ABC’s ‘The Bachelor’ Does an Excellent Job of Being Both Respectful and Weird. It’s Respectably Weird.

January 5th, 2016 9:07 PM

Somewhere in the midst of 20 or so airline stewardesses, dentists, math teachers, chicken enthusiasts, and estheticians (whatever the heck that is) fighting it out to see who was going to dress to impress and win the “First Rose” from Bachelor Ben Higgins, ABC’s The Bachelor actually put together a decent show.

Not that there weren’t opportunities for everything to take a turn for the disastrous. As the show introduced Ben as a Bachelor from “small town” America, my warning bells sounded as I expected the next scene to be a bunch of slack-jawed yokels talking about their distrust of “outsiders” and “big city types.”

However, just the opposite happened:

Okay, a good and fair depiction of Middle America. Especially notable for its proper dental hygiene and lack of overalls. Well done, ABC.

However, the “normalcy” would end there, as we are introduced to the most unorthodox snap of the football of all time:

And pretty much the weirdest invitation to sex I’ve ever seen:

Incredibly awkward. But definite points for creativity.

There are a lot of really attractive people on The Bachelor. But what made Monday night’s season premier attractive (I mean, other than all of the beautiful people) is the fact that the show doesn’t seem consumed with making a point so much as it’s concerned with telling a story. As authentic a story as “reality television” can tell.

Just a TV show trying to tell a boy meets girl love story in a world that seems consumed with boy meets boy, girl meets girl, and…well…God help us with whatever comes after that.

In short, enjoy it America. While you can.