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"The Bachelorette" Review By Shawn McKenzie 01/19/2003 "The Bachelor" became an event for everyone to watch. "The Bachelor 2" was slightly more entertaining because the bachelor was a little better looking and it actually had women turning the bachelor down, but in structure, was exactly like the first one. Now we have "The Bachelorette." Am I still hooked? Yes, but like CBS’s reality franchise, "Survivor," it is starting to get a little formulaic. This time around the star of the show is Trista Rehn. She was the "runner-up" woman for Alex Michel, the bachelor in the first season. She is a 29-year-old pediatric physical therapist who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She currently lives in Los Angeles when she’s not doing "Bachelorette"-related activities. The one thing they like to point out was that she spent two seasons dancing for the NBA’s Miami Heat dance squad (while working full-time at Miami Children’s Hospital), mainly because they can show shots of her in tight little outfits (no, I don’t have a problem with that!) The show is set up the same way as the others. She meets 25 individual men, who pull up separately in limousines, and gets her first impressions. Based on those first impressions alone, she chooses 15 men out of the 25. She does this by giving her choices a rose at the Rose Ceremony. The men are allowed to refuse a rose if they want, especially if they are not feeling any chemistry with Trista and don’t think they have a chance with her. From the 15 men left, she goes on three group dates (five at a time), after which she whittles them down to eight men. This goes on and on until she finally chooses the final man whom she could see herself marrying. The useless host, Chris Harrison (who does little more than point out the obvious, like that Trista is down to her last rose), directs all of this action. There is nothing that different about this season than there was the first two seasons, aside from the gender switch. Trista is a very attractive woman, and seems nice (I personally liked her better than Amanda Marsh, the woman Alex ended up picking), but she doesn't add anything really all that new to the series. This isn’t her fault though. When a reality show sets up a structure, it’s hard to deviate from it (no matter how many times Mark Burnett tries on "Survivor.") Ultimately, it comes down to the people chosen to be on the show. On almost every reality show in which people are gotten rid of on a weekly basis, all the contestants are so faceless at first. That was the case here to, but once again, it’s not really the show’s fault. It’s a little hard to keep track of who’s who amongst 25 men. Once they eliminate some men, we will see some personalities emerge. Two men have stood out though. Russ gave Trista a Tiffany bracelet in the first episode and has been smothering her ever since. Even though Trista claimed the smothering turned her off, Russ became the first man to make out with her, and has survived two Rose Ceremonies. The other man is Ryan. I only mention him because he is the only one from Colorado, my home state, in the running, and she seems to swoon every time he spouts his poetry. Two other men, Brian H. and Brook, made an impression in the second episode. Brook, because he thought Trista was being superficial because he was a cowboy and she is allergic to horses (I didn’t think that was superficial), and Brian H., because he turned her down before she gave out her second round of roses. "The Bachelorette" overall isn’t bad, and in some ways it is better than the first two seasons, but it is still pretty been-there, done-that. It is sad that we need shows like FOX’s "Joe Millionaire" to change the structure, but if we didn’t, it would become as stale as "Survivor" has become. I will of course watch the rest of this season, because I think there might be some interesting conflict later. I hope though that the producers will have some tricks up their sleeves to shake up "The Bachelor 3" (the rumor is that is will have the "real" Joe Millionaire, an actual rich man.) We’ll just have to wait and see.
Ratings System:
DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!
Try to catch this show every week...
If a better show is on, tape this one...
If nothing else is on, maybe this will be good...
If this show is on, change the channel immediately!
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