestimating their abilities. And why should we have sympathy for those who have “suffered more” when they engage in such shallow network TV exhibitionism? Caveat emptor, when you audition for reality TV, at any age, the nature of the beast itself is no different.
The implication of the critique here is that older people should not be allowed to date in real life either as they can no longer handle the ups and downs of romance. These folks are probablly not as fragile emotionally as implied here. They’ve already survived through a lot of crap in their lives.
As one of the people who worked on Golden Bachelor, this is the case. The ladies are tough and get through just fine.BTW, AVClub, you’re welcome for creating a show that allows you to write clickbaity articles on
As one of the people who worked on Golden BachelorNo you aren’t.The ladies are tough and get through just fine.Well yes, they’re actors and probably super drunk the whole timeBTW, AVClub, you’re welcome for creating a show that allows you to write clickbaity articles onI’m sure you’re equally welcome to the advertising? Media is symbiotic as you would know if you actually worked in it.
As one of the people who worked on Golden BachelorNo you aren’t.Oh ok, thanks for telling me what I have and haven’t worked on. You obviously know best.??
While I don’t begrudge you your right to hold down whatever job you wish in order to put food on the table and/or fulfill your ambitions and/or put your kids through school and/or etc, I do hate you at least a little bit for being partly responsible for the continued glut of “reality programming” that is actively sapping the intelligence from contemporary adults nad children alike.Don’t get the wrong idea; I don’t think that working to create such offensive drivel is as morally bankrupt as, say, running a Payday Loan franchise or anything — but it is worse than helping to publish the National Enquirer or the New York Post.
I do hate you at least a little bit for being partly responsible for the continued glut of “reality programming” that is actively sapping the intelligence from contemporary adults nad children alike.Your critique is unfortunately backward, as is so often the case with art and media. People decry violent video games as the reason for violence in schools, blame pornography for the oversexualization of society; similarly they blame reality TV for the dumbing down of society. Art (for lack of a better term, I know it’s trash TV) is a reflection of society, not the other way around. The unfortunate fact is: the intelligence of contemporary society was always dumb in the first place.The entire show is obviously a contrivance, of course it’s phony. Amongst all that phonyness we always strive to find those (rare) moments of honest emotion that the audience connects with. This is the same process that scripted shows go through- there’s tons of garbage out there on both fronts, and writers, directors and actors struggle to find moments of honesty and emotion that make it worthwhile.As with all products, we aim to fill a need in the market and are rewarded for doing so if we meet those needs. I’m now working on Bachelor season 28… over 20 years on the air. Countless other dating shows have come and gone. We must be doing something right.it is worse than helping to publish the National Enquirer or the New York Post.
This is kind of the only thing from which I take offense. The Post often purports to report fact, when in fact it is nothing of the sort, especially when reporting on actual political issues that carry public policy weight. The Bachelor franchise is purely entertainment, and has never made overtures to be anything other than that.
Yeah it’s not like they’re going to be taken out back and shot if they’re not chosen. I expect most have fuller lives than the young contestants on the regular version.
The trick in reality shows is to to always come second, at least the “talent” shows. You get 99% of the publicity and fame, but without the shitty “prizes” that are usually just millstones around your neck, and utterly shithouse – and which only last a year because they want to clear decks for the next season. One cookbook, a few mall openings, a recording contract for one (1) album, and then off you fuck.
I assume many of them are also familiar with The Bachelor as viewers and demographically many of them likely read the magazines that cover all the drama on set/behind the scenes etc. They knew what they were getting into and a bunch of them did not have dead spouses so that seems odd for the article to draw a line under (many were divorced or never married).
Oh no!A concept that has manipulation baked into it’s very core is manipulating people? Who, I mean WHO, could have seen that coming? Franchise can’t die soon enough.
