The Elephant in the Room

As all rabid fans know, this (gasp) isn't the only blog religiously covering The Bachelor franchise.  In fact, the space is pretty saturated, as I've found out through some googling.  You'd think this would be something of a niche topic, but it's really not.  It's fascinating how many people are behooved to air their opinions about this show, but quite frankly, most of them are pretty awful.  Of course you can judge for yourself the novelty of this blog, but I feel pretty confident that what appears in this space is at a minimum smirk-inducing and not repeating the obvious.  Not everyone can look themselves in the mirror and say that truthfully.

Perhaps the "cock of the walk" of Bachelor blogs is Reality Steve.  From what I can tell, he discusses many different reality shows, but clearly The Bachelor franchise is his bread and butter.  I don't know what kind of traffic that site generates (he has recently claimed 600-700k unique hits per month, which is nothing short of an ass-load), but it's safe to say that they're doing pretty well over there in Reality Steve-ville if he's seriously contemplating quitting his day job.  I think he sells mattresses or something with his dad (honestly, I forget and am too lazy to look it up again), so I'm sure he doesn't need his arm twisted too hard.  

The interesting thing about Reality Steve isn't so much the commentary, which on a good day is maybe about a 6.5/10 on the reality blogger intrigue scale, but he has somehow hooked up with a slew of sources that provide him with nearly iron-clad spoilers.  The accuracy of the info suffers a bit once the field narrows (he screwed up his final calls the last two seasons), but overall the track record is very good.  So, if you're dying to know how the show played out before it airs (details of dates, eliminations, etc.), Steve's your guy.  And there's tons of value in that, to be sure.  He is cited and interviewed constantly by media outlets, and I don't see a lot of independent sources for this kind of spoiler info.  Somehow he's the go-to dude for revealing what happens on the show.

Now, given that there's a guy out there peddling, say, 97% reliable spoiler info on this show, it kind of eats into the concept of making predictions about what will happen.  Indeed, our man Steve has recently revealed the last man standing for this season.  I took a stab at crowning a winner prior to this info surfacing, and that probably wraps up any attempt at handicapping this race, unfortunately.  While the spoiler info is easily available and repeated across the social media universe (people are expressing less shame in doing so lately), I'm going to refrain from acknowledging it here.  Not that I have some principled stance against revealing things like this (I couldn't care less, frankly), but that's more his deal.  To me, the details of how the show plays out in real-time and judging individual interactions are the interesting parts, not just filling out the bracket.  Like many of us, Steve has a love/hate affair with this franchise, but there seems to be more hate than you'd expect, which is plenty ironic since it's a source of constant attention and a reasonable income for the guy.

If someone makes it his mission to spoil the outcome of the show, that takes away some of the fun, especially with predictions, but I think it leaves a lot of room for analysis of individual personalities and how the show operates in general.  Steve seems to have personal squabbles with Mike Fleiss and other production people at ABC/Next Entertainment, and reading his blog you get the sense of a bitter guy much of the time which, I think, compromises the value of what he's doing.  There's way too much serious business going on there and not enough whimsy.  Dammit, this is supposed to be fun, not a pain in the ass.  I also think readers aren't really interested in your personal vendettas.  You get the sense the man wants to ruin the show out of spite which seems like a strange take on the whole reality show blogging process.  But, whatever.. that's his thing, and it's basically patented at this point.  I think the commentary is nicely acerbic and sarcastic, and we here at Real Epic Journey can certainly appreciate that kind of thing.  Consider me a fan of Reality Steve, overall.  I like this guy's moxy.

With that light housekeeping out of the way, I'd like to segue into some discussion of the Bentley situation before the whole matter comes to a head on Monday.  If you look at this show as scripted reality, maybe something like The Hills, then there really isn't much mystery here.  I wrote extensively on Michelle last season (which only a handful of you were blessed enough to read), and I think the similarities to what is going on with Bentley are numerous.  I've referred to Bentley as a "plant" previously, and I stand by that label inasmuch as he was selected for his willingness to go along with a constructed narrative.  We don't have specific info that the guy was recruited and told to do exactly what he's doing, but it's likely that the producers selected him knowing that he wasn't high on Ashley and perhaps even thought that the Bachelorette would be Emily or someone else.   They probably also figured this guy was a touch egocentric and sufficiently douchey, which of course would be perfect for increasing the potential for drama.  Once he was there, you'd better believe that they egged him on and reinforced his behavior.  I don't know if they have monetary rewards for this kind of thing (e.g., is mask-boy paid more?), but he probably deserves a little extra scrilla for inducing tears.

