A Rose by Any Other Name Can Smell as Sweet: Thoughts on The Bachelor

Author: Allie, Host of Reality Check Radio
 

      Reality TV haters and lovers alike know one thing, Reality TV is not so….realistic. Yes, it’s true, in my everyday normal life I do not win a million dollars by staying on an island, traveling around the world or losing 100 pounds. Reality TV just means you are taking people and putting them in interesting situations and watching the results. The Bachelor is one of those shows; watching 20 women compete for the love and (or like or lust) of one single guy. Last night on my show, Reality Check Radio, people were up in arms over this long running dating show.

      It all starts with Jason, a single father from Seattle, and this season’s bachelor. We watched over the summer as his heart got broken by Deanna, the bachelorette choosing Jesse over him at her finale. Fast forward a few months we Jason where Deanna left off choosing between two women; Melissa, the bubbly girl from Texas, and Molly, the more reserved girl from Michigan. Jason chose Melissa, or so the audience thought; there love and engagement lasted about 15 minutes in TV time until Jason announced on the after the rose special that he didn’t love Melissa and loved Molly instead. He then broke up with Melissa on TV and reconnected with Molly, again in a matter of minutes.

      Long time fans of the show were outraged, vowing to never watch the show again, but I ask why. For entertainment value this was huge and ABC was beside themselves promoting it the first time in history this happening, with Jason making the rounds on all the TV talk shows to discuss the fact he simply chose one girl over the other. For you hopeless romantics out there, let’s face the facts. We have watched so many seasons of both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and only one couple has been married and one or two others still in their on-again off-again relationships. If you really want to find true love, don’t go on a reality show ; if you want to watch fun Reality TV then watch dating reality shows.

      One last thing, Jason has a 3 year old son who has been featured a lot this season. He is not the only person on a dating reality show to have a child and put them on TV. My point is this, Jason signed up to be on a reality show where he got to date 20 women at the same time, his son did not. The question remains, will I continue to watch The Bachelor and the answer is of course, as long as the show continues to be entertaining. However, I am not expecting the fairy tale happy ending where the guy and girl go off and get married. After all, this is reality television.

The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick Dishes on Latest Episode

Source: PEOPLE

Each week, The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick, 32 — a single dad who previously vied for the affections of DeAnna Pappas on The Bachelorette — will blog about his experiences on the latest episode in PEOPLE magazine’s Scoop section and here. Below is his first installment.

I had a wonderful ride on The Bachelorette, but as my dating journey begins with 15 incredible women, it’s crazy how lucky I am to finally be in the driver seat.

So, I packed Tyler up and sent him home to see his Mom in Seattle. I was sad to see him go, but know that the distance will be harder on me than on him. I also know that someday, after I’ve found true love, the three of us will make up for lost time as a party of three.

For those keeping score, this week had 15 women, 3 dates, 1 cat fight and 4 kisses.

The ladies and I had a pool party, which was exactly the kickoff I needed. Who wouldn’t want 15 hot, bikini-clad ladies fighting for their attention? Unfortunately, though, you won’t get to see the funniest moment from that afternoon. Shannon squirted suntan lotion all over my back and made a pretty good joke about it, though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repeat it.

That evening, my gut instinct was to bring someone other than Jillian on my first date to the private performance at The Disney Concert Hall. But for some reason, I changed my mind at the very last second and chose Jillian, and I don’t regret that one bit.

The next day, shopping with the ladies was a total blast. I loved spoiling them, and they loved being spoiled. Most wanted my input on each and every detail, which was super sexy. But surprisingly, Molly was a little shy, and wouldn’t show me a thing. Natalie and Lauren took a huge risk and tried to dress me up a bit. I appreciated their enthusiasm, but didn’t think I was cool enough to pull off the look. I felt like Justin Timberlake, but I’m not too I sure I was bringin’ “SexyBack.”

I later went on a ride with Melissa in the Goodyear Blimp. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life—although, I can’t say the same for the poor camera operator cramped beside us. He was literally two inches from our faces the entire time. Thankfully, Mel and I had more important things to concentrate on.

Our second cocktail party was crazy. A fight broke out between Erika and Megan, but luckily I wasn’t there to witness it. I know they’ve caused some drama in the house, but I’ll need spend more time with each of them so I can form my own opinion.

One incredible week down, and thankfully, several more to go.

ABC to debut new reality series, “Homeland Security USA”, in January

Source: Associated Press

By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ratings champion “American Idol” will face serious competition when it returns next month: the Department of Homeland Security. “Homeland Security USA,” an ABC reality series debuting Jan. 6, tracks the daily efforts of the federal workers responsible for safeguarding the nation’s airports, borders, waters and anyplace else threats might arise.

While viewers see the mechanics of agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration, absent is discussion of such hot-button issues as post-Sept. 11 security programs or immigration policies. That’s by design, said series executive producer Arnold Shapiro, whose credits include “Rescue 911” and “Big Brother.”

“It doesn’t have a political point of view,” Shapiro said. “It’s not meant to show the (department) higher-ups …. just the average men and women on the front lines protecting our country from various things illegal and dangerous.”

“Homeland Security USA” has a week to win viewers before it has to face Fox’s hit singing contest, back Jan. 13.

The ABC series, filmed with the department’s cooperation, is a virtual travelogue in the first episode as it skips from border crossings at Blaine, Wash., and San Ysidro, Calif., to Los Angeles International Airport to a mail processing plant.

Turns out even mail has dramatic possibilities, as sharp-eyed officers pry open toys containing black-market prescription drugs and uncover an exotic and illicit food item: barbecued bats from Thailand.

The show mixes the offbeat and the serious, including drug smugglers, people trying to enter the country with doctored papers and a woman who’s been shoved under a car seat in a painful, failed effort to slip into the country.

Not all goes the department’s way in the 13 episodes. In one scene, guns are drawn against a man trying to drive across the U.S.-Mexico border with his family, terrifying his wife and young children, until agents discover it’s a case of mistaken identity.

Shapiro says that he retained control over the show’s creative content. The department prescreened episodes and could ask for deletion of elements that would have revealed law-enforcement strategies, infringed on personal rights or jeopardized pending legal cases.

The series is based on Australia’s popular “Border Security,” which was optioned by ABC. “Homeland Security USA” is intended as entertainment without a political point of view, said Vicki Dummer, ABC’s executive in charge of alternative series.

The department saw the show “as a great opportunity to help the American public understand what their government does and what the Department of Homeland Security, the youngest department, does,” said department spokesman Ed Fox.

But “Homeland Security USA” has provoked debate sight unseen. A Facebook page opposing the series drew more than 500 postings within its first few days. Many were negative, including denunciations of the show as government propaganda.

The page was created by Tina Shull, a graduate student in history at the University of California, Irvine, whose critical view of Homeland Security was shaped in part by the detention and deportation of her Albanian husband after he was refused political asylum.

“My biggest fear about the show is it’s simplifying a very complex range of duties that DHS takes on. … It’s making light of a very serious, very controversial issue in our society today,” said Shull. She wants ABC to reconsider airing it.

Shapiro is adamant in his defense of “Homeland Security USA.”

“I don’t see how actually and factually documenting something that happens before our eyes, and editing it in a factual way – in other words, not manipulatively, can be considered propaganda,” he said.

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On the Net:

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