I’ll cosign on franchise death. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the dude “massaged” the truth about his past (if their reporting is accurate, a lot of his key selling points are pretty dubious), and the producers vetting him were either incompetent or just didn’t give a shit:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/golden-bachelor-gerry-turner-ex-girlfriend-speaks-out-1235683869/
Nobody actually gives a shit, including the people on the show.
Speed the collapse: Don’t watch. Don’t click. Don’t talk about it.
Easiest way to speed that death: Don’t watch. Don’t engage with content about a show you don’t watch. Don’t click on links about a show you want to die. Stay away.
Trash TV for trash people turns out to be trashy.
I mean it’s reality tv, what the fuck did you expect?
If you’re on the Bachelor you’re not actually looking for love, you’re just looking for attention. If you’re on tv pouring your heart out you’re not actually very protective of your feelings.
Gee, who could have seen this coming? /s
(place leopards eating people faces party obligatory comment here)
This would only make sense if the people on the GB were advocating for people not on the GB to get their faces eaten.
Counterpoint: ALL of these reality TV shows are morally corrupt and YES you are a bad person for watching and being entertained by them.
We get more of what gets ratings. You are part of those ratings that keeps this trash getting made…. so you are the biggest part of the problem because you are the piggy who can’t stop consuming it.
You’re almost there… But I have a different perspective on who “the biggest part of the problem is.”
Multiple people are in this comments thread, extremely opinionatedly weighing in about a show that they don’t watch, have never watched, etc… seemingly without realizing that they’re helping keep the show alive. They’re reading recaps. They’re amplifying and engaging with and picking sides. They’re strengthening something they claim to disdain while NOT consuming it, and pretending that’s something that gives them distance, elevation, and sophistication.
This reads like you’ve been fooled by the marketing. This is no different than any other season other than these people are your parents/grandparents instead of your peers.
Sorry, but this:Those emotions probably feel vital and all-encompassing in the moment, but that’s more due to producer manipulation and the haze of alcohol than any actual sense of commitment. You’re not really watching people’s entire worlds get shattered while you giggle and do face masks with your friends.is just self-serving bullshit. Real people’s real feelings do get hurt. It’s not magically okay just because they’re young.
Actually, it mostly is.
but it IS magically okay because they are stupid enough to take part in these shows.
It’s sort of okay, given they were stupid enough to sign up for it. If they somehow, some way didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into then shame on them and they really deserve it–the information is out there and not hard to find. Zero chance anyone goes into this or anything like it with blinders on.
Sorry. That doesn’t make it “sort of ok”. Just because a lot of people who sign on to this stuff are insecure and desperate for attention doesn’t mean we have to give it to them. And even if they are insecure messes, they’re still human beings. The kind thing to do would be to NOT give these people attention. When they realize that the attention grabbing doesn’t work, they’re forced to look inward and fix what they feel is lacking in themselves.And if you can tell me you’ve never done something stupid or desperate in your life, we should probably create a religion around you. That goes for all of us. We’ve all made dumb decisions. That doesn’t mean that other humans who have made equally dumb decisions in their life get to ridicule and laugh at us for the rest of eternity.
Sounds like to you and me we are responding the right way (I’ve seen nothing of this show aside from commercials during sports—which is the same with every single thing “bachelor” -related.)—and oh yeah I’ve done plenty of dumb shit in my life haha. But I’m generally aware of those things and don’t really have an issue with other people ridiculing them—I usually do way before anyone else. Full disclosure: I was very close to being on the first season of Big Brother (long time ago, different place in my life, etc) and man oh man did I ever dodge a bullet. I look back and laugh now and it’s an interesting topic of conversation sometimes, but that’s about it. I know what my motivations were at the time, and it turns out one of the reasons I wasn’t cast is because I was honest and said I wouldn’t mind being famous during the interviews, and they…didn’t want people like that? At least then—if you followed the show at all (another one I don’t watch, personally, but have seen maybe three seasons of in total) they very clearly changed that attitude since then, since season 1 was boring as hell haha. But even then I knew had some idea of what I was getting into and why, so I assume the people on these shows now are at least somewhat the same in their motivations.
