1. This episode was completely unnecessary. I didn’t really enjoy seeing a preview of which girls were picked to be on the show, as I think it lessened the impact that seeing them come out of the limo will have tomorrow night.
2. Juan Pablo seems like he will be one of the best Bachelors in recent memory. Too often they are too stiff (Sean), too strange (Ben), or too boring (Andrew), but I actually think that producers and ABC should be credited for picking someone who is both good-looking and has a personality. I have high hopes for how Juan Pablo will fare on the season.
3 . The best part of the preview episode was seeing Juan Pablo’s interactions with his daughter and with his family. It was somewhat amusing to see his sister try to upstage his goodbye party by announcing that she was pregnant but the advice he received from his Uncle Frederico and other family members that included “staying patient and “brushing his teeth” in-between make out sessions with different girls seemed quite real and authentic. The conversation with his father was the best part of the episode.
4. As many longtime readers know, I am not the biggest Chris Harrison fan as I believe his cheesy hosting abilities pale in comparison to natural hosts like Jeff Probst and Cat Deeley. I don’t know whose idea it was to have him “present roses” to the girls who had made it on the show but it just made things even more unrealistic than they usually are. If ABC wanted to squeeze one more episode out of its ratings juggernaut, they should have just had producers hand the girls the roses instead of having Chris appear on-camera at all. That would have been a much more effective decision. His poor impression of Carson Daly surprising contestants who received a spot on The Voice‘s blind auditions just came off as a cheap knock-off.
5. The idea of ‘surprising’ contestants with the news of them making it onto the show that they tried out for has been a long-standing reality tradition. The thing is that this only works for talent-based competitions. When it is a show where girls are trying to hook up with a guy, it shouldn’t feel like a Publisher’s Clearing House check presentation and that is exactly what it felt like.
6. Did anyone else roll their eyes everytime a girl announced at the top of her lungs that she was “coming for Juan Pablo?”
7. The preview episode didn’t feel real. You can’t tell me these girls just walk around with their make-up and hair done on a 24/7 basis just waiting for Chris Harrison to show up with the news of their casting.
8. Lucy’s reaction to being selected seemed the most genuine and she is one of my early favorites.
9. The trailer for the rest of the season looked especially enticing. The one girl screaming for Juan Pablo’s death while curled up on the bathroom floor is definitely the moment that most fans of the franchise will be waiting for. If you’re wondering, that girl is probably Lauren H.
10. The Gia tribute was very well-done.
