In which I talk about reality TV and finding true love, and the disassociation therein

[listersgirl]

I watched a bit of The Bachelor last night (as in, it was on when I finished watching my tape of Monday Report (and, off-topic, how much fun was Rick Mercer at the Conservative convention?), and it caught my attention because the new bachelor is Charlie O'Connell, who I remember from his brief appearance on Sliders (shut up), which I assume he got courtesy of his brother Jerry).

Leaving aside the preposterous idea that anyone can find "true love" this way, especially the women (at least the man has a number of women to choose between, so his odds are somewhat increased, if still infinitesimal), I really wonder what makes people go on a show like this. The logical (and cynical) answer is "the chance to be on TV and the possibility of a few minutes of fame", and there were definitely a few women who seemed to be coming at it from that angle -- one woman was a model who appeared unbelievably disinterested in the whole process, and in the guy -- but there were women on the show who actually seemed to believe that they were there to find true love.

There was one poor woman who was slightly scary about it - she told the bachelor that she loved him (and this after 2 minutes private conversation and one group date), and kept going on about their deep, personal connection. She was scary, and I was not the only one who noticed: bachelor Charlie was clearly scared by her as well, although he also seemed to feel sorry for how badly she took being sent home -- she was sobbing and kept saying how much she loved him and why didn't he love her. Seriously, though, you just met the man! It's too bad that we never do get to find out why exactly the women petitioned to be on the show, and why they're staying around; during the interviews, of course, they have to pretend that they're falling for the man, even if they aren't. They can't really be honest.

The other thing that struck me is how weird it must be living in that house. For most people, when confronted with a group of strangers, the instinct is to try to make friends, or at least try to get along. But these women have been put in a situation where everyone around them is supposed to be a rival. And it's even more extreme than that, because they have to live together and socialize together (in these group dates). I could already see some of the women isolating themselves completely, and some forming friendships and/or alliances. Plus the way the program is set up this season the producers have left much more up to the women -- for instance, they had to decide among themselves who was going on each group date, which has already created friction. The tension in the house must be frightening.

(The part of my brain that was not being scholarly and dissecting was amused to see how clear it was, right from the beginning, what type of women bachelor Charlie is attracted to. He says he's looking for a woman to have fun with, and that seems totally accurate -- the women that he was most interested in right away are the ones who like to do adventurous/outdoorsy things like windsurfing, and the group date that he seemed to have the most fun on was the one where they played beach volleyball and went rock climbing (as compared to playing pool and going to a bar), even though he didn't seem to click with those women as much. It's interesting to watch someone who actually knows what he wants.)

Comments

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

This is why I can't ever ever ever watch those shows. They make me vaguely ill. I loved the search-for-true-love version of The Joe Schmo Show, though, because it was awesome watching decent improv actors working out the same scenarios you see on the "real" shows.

[listersgirl]

I have a weird fascination with these finding love type ones, at least for half an hour or so, because I want to try to figure out if people are deluding themselves. For Love or Money was interesting, because the people were obviously there for the money, but they had to pretend that they were there for the love or else they wouldn't get the money. Or something like that.