EXACTLY. I think what’s possibly happening in this interview is the realization that peoples’ mothers are selling their souls for a treacly “reality” show, and it makes the reviewer uncomfortable. Kind of ageist.
Exactly. Human beings are human beings. Pretending that they “deserve” to be criticized, manipulated and harassed because they’re young or “that’s what they signed up for” is a method of moral justification we’ve taken to to make ourselves feel ok about watching it. The truth is, it’s not ok. It was never ok. And I think it’s about time it stopped.
Tonight, Gerry will hand out his final rose and propose to either Leslie or Theresa, a person he will likely spend the rest of his life with.AHAHAHHAHA you dumb fuck, none of them get married
[Any reality TV show] is a morally corrupt nightmarefry_shocked_not_that_shocked.gif
I don’t watch it but this is about to get very interesting.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/golden-bachelor-gerry-turner-ex-girlfriend-speaks-out-1235683869/?fbclid=IwAR108W2B1iShjoteN38i4pB5r6f65og-4nLOhDknagBqfiSoq1rhITi3AzA_aem_AY_oDTGDKfmdnG4xRctqJZR9t7i1ZhRiERqe7Ts3cClJQQHgHgSZtjRcFkDnrVEmslo
The Golden Bachelor is a morally corrupt nightmareI spotted a typo here.
The Bachelor (in all of it’s forms) is a morally corrupt nightmareThere. Fixed it for you.
Why would you expect this version of this god awful franchise to be any different?
On Monday, AV Club sister site Deadspin uploaded an article
accusing a child of wearing blackface to a Kansas City Chiefs game, a
claim that was quickly debunked. Today the site updated the article, but
still failed to correct the erroneous claim.
To me this suggests
that G/O Media websites not only publish false information, but stand
by it, and therefore cannot be trusted. I will no longer be reading
AV Club or any of its sister sites, and I strongly suggest any who continue to do so fact-check their claims vigorously. Please help stop the spread of misinformation!
I mean, it’s more proper to hate the Bachelor proper, since it’s always been a show that condescended to its audience (of almost all cishet women) that real life romance and relationships can bloom under a microscope for their viewing pleasure in convenient editing of 42 minutes at a time. If you’re buying into the show to any degree despite its hideous divorce rate and genuinely awful human beings on it, that’s not solely on the show; it’s also on you as a viewer.I’ll give credit to the producers for reskinning the show this season to create buzz – it’s what they’re paid for, and I don’t criticize folks for doing their job – but assigning any moral value or emotional resonance to said reskin when the slimy underpinnings are its basis is more than a little absurd.
Which reality show isn’t morally corrupt?
lol at the concept that any version of this show isn’t a morally corrupt nightmare
Depends on if you believe the other women who have said he hooked up with them and dumped them after a few weeks of months. He ain’t the golden goose/good guy at all, but isn’t that par for the Bachelor course?
One which who has mail from his address? I believe her at least lol
I watched the first two or three episodes, then I had to quit. That’s about when it turned into The Regular Bachelor, with manufactured squabbling between the women. But thank you for suffering for us and writing recaps!
LOL ok…so older women are stupider and more fragile that younger women? Got it! JK they know exactly what they’re doing. It is no more real the the original and everyone IS in on it, I promise you.
also they signed up for this.
