The Boring Bachelor?: Bachelor S27 Night 1
To say that tonight’s season of the Bachelor was the least anticipated season in history might be a stretch. Last season, the show was boycotted by several fans and podcasts after revealing its lead Clayton Echard. Critics claimed the show was purposefully avoiding appointing POC fan favorites such as Rodney Mathews and Brandon Jones. And yet, despite having almost half the followers of last season’s POC fan favorite Aven Jones and three times less than Rodney, the show has decided on another Jesse Palmer look-alike to show find love, leaving more podcasts to boycott the franchise. Hell, even ABC wasn’t too confident in the pick, showing a significant amount less promo on social media and TV ads than we’ve seen for Bachelors of the past.
When talking about the show, Bachelor Zach Shallcross didn’t give us too much confidence, telling Us Weekly “If you are someone that wants the unnecessary dumb drama—alright, [but] I might not be your guy.” That’s pretty worrisome. Sure, viewers love a great love story, but there’s a reason Netflix’s messy reality dating shows like Love Island and Too Hot To Handle are so popular. DRAMA.
Going into this season, I had no idea what Zach’s taste in women was, except for Rachel. She’s a strong sex-positive career-driven pilot with a love for romance. I see a lot of that in the women ABC has picked for him, but not so much in the women he’s gravitated toward. Here are my first impressions:
BAILEY - Remember when she met Zach at After the Final Rose, with a cute pun to remember her name, and he still forgot? Well, “Bailen” still remembers. But don’t worry, she got the first kiss of the night, initiated by Zach nonetheless. This girl is going far.
KATHERINE - The first nurse of the night. That’s it.
CHRISTINA - I know it’s a controversial opinion, but I like this girl. We met her on AFR doing shots with Zach. She’s from Nashville and has a 5-year-old daughter. Throwing huge around weights like ragdolls in her intro, Zach doesn’t want to mess with this one. She’s a content creator, but I would argue that makes her here for the RIGHT reasons. Mykenna was the same and really liked Peter, to a fault. She doesn’t need his following to make money. She’s already living the life. I don’t think she’ll end up with Zack, but I do think she’ll make it far. She showed up driving a party bus, which all the girls crashed while she was talking to Zach. It could have started a feud, but instead, they started a bigger bus party, with dancing and drinking and it looked fun. I think this shows a lot.
CHARITY - A child therapist and reminds him of his mom. Don’t know if that’s good or weird, but she got a kiss.
GREER - She brought him coffee from New York? Like days-old coffee heated up in the microwave? Does NYC really have good enough coffee for that, or is Texas coffee just bad? She feels a bit try-hard to me. She’s making a huge effort to make very common things they share feel special. She likes her parents. They’re still together. She and Zach must be made for each other! She says her end goal is Austin, I assume just because he lives there. Not many people move cross-country to NYC if they’ve always just wanted to move to a city nearby. But apparently, it worked on him, getting the first impression rose.
BROOKLYN - A rodeo girl who swore on AFR. She didn’t get to talk to him during the cocktail party, but seemed nice. Nice enough to keep around.
BRIANNA - A Caribbean beauty creator and model. Received the first impression rose from America at AFR.
KAITY - Another Texas girl, from Austin like Zach. She was cheated on in her last relationship.
JESS - This girl looked genuinely so scared getting out of the limo. She is 23, only 3 years younger than Zach, but she feels so much younger, in a way many girls her age on the show didn’t come off. I don’t know if their maturity will match.
ARIEL - Zach instantly finds her most attractive.
DAVIA - First prop of the night, with some champagne.
GABI - From Vermont, which seems to be a big part of her personality. She brought maple syrup for him to drink. He took one sip and was horribly disgusted, which was a turnoff for her, but she worked through it. She feels a bit needy to me, saying “I’m here to find a best friend and I think I’m his best friend, he just doesn’t know it yet.” Umm.
MADISON - “Uff da,” she is absolutely being pinned as the “weird girl.” When talking, she went in for the kiss and he turned his head, and then she immediately went back in to interrupt him with another girl. She went in for another kiss and he still wasn’t into it, only getting a peck, leaving her sobbing. She interrupted his conversation with Jesse Palmer, feeling super insecure, asking if he wants her to stay, and he says no. We could all tell it was forced. I’m sure she could too. Confronting him was just asking to be sent home, and so he did.
CAT - He immediately noticed her from AFR, but it’s uncertain if that’s a good thing. I am pretty sure her extension tracks are showing in the back.
LEKHA - Did she lick his ear?
CARA - She’s been on 30 first dates. Is that a lot? According to research, yes.
GENEVIE - She made him change a diaper and actually enjoy it. Odd win.
ROSES: Brianna, Greer, Christina, Charity, Bailey, Jess, Genevie, Davia, Aly, Brooklyn, Kaity, Anastasia, Kylee, Gabi, Katherine, Mercedes, Ariel, Victoria J, Kimberly, and Cat.
This season reminds me a lot of Season 20 with Ben Higgins. Very romantic yet PG. Most of the women crying are doing so because he’s a great guy they don’t want to lose, because they’re worried he likes other women more. We know he gets engaged. That’s some serious progress for the franchise.
At the end of the day, will this season be boring? Maybe. Will it have drama? Probably. Just not as much as we would like. But am I got to watch it? Absolutely.
