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REUNION SPECIAL
2.28.05
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2.28.05
After watching Monday’s finale, I decided on one major change to this final column for this season. There’s really no reason for me to do a play-by-play of Monday’s episode. Does anyone really want me to comment on how J.P. interacted with Jen’s parents? Maybe in past season’s it would’ve been appropriate, but all anyone is talking about is the finale, the double proposals, the rejection of Jerry, and the “After the Final Rose” show. So instead of recapping all three hours of the show, let me just give you my thoughts on this season, the outcome, and the show in general overall. And trust me, I’ve got plenty to say. But this will not be your regular column. As in, it’ll be much shorter, and will give a better summary of what the hell we saw. No talking about commercials, or what Jerry was wearing, or John Paul’s weird upper lip. Nope. Just my thoughts on how this series has gone from wildly popular to the train wreck we saw the other night. Embarrassing.
-Even though I knew what was going to happen Monday, it was still pretty amazing to see that unfold in front of my eyes. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. When people like to say that all these rumors and stories about the show aren’t true, and you can’t trust the “National Enquirer” and “Star” magazine anymore, I just have to laugh. Everybody has to laugh. The bottom line is, these stories are true every single time, they haven’t been wrong in God knows how long, and if you don’t want to know what happens on this show, you might not want to pick one up. For those that don’t know, the “National Enquirer” reported three or four weeks ago that Jen and Jerry had broken up about two weeks after this show stopped taping in November. So with them broken up, of course she wasn’t going to accept a marriage proposal. But ABC still had a show to deliver, so they had to lead the viewing public into thinking Jen actually had a decision to make. Even though she had already made it months ago.
-After watching everything that transpired during those eventful three hours on Monday night, I think this is a good idea of what went down: When Jen got to the end of the show, she realized that she wanted no part of marrying either of these guys. Her reasons? We’ll get to that later. But for the time being, it was obvious one of the reasons she was so hysterical in the limo with her friends was that she was shopping for rings and a dress for a wedding she didn’t want to be in. Wow. Amazing. Finally someone on this show realizing that six weeks isn’t enough time to decide whether or not you want to marry someone. Imagine that? Anyway, considering ABC still had a show to produce, they couldn’t just stop filming and not give us an ending. So what they probably did was tell Jen, “Ok, look. We need to have an ending here. You can’t just walk away. Pick the one guy you like better than the other, we’ll give you two an all expense paid “getaway” (the term they used in the “After the Final Rose” show) right when the taping ends, and see if you develop stronger feelings without the cameras rolling.” Essentially, if Jen were to eventually fall in love with Jerry, then they’d have themselves a boffo finale with a live proposal and her saying “yes”. Problem was, apparently the “getaway” didn’t change anything, she still didn’t have that feeling for Jerry, and ABC was stuck promoting a live “answer” from Jen, when a lot of people already knew she had broken up with him already.
-So who’s to blame? Jen’s getting crucified mercilessly across the country the past two days for whatever reason. She’s definitely to blame, at least partially, for what’s happened. But ABC couldn’t act like they already Jen and Jerry broke up because they had a finale to produce. How would that have looked? “Welcome to the ‘After the Final Rose’, I’m Chris Harrison. Jen and Jerry broke up 3 months ago. Thank you. Have a good night.” Of course not. So they made up some dog and pony show for all of us to see, trying to convince those not in the know, that Jen has agonized for 3 months about this decision, and she was finally going to reveal it that night. There were numerous things wrong with this whole show. Where do I start?
-#1…..Since when do they bring out the loser first during the “After the Final Rose” show? J.P. comes out first, meets with Jen, gets no answers, then leaves. That’s never happened before. You know why? Because bringing him out after she already rejected Jerry wouldn’t have made any sense. Everyone already knew what was going to happen, and they knew they had to have J.P. appear at some point, so better get it out of the way early. That’s not what people were looking forward to anyway. It was a throw away. And it became even more of a throw away segment when Jen gave J.P. no good reason for not picking him. Actually, it was the same exact answer she gave Jerry. There just wasn’t that certain “spark”. Fine. I can live with that.