If you look at this whole charade through the prism of a scripted show, it's a little difficult to be genuinely outraged by Bentley's behavior (sorry, 95% of women viewers aged 18-34).  It would be similar to getting all worked up over a soap opera script rife with double-crossing and back stabbing.  The interesting thing to me has been how Chris Harrison has reacted to this.. calling Bentley's behavior "disgusting" and publicly chastising the guy for doing what the producers, and likely himself included, were complicit in orchestrating.  The question isn't whether the show is scripted and contrived, but to what level.  How much "reality" is in this reality show?  When you have your robotic host tweeting and blogging the manicured narrative outside of the show, it becomes something more than just a scripted show:

Now let’s deal with the elephant in the room, Bentley. Many of you have asked why we allowed Bentley to stay on the show and why I along with the producers didn’t warn her about him. I usually stay pretty impartial while talking to the Bachelor or Bachelorette. I am free to give my opinion but I don’t think it’s my place to ever tell anybody on or off TV what to do and who to love or not to love. I give my opinion and ask probing questions that will help get my point across, but I really think its important for the person to figure things out for themselves and it’s presumptuous to think I know what’s best for them.

With that said, this was not the case with Bentley. Ashley will attest to the fact that I told her that first night she might want to nip this in the bud and send him packing, or at the very least be extremely careful with this guy. She convinced me and everybody else that she was going to give him a chance and follow her gut. Once the show starts I can and did continue to warn her and talk to her about this guy. (You’ll see more of my deliberations with her in future episodes.) To say Bentley is not here for the right reasons is a gross understatement. But it seemed the more I warned Ashley and told her to run for the hills, the more she protected and defended him. At some point you have to let the person find out for him or herself what the truth really is.

After you're done laughing at Harrison's claim that he asks "probing questions" or has some other helpful role on the show, stuff like this demonstrates how willing those affiliated with this show are to mess with people for their own gain.  Surely Harrison doesn't want to risk giving up the greatest gig in the history of broadcast television, so his allegiances are obvious, but it's getting a little creepy at this point.  Here you have the host of the show, in outside interviews no less, claiming that everything you see should be taken at face value.  You'd laugh if someone's emotions weren't being openly toyed with on national television.  Apparently this presented no moral dilemma for Harrison?  I'm sure the money helps quell those concerns.

Of course there is the possibility that Ashley herself was complicit in all of this, but after some thought, I don't believe so.  In order to preserve spontaneity and a glimpse of raw reactions to tense situations, I think the dentist was in the dark on this one.  The only thing that causes me to doubt this was Ashley's willingness to dive in head-first with Bentley after having been warned about him.  She seems to lap up everything Bentley says and does, and goes so far as to say that she "completely fell in love with Bentley" which seems completely asinine.  In my previous post I stated some reverence for Ali Fedotowsky as the previous Bachelorette, and that was based on how she managed the game during her season and as a contestant on Jake's season of The Bachelor.  This was a girl who dropped out of the show to resume her job with Facebook, and later cut loose Mr. Guard and Protect Your Heart in favor of the Wrestler (which was the correct move in a no-win situation).  Her only blemish was an odd fascination with Frank the hipster doofus, which I could never completely figure out, but other than that, her performance was nearly surgical in its precision.  Obviously we aren't dealing with someone of Ali's caliber in Ashley, but she doesn't strike me as a total idiot either, so it's puzzling why she'd be so willing to subscribe to the Bentley newsletter.

Ali Fedotowsky:  I'd be proud to call her my Facebook friend.

From what I've seen of the preview, Bentley is laying it on awfully thick, and I stress the awful here.  "I hope my hair looks okay."  Yes, how non-chalant and cavalier of you.  Why not just wear a sign that says "Please hate me, I'm the show's uber-villain!"  We get it.  You're mean and evil.  You hate all women who don't rate at a 9.5 or better.  All the other guys are tools.  Understood.  I suppose you can't be too overt with most of the viewing audience who will buy whatever you're selling.  I just wish it wasn't so intellectually insulting to the rest of us.  Believe me, I'm all about the drama and emotion, but the fromage factor is off the charts here.

What does Bentley get out of this?  I don't really know.  It's probably not going to encourage scores of moms to bring their kids to his "family fun center" in Salt Lake City.  It does have potential as a foray into acting, oh and landing a sacred spot on Bachelor Pad 2 — I fully expect him to be there.  And I hope for the love of Joseph Smith that we see Mr. Guard and Protect there too.  And Michelle.  And Vienna.  And Jake.  Oh, and Madison too.  Can we just skip to that?