adhoc

Since they kept mentioning this week how something surprising happens on the show, I assume the whole thing tonight is taped. I assumed they were referencing what happened in Costa Rica since this ep is supposed to be live. Oh, I'm so confused! :-)

Gerry's almost giving "I'm going to continue dating them both" vibes, despite Leslie saying that something's off with him during their day together.

Since they kept mentioning this week how something surprising happens on the show, I assume the whole thing tonight is taped.

Am I a bad person because I'm making snarky comments in response to some of the things coming out of Gerry's mouth tonight? I mean, I'm talking back to my TV screen, and it isn't pretty....

Maybe she has a cochlear implant, in which case I guess she would technically be oral (although she might also happen to be fluent in American Sign Language, too).

Was it Arie who picked Becca because she seemed the logical, right choice but afterward he realized he was actually hung up on Lauren?

I keep thinking if she had been able to stay, and just dyed her hair medium brown, she might have gone the distance--who knows? 🙂

Part of the issue, IMHO, is that with the availability of specific social media sites, forums, and platforms, the "younger" folks regularly gather together--ever since lock-downs, when there was not much else to do, just hop online, voila!--and engage in "hive mind"-think, wherein everyone echos how the "boomers" are pathetic and laughable figures who are out of touch with modern times and who have caused all the problems in our country. They encourage each other to take "boomers" with a grain of salt at best.

On The Bachelor, I've noticed that the F2 usually comes onstage, at the finale, looking as "smoking" as possible. Boobs out on prominent display, slit up the side of the dress, maybe 6-inch heels, etc. And in a lot of those cases, I got the impression that it was not just to look great, of course, but also to remind the bachelor what he gave up. Considering they were dumped, and sometimes still hurt or stinging from the rejection, I thought some of those F2s were giving "you could have had this" vibes. That's what I thought about Faith when I saw her outfit. I could be wrong of course. (And then she ruined it by sobbing uncontrollably.)

I was cringing at Faith's sobbing, sorry. The desperation for some of these ladies (not necessarily Faith, but others) to find another guy and the devastation that it wasn't Gerry--but thanking him for making them feel visible again--saddens and maddens me. It says something about our society today, IMHO.

Those who are pooh-poohing pickleball have obviously never seen a pickleball tournament or younger people (20s-40s) playing. Sure, older people do play it--especially those who used to play tennis but can't move as quickly anymore, so they need a smaller court, which pickleball provides--but it's not just an old person's game.

Blake Killpack was a very fine looking Asian contestant on Rachel Lindsay's season. IIRC, he left after the first episode, though, to be with his grandfather who had gone into the hospital.

Sometimes after a season, the lead will mention how the show was edited in such a way that the audience never got to see how funny, sweet, etc., the F1 really was. And I think Rachel Linsey said that on her season, contestant Adam Gottschalk was really a lot of fun to be with (one of the reasons he lasted as long as he did, something viewers had wondered about), but the producers basically didn't show any of that footage.

Just caught some of this on YT. I thought the Giant Schnauzer was beautiful, but of course I'm not there in person to see (and "inspect") these dogs... As I watched some of the group judging videos, I was thinking about the expanded number of official breeds we have these days, compared to when I was growing up. With so many breeds now in each group, including newer or less-seen breeds, and so many outstanding dogs, I have to believe that more bias than previously seen will creep in, based on the judge's true knowledge of each breed and his/her personal preference/favoritism. So when I watched Best in Show, I wondered how much the PBGV was really "better" than some of its competitors in that ring. In this sense, it's like the Oscars; many different genres, all equally top-notch, but there's some bias in the selection of the Best Movie winner.

I'm guessing you did not have an agent (or at the very least, a resume showing some previous on-camera experience).

Thanks for the summary, DanaK.

First, thank you for clarifying the actual convos, StatisticalOutlier! Second, I still believe the whole "took away my agency" complaint would never have been made if Zach had not slept with any of the ladies. (See my previous post.) Rather, I think Ariel’s complaint was more about Zach (or Production) taking away Ariel's ability to control her “Bachelor” narrative. That’s the agency she’s talking about, in my mind. Curating her portrayal on the show. Making sure she always appeared collected, intelligent, thoughtful, mature. And I think she did not like the way she was portrayed--one might say blindsided, or made to look like a dupe, or like "chopped liver", or whatever--during FS week. Now, if there had been an Ariel ITM at the end of that episode, with Ariel saying “It was disappointing to find out Zach discussed sex with Gabi, and they mutually decided to sleep together, while he didn’t have a similar discussion with me. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have slept with him as long as he was still dating two other women, so I can't be too upset. No harm, no foul," I think she would not have been so upset on ATFR. As it was, I thought ATFR was just about setting the record straight that she never intended to sleep with Zach anyway and positioning herself a wee bit as having the moral high ground. IMHO