-#2…..Did you notice that Jerry never actually proposed a 2nd time? They bring Jen out, sit her on the couch, and before anything gets started, Jen gives him the “We’re just better as friends line.” Which was all rehearsed beforehand. Backstage, Jerry was probably like, “Ok. Nice seeing you again. What’s it been? Three months. Anyway, we’ve got this fake proposal to do. How do you want to do this? How about for fear of completely embarrassing myself, before I get down on my knee and propose to a woman who dumped me 3 months ago, just tell me you like me, I did nothing wrong, but that we’re just better as friends. How does that sound?” What was Jen gonna say? No? Just a poorly scripted/rehearsed/acted segment.
-#3…..If they were really about to give us a proposal, and possible acceptance from Jen, don’t you think the hug they gave each other when she came out would’ve been more sincere? That was a hug you give your sister, not someone who you’re 30 seconds away from proposing to and spending the rest of your life with.
-#4…..Host Chris acting “surprised” at Jen’s answer to Jerry, yet coming back in the very next segment talking about “rumors” that she was already dating and seeing someone else. Why would he be surprised if he knew the rumors were out there? And you mean to tell me the host of the show had absolutely no idea that these two had barely spoken or seen each other for the last three months? Chris had no idea that they had broken up? Please.
-#5…..Jerry’s reaction to being dumped. You can say that he handled it well, but please. If he didn’t know it was coming, the guy acted way to calm and cool for someone who supposedly waited three months for this answer. I mean, never even took one little jab at her. Didn’t say anything negative at all? C’mon. The reason it was so easy for him to take it in stride and act the way he did is because he knew what was coming.
-See, there were two shows going on during this “After the Final Rose” show. The show that everyone on TV saw, and the underlying show that was going on between Jen and Jerry. They had to act like they had “talked” about this before, they had to act like this was new to them, when in reality, they probably had this exact same talk when she dumped him months ago. Jen tried to make things work, which is why she told Jerry to hold onto the ring, and in the end, for whatever reason, she decided he was not the guy she was going to marry.
-In no way am I trying to come to Jen’s defense here because I had high expectations this season and ended up being thoroughly disappointed. She bored the hell out of me. But all these people that are upset with Jen and have her #1 on their hit list right now, what did you want her to do? If she didn’t want to marry the guy, she didn’t want to marry the guy. Would you rather have her said “yes” to his proposal either when they filmed, or on Monday night, only to have them break up three months from now and hear the same people say, “Well, another failed ‘Bachelor/ette’ couple?” Like I said, she’s the only person now in the nine seasons of the show to actually realize six weeks is not nearly enough time to determine if you want to marry someone.
-It’s not like Jen led J.P. and Jerry on either since we all saw during the 8 weeks of this show, her connection with either guy wasn’t even there. The girl was cold, standoff-ish, and wasn’t the “America’s sweetheart” they made her out to be. Maybe she was jaded from her first experience on the show, which in turn didn’t allow her to open herself up to the guys this season. Maybe she felt uncomfortable doing the show for a 2nd time. Or maybe, just maybe, she didn’t like any of the guys enough to marry them.
-It’s really funny hearing the anti-Bachelor fans scream “This show is ridiculous. How are you supposed to find the person you’re gonna marry on a tv show in six weeks.” Then essentially when Jen proves that point, they’re screaming at her, “What a b***h! How could she do that to Jerry!” Maybe people are upset at Jen because they think she did the show for publicity purposes. I’ll actually listen to that argument. However, there’s no way to prove that. You can say that’s what you think she did because of the way she acted, and what she said, and any other reason you can think of. But there is no physical way to prove that’s why she did the show. As for me, for someone who’s already been through this experience once, found a man, picked up her life in Ohio to move west, only to watch her relationship fail, I find it hard to believe she would return to do the show, JUST to be on T.V. Call me crazy.
