Do you really need to watch The Bachelor? Or can you catch the controversy in tweets, Facebook posts and news reports? Lydia Jenkin and Joanna Hunkin choose a rose...
Lydia Jenkin says:
The Bachelor is a great show. As long as you're not watching. It still remains some of the most groan-worthy, sleep-inducing, tedious television available, but it turns out, as long as you don't sit through two hours of the show every week, it's actually quite entertaining.
You see, I've figured out a way to avoid the boring predictability, and go straight to all the priceless gags and "What the?" moments.
There's such great online and social engagement with the show, that I can simply let other people do the watching, and give me a highlight reel. Firstly there are all the highlights right there on the TV3 website - the heroic editors of the show have condensed all the drama and hilarity into handy tidbits.
I don't have to sit through the ridiculously over-stretched date envelope segments (where one poor contestant is forced to read out a two sentence clue and a long list of names as slowly as a leaking tap), in order to see Matilda fall off a horse. I don't have to listen to the most repetitive cocktail party small talk in the world, which made Chrystal gag with boredom, in order to see a catfight between Dani and Poppy. And I don't have to sit through the endlessly pointless group dates in order to see if there's any chemistry to come out of the one-on-one time.
In fact, there have been weeks where I've watched absolutely nothing of the show, not even a single clip, and I've still got some great laughs from The Bachelor, because The Spinoff website has been covering the show so entertainingly well. Alex Casey's power ranking blogs provide a succinct and amusing summation of the week's events every time, while the Fantasy Suite Podcast has me laughing out loud on my walk to work every Thursday.
So you see, I'm being well entertained by The Bachelor, I'm just not watching the show.
Contestant on The Bachelor.
Joanna Hunkin says:
How do I love The Bachelor? Let me count the ways.
Actually, I should clarify. I don't actually love the Bachelor himself. The girls can keep Billy Big Balls for themselves. But the show - and the girls - have captured my heart.
When news spread that The Bachelor was heading our way last year, I groaned. Kiwis are too reserved to make interesting, let alone risque, reality romance.
And to be fair, we haven't. The New Zealand version has steered well clear of steamy encounters or toxic love triangles (not counting that brazen hussy meowser that crashed Art and Matilda's date last week).
Likewise, it doesn't have any doe-eyed dreamers who think Arthur's about to sweep them off to Camelot to live happily ever after.
They're smart, sassy and bloody good value - or certainly the final six have been. You could find a worse bunch to drink endless bottles of Lindauer with.
Sure, you could read about these exploits and follow what's happened, but you'd miss all the precious little moments that have made The Bachelor so great.
The ill-fitting dresses, the crazy eye make up, the thoroughly unappetising array of snacks ... Tune in New Zealand, there's so much to love.