Here I thought this was going to be an article on how Gerry allegedly hooked up with a work colleague 15ish years younger not a month after his wife died. That’s the real “moral corruption” of this season
Jesus Christ, what reality TV producer hurt some of the people in this thread? It’s like every single person saw “The Bachelor” in the title, clicked the article, didn’t read any of it, and then just sprinted to the comment section to type out something hateful and condescending to the author.It’s ridiculously dense and frankly, a bit embarrassing, to completely ignore all of the major differences between this spin-off and the original series, and snidely typing “reality TV isn’t real” in 2023, isn’t the “gotcha” take that some of these commenters think it is. The author even acknowledges that the main Bachelor series is intentionally marketed and shot to have a veneer of classic reality TV-styled faux-love all over it that most competent adults have learned to immediately recognize.Since at least the Real World, there have been sizable amounts of people who claim to despise this fake construction of “reality” and would prefer a dating show that “is about real love and real people”. This series is unique in that it seems to have been marketed to people who say they don’t want the standard reality TV coating that Americans have grown accustomed to. However, as the author notes, it doesn’t seem like those people actually want to watch “real people fall in real love” as much as they had claimed. This is a great case study for what viewers want from their reality shows and is certainly worthy of discussion.Lastly, to answer the inevitable, “There’s no real people in reality TV! Everyone is a big fat phony and wannabe influencer!” That does not impact the reception of what you are viewing unless you either care enough about fact-checking the identities of reality TV show contestants (which I admit is more common among reality TV watchers than is probably healthy) or are already jaded enough to scoff at the mere thought of TV “authenticity”. There’s already an implicit suspension of disbelief that I would argue the vast, vast majority of reality TV viewers have that solves this whole issue.
Jesus fucking Christ, I couldn’t watch a college football game on ABC over Thanksgiving weekend without seeing this assclown blubbering about some dumb contrived bullshit every time out.Just holy fuck dude, aren’t you like, 70 or something? And you’re crying like a 14-year-old who just broke up and heard a Taylor Swift song that reminds you of your ex.Jesus.
I don’t know where to begin but I know where to end; after the first episode. It was all I could take to not fast-forward through parts of it. I’ve heard enough about the rest of the show to confirm all my biases. I mean it makes me want to run away into the woods and pretend somehow to be another species — human beings are surely the most messed up of all our AI Overlord’s creatures. Should be called something other than the GB. Maybe something like The Hospice Bachelor. Ohhh-shudder-cringe… (ps – i ain’t young, so this is no generationist slam)
“The Hospice Bachelor.” Nice.
I feel this way just knowing this show and all it’s ancestors are a thing, and are popular. Why on earth you watched any of it when you seem pretty reasonable towards the end of your comment is beyond me.
Why are you commenting on a recap about a show you don’t watch and don’t think should exist? Surely you’re sophisticated enough to understand the concept of “media impressions” or “engagement” or clickbait. You’re literally helping keep this franchise alive by being here. You’re basically an unpaid laborer of Bachelor Nation, acting like you’re more sophisticated because you ‘don’t engage’ with it. You hate the government, so you don’t vote.
Nah you’re right and I usually don’t do this (and have much the same response for people in other comments that do this)—the click bait got me when I was in just the right mood lol. I sincerely apologize. Please carry on with your enjoyment of things—not that you wouldn’t have anyway, but what I’m saying is, who the fuck am I to judge?
Too vulgar a response. I’m no saint myself but I would have used better vocabulary to describe whatever I needed to say than your input above.
So, what you’ve really revealed here is that you don’t think people in their 70s are capable of having an emotional reaction to a situation that isn’t appropriately expressed by crying… You know that says more about you (and the four people that starred this comment) than it does about anything else, right? College football – a collection of television shows – is worthy and important. Another person isn’t allowed to cry about something that happened in their actual life, just because it happened on a television show.
This just in: senior citizens can also have deep feelings when it comes to love. Unlovable dumbass.
I can’t remember exactly what Charlie Brooker show it was, probably Screenwipe, but he recreated a reality show and critique how they’re produced which hilarious and entertaining. I never cared enough about them to get into the details like he did so it was illuminating and made never want to watch them except for something like Face Off, Ink Master and Forged In Fire which are more like art based game shows than personality driven edited false drama.Towards the end of his recreation Brooker was having trouble being the jerk that being a producer of such a show requires because he felt empathy for the contestants which says alot.
