Bachelorette Blog: Andi's First Night

Just got caught up on The Bachelorette premiere! It's always hard to judge the first interactions on this show and gain any real insight in to the coming weeks or what will happen. That being said, it's always a bad sign when intros rely solely on gimmick or lames jokes (as illustrated by Dr. Jason who diagnosed Andi with a fever because she was "looking hot"... he did not make it past last night, although that could also be attributed to his horrifying hair style). When will these kind of contestants learn that being genuine, smiling, saying "Hello, I"m [Name], you look great tonight, see you inside" goes a long way.

The Bachelorette dynamic is so much different than The Bachelor in that there really is relatively little drama among the men. A good example of this is the fact that the guys were drinking tea and coffee as the night progressed instead of getting stupid drunk and making asses of themselves which is pretty much a staple of The Bachelor's female contestants. Most of the time the guys get along pretty well, we'll see some bromances blossom (already seeing a spark between future besties, Patrick and Andrew), and of course there will be the one weirdy (my money's on Opera Boy).

A couple instances of almost drama included:

1. Chris from Emily's season showed up to try to woo Andi, whom he has never met... honestly he probably just wanted a little more Bachelor spotlight and The Bachelor is happy to oblige on their own terms of making him seem like a complete idiot. Andi barely entertained the idea of meeting him before dismissing it completely,which was smart of her. If she wants to get an idea of who Chris is, watch Emily's season and Bachelor Pad. He did not leave anyone with a good impression.
2. Josh B was super cute, unfortunately Andi didn't see it and let him go at the end of the night. Watching that back she'll probably be relieved she didn't go down that path because his reaction captured in the testimonial was less than desirable. He went on and on about how embarrassing it was to go home on the first night, how it wasn't his idea to come in the first place and that the whole thing is just "stupid". Really mature dude, guess what? You don't have to be that embarrassed because no one will remember you in about a week.

The real story of the night was how The Bachelorette would address the passing of contestant Eric Hill. They did a nice tribute and dedication at the beginning of the episode and announced that they would not be removing his scenes but that his time on the show was a reflection of his adventurous spirit. That's all well and good and at first I couldn't even remember which of the guys Eric was. But when he had his one-on-one with Andi and talked about his Global Odyssey Projected in which he had embarked on a quest to visit every country in the world and document it through film, I was suddenly very aware of that this was the Eric and it was so heartbreaking to think that just months after this was filmed his life was so tragically cut short, by the same types of adventurous activities he was describing to Andi. The worst part is, he received a rose and so for the next however many weeks that he remained on the show (producers have already revealed he is not one of the final two) we'll have to see variations of this type of conversation, knowing his tragic fate. I'm still not sure what the best course of action is but I'm hoping that the show doesn't exploit viewers interests in his death. I seriously hope we don't see him doing any "stunts" like bungee jumping. It's one thing to talk about it and completely another to witness it, I just don't think that would be in good taste.

As I said, it's too early to be thinking of front runners so for now I'll just go with the "home" team and say that Chris (Farmer from Iowa) is a nice guy and kind of cute. Go Iowa (the state, not the team), although I do hope if he stays around for a while he makes an effort to inform Andi (and all the viewers) that Iowa is more than corn farms.

Until next week everyone!