-I’m probably in the minority when it comes to Jen, but I think ABC is much more to blame than her. They’ve created a show where we’re supposed to believe this is real. That this could actually happen. That people can meet through a TV show, be given extravagant dates to restaurants and vacations around the world paid for in their first few weeks together, and that’s somehow supposed to lead to a marriage proposal. Because you have expensive, paid-for first dates, doesn’t mean you’re going to marry someone. Look at the track record. It’s worked once so far. Byron and Marry are still together, but if they don’t work out, this show is 1-for-9. Last time I checked, that’s an 11% succession rate.
-I like to relate this to anyone’s normal dating life. Let’s put this in perspective. I’m guessing anyone reading this column that’s married probably isn’t married to the first person they ever dated. We all go through dating experiences where we meet people, some you connect with some you don’t, and then you move on. This show is basically saying, “Look, here are your last 25 dates. One of these 25 random men/women which we’ve handpicked for you, you will marry in six weeks. Have at it.” Sorry. Life doesn’t work that way. When the show first started, the novelty of it was kinda cool because we had never seen it before. But now nine seasons in, no one can expect to believe anything we’ve seen on this show. And with Charlie O’Connell whore-ing around next season, it can’t possibly get any lower than that. Charlie O’Connell got more action in the two minute promo for next season than Jen did over the last eight weeks. “Come watch Charlie O’Connell go in a back closet with one of his 25 hookers.” Yeah, people are really interested in seeing that. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be watching every week front and center. I just won’t waste too much time writing about it.
-ABC did what they had to do by producing a finale to get people to watch. Most people aren’t like me and don’t read the internet boards for gossip, and dirt, and everything I can to improve my column. I bet you 75% of the people that watch this show, or any reality show for that matter, don’t realize these things are taped months in advance. Go ahead. Ask friends. You’d be surprised at how many people actually think this stuff happened just last week or something. It’s amazing. Trust me. I have emails to prove it. But that’s besides the point. In ABC’s defense, they didn’t do Monday’s show for the people in the know that Jen and Jerry were broken up. They did it for everyone else out there who thought all that was real and was gasping for air when Jen dumped him on live television. As much as all this information about Jen and Jerry got out there over the last three weeks, there are still way more people who didn’t know about them than who did. So in that respect, you can’t fault ABC for pulling the wool over people’s eyes. BUT, in this day and age with the internet, it’s nearly impossible to keep something like this a secret for three months without people knowing. So that’s where they’re faced with a dilemma. In a show who’s main goal is to find out, “Did these two get married? Did he/she propose? Are they still together?”, it’s very tough to keep that quiet.
-This is a show that has run its course. Changing location to New York did nothing to inject any life into this series. If anything, it made it worse. If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. They cannot get much worse than this. There isn’t much else to do. The show is on life support, and I have the plug about to yank it out of the wall. And so is the rest of America. There’s nothing they can do at this point to restore any dignity or credibility into the show. The dates are all the same, the type of person they cast are all the same, and the host lies about knowing the outcome. The show isn’t believable anymore, they can’t do anything to convince us otherwise, and the “Bachelor/ette” is basically just an exaggerated, extended version of “Blind Date”. Simple as that.
-So when next season begins on March 28th, I will include my thoughts on the “Bachelor” in my “Reality Roundup” section, which will be updated weekly. But as for doing a full recap of every episode, I can’t do it. If I decide to move to another show, by all means, you will know because you’ll see it up on the site, or, I’ll mention it in “Reality Roundup”. There are a couple that I’m looking at doing, but I haven’t completely decided. For all those that have been loyal readers and have emailed me in the past for anything, I thank you. I would’ve discontinued the column long ago if it weren’t for the response I was getting. Thank you for reading, and thank you for emailing. I appreciate it all. I never thought the column was big enough not to take the time to respond back to anyone who told me they thought what I wrote was funny. And if I did, I apologize. Keep checking back on the site periodically for updates, but for now, my “Bachelor/ette” writing is done. Take care….
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