Any version of The Bachelor is morally corrupt. It’s just gotten way, way worse as time has gone on.
This series is a complete manipulation by the producers to hook the viewers in a new spin on the same old story. The tears and heartbreak of all involved is a terrible and sad thing to behold, all to drag you the viewer into its web. I repeat: how sad the whole situation is for all the participants and viewers too. Pathetic! Peace…🙏♐
This article is utter trash.
It’s weird to me it takes old people for anyone to come to the realization that this show and the basic idea of it and all the fucking ‘spin off’s are morally corrupt utter shit.Um…no offense?
I definitely hated some of the women. Kathy was the worst. And Leslie has so many red flags. I can’t believe he chose her over Faith.
The Golden Bachelor Reality TV is a Morally Corrupt NightmareFixed it for you. And what does it say of this website that it continues to cover garbage like this instead of actual works of creative effort?
The Golden Bachelor is All reality TV properties are a morally corrupt nightmare.FTFY.
Takedown of dating shows.
Fixed headline for you:The Golden Bachelor is a Morally Corrupt
Nightmare.
So, it took embarrassing opportunism and 15-minutes of fame exhibitionism for over-50’s to clue us into the fact that this kind of “reality” television is “toxic?” Seems even a bit ageist to worry about the fragility of these contestants when shows peddling such insincere manufactured drame litter the landscape, but we suddenly want to “protect” single mothers from heartaches from men. Phew, let’s get back to the Brazillian and US “Love is Blind” and “90 Day Fiance.” Tell you what. Strip the horrible “tell us how we’re supposed to feel about this” music from each scene, substitute Yakity Sax, and we can repurpose this treacle for the next gullible generation, potentially delaying the audible death rattle of network TV.
lmao
It’s kind of ageist to assume that because they’re old that they don’t know what they’re getting into and aren’t also trying to get money or fame or sponsorship opportunities. They’re also specifically aware of this particular show, which has been on since they were 35-40, and they were cast like any of the other participants were cast.
The reason I love trashy reality is that there’s an element of schadenfreude to watching the kind of people who choose to be on these shows embarassing themselves on a national stage. The finale was just outright cruel. Gerry knew Leslie had abandonment issues from three failed marriages, yet still told her he loved her and then snatched it all away.And then, then, after hearing Gerry say he had a better connection with Theresa, and they bonded over the similarities in their marriages, we find out what really caused Gerry to suddenly bet on a new horse: Theresa is a secret grip reaper. Who is actually going to tune in for a televised wedding when we all know the marriage isn’t going to last?
didnt the runner up thank him for showing her she was still capable of love, and of being desired. And didnt gerry say you’ll probably get a lot of attention now that the show is over? Wtf is this article talking about? (comment deleted by moderator for making too much sense)
The truth is, The Bachelor, as a show has ALWAYS been a moral mess. People just refused to believe that it wasn’t harmless fun. It’s a moral wall we put up when watching reality television. We convince ourselves that people aren’t REALLY being harmed or hurt by what’s being shown on TV and, even if they are, they deserve it. They agreed to be on the show. They should have known strangers would riddicule and critique them. Besides they’re young and conventionally attractive. They’ll bounce back. With the Golden Bachelor, that moral justification has been stripped away. When we see people who are not young, who look a little bit like our parents, we’re forced to recognize their humanity and feel guilty for turning their trauma and heartbreak into entertainment.But, the truth is, trauma and heartbreak has always been there on the Bachelor. We just put a fun little mask over it. Now the mask is being stripped away. The humanity of the participants is being laid bare. And, for just a moment, we realize that maybe, just maybe, people’s heart ache, trauma and love lives should not be the source of our entertainment. But, as soon as this is over, we’ll probably happily put the mask back on and go back to watching people melt down for fun. After all, what else are we going to do with our time? Sit alone with our thoughts? That’s terrifying!https://medium.com/p/13006f21cb9a