LuvMyShows, interesting take, and you could be right. Following were my thoughts on Ariel's taking offense at not being allowed agency wrt Zach and the fantasy suite dates. I have not gone back to re-watch, so I could be wrong, but these were my impressions: I thought Ariel would not have been offended if Zach had said "Sex is off the table tonight" and then kept his word and not had sex with any of the women. She would not have been talking afterward about the women not having "agency" to participate in the "sex / no sex" decision. It would just have been "This rule was important to Zach for the fantasy suite dates, and I respected that." When Ariel found out that Zach had sex with Gabi--so they obviously decided together to do the deed--while not giving her, Ariel, the same opportunity to even just discuss having sex, I think Ariel may have assumed (on some level) it was because Zach did not want to have sex with her. Ouch. When you're used to turning heads all the time, that's got to hurt. Personally, I assumed that Zach chose not to have sex with Ariel simply because he knew he was dumping her at the next rose ceremony, and he didn't want to feel like a total jerk saying "Thanks for the sex, now let me walk you out to the van..." The other thought I had was that Ariel may have been a bit ticked off because by not discussing whether to have sex or not, Zach took away Ariel's chance to show us what a mature and thoughtful woman she was. He took away her opportunity to say, in a talking head, something like "I just would not have felt comfortable being that intimate with someone I had known for such a short time. So when Zach brought up the possibility of sex, we both agreed that it was too soon in the relationship." Moreover, if Zach had gone the "discussion" route, it would also have allowed Ariel to save face, since at the end of the day, it would not just be Zach taking sex off the table (ouch, turns out he rejected me but not Gabi, that stings), but both of them together deciding that--whether they wanted to do it or not--they weren't going to have sex. These are just my opinions. YMMV.

People having a break-down or otherwise falling apart makes for good TV. In my opinion, networks don't care about the health and well being of anyone, beyond whatever "care and consideration" may be legally required for a specific show.

Isn't that pretty much what Astrid Loch did? It's been a while, so I might be misremembering. And she got together with Kevin Wendt, and it worked.

So, she's always been, like, second best, is that her story? Because if so, wow, that's a perfect "Unreal" story line.

Commercials are the lifeblood of tv networks. TPTB have their priorities straight. Commercials *will* have sound.

Not sure which empty rectangles you mean. They do seem to be emojis that maybe your device cannot translate. Hearts, a rose, praying hands, happy emojis, hug emoji, clapping hands emoji. They just look like the standard emojis... Or I could be wrong. Keep sprinkling sunshine ;) 🫶 <-- this emoji is "heart hands" (putting the fingertips of your two hands together, and your thumbs together, to form a heart) 🎥 @bachelorrabbithole 🥰 First icon is a film camera, second one is a smiling face with 3 hearts

I admit I know nothing about Charity other than her skin color and that she is attractive and is educated. That said, I'm pretty confident that Charity's suitors are a better fit for her than Rachel Lindsay's group was for Rachel. With Rachel, I think they scrambled to cast sufficient men of color, with color taking precedence over age and maybe other considerations. Thus, 30-year-old Rachel had only a handful of men who were her age or older. Some were several years younger and probably not at the same phase of life as she was at. I found that very disappointing. Fortunately, among the more age-appropriate guys there were Peter and Bryan, and she married Bryan. I like that there is some Asian representation in this cast. (Warwick is really cute.) The photos really don't do justice to a lot of this cast, though; I will need to see them in action to better assess them. If there was a hair stylist for this meet-the-cast shoot, that person should be replaced, because most of them look greasy and in need of a haircut or hair styling.

Well, I think a number of leads, male and female, black and white, have not had much charisma or personality. Picking an attractive but bland lead over someone who might be more engaging or fun to watch is not really anything new. Meanwhile, I dared to mosey over to that other forum to see what folks were saying about the next Bachelorette. A number of folks who complained that Charity cried too much or got too emotional--and they didn't want a whole season of that--were attacked for being racist. As one poster said, and I quote: "Since when is being 'too emotional' a disqualifier for being the bachelorette? New lead requirements are always appearing for POC leads." And then I remembered why I stopped reading that forum. (Well, after seeing that and also some antisemitic commentary re Jewish leads and Ariel's support for Israel.) There was also a lot of appreciation on that same forum for Charity actually being black and not "mixed race" or very light skinned. Apparently, the leads of color so far have not only been too few, now we find that they've also been too light skinned, too "biracial" to be all that impactful. Who knew? I think TB should try to bring back Blake Killpack, who left on the first night of Rachel Lindsay's season. (His grandfather was in a hospital ICU and he left the show to be with him.) Blake was and is one hot Asian. I would totally watch his season.