Reality TV: This Season on ‘The Bachelor’

Mackenzie Snyder, Entertainment Editor

 Peter Weber from Hannah Brown’s season of “The Bachelorette” begins his journey to find love with 30 women in the newest season of “The Bachelor.” However, this season hasn’t just been smooth-flying for the 28-year-old pilot from Westlake Village, California. Here is our Bachelor Season Recap and our opinion on this season.

 In case you don’t know what “The Bachelor” is, it’s a reality TV series where a man dates 30 women to find love and possibly get engaged.

The show is broken down into 10 weeks for the bachelor to get to know the women in the group and have one-on-one dates before rose ceremonies at the end of each week where two or three women are eliminated.

Before we get into the criticisms (Spoiler Alert: there are a lot), let’s break down some of the good things that we got out of this season.

First of all, Peter Weber was a fan favorite during Hannah’s season of “The Bachelorette,” so many fans were excited to see him back.

We also had several fun contestants, such as Madison Prewett, Natasha Parker, and Kelley Flannagan (best known for taking a nap during a high stakes three-on-one date).

There was an empowering moment for women with Madison’s decision to stick with her morals as a woman of faith in terms of the Fantasy Suite Week. She refused to compromise on her values and what she expects from a partner, setting an incredible example for the girls watching.

And now, the negatives of this season.

While drama is usually the heart and soul of reality TV, it felt like they tried too hard with this season. Every episode was focused around drama between the women. Take for example the drama between Kelsey and Hannah Ann, a.k.a. Champagne Gate, which took up the majority of two entire episodes. Then there was the drama between Alayah, Sydney, and Victoria P, as well as between Tammy and Mykenna.

Most seasons of “The Bachelor” have one or two feuds between contestants, but this season was a huge cluster of drama due to overly dramatic girls.

While most bachelors don’t get involved in household drama, Peter was caught in the middle of several arguments. He even encouraged the drama by keeping the instigators in the competition.

The first instance of Peter and drama was when he became involved in the drama between Victoria P. and Sydney against Alayah, who he sent home but later brought back into the competition. He was also way too involved in drama between Tammy and Mykenna, ultimately sending them both home as a result.

Peter was also bad at making decisions. Literally. Peter Weber was terrible at making decisions. Towards the beginning of the competition, drama emerged between contestants Alayah and Sydney, with Sydney claiming Alayah was fake and not there for “the right reasons” (which is something that no matter who the bachelor or contestants are, this happens every season). Peter then asked around the house if the other girls thought Alayah was fake, and almost everyone agreed that she was, so he sent her home. This is only the first part of the drama.

However the next week, when Alayah showed back up on a group date, Peter not only invited her back into the house but also gave her the group date rose and upset everyone. He then sent her home again at the end of the week; this time it was for good. He did, however, keep making mistakes by keeping girls around who were not there for the right reasons (Hannah Ann, Sydney, both Victorias) or who were obviously immature and not ready for marriage (Hannah Ann, Kelsey, Victoria F).

He also chose to keep the most controversial contestant, Victoria F, until the final three. Why would Peter keep her around so long?

The finale of this season truly showed how terrible Peter’s judgment was. Madison self eliminated, and even though he was obviously in love with her, he still proposed to Hannah Ann.  He broke up with her to pursue Madison. His overbearing mom also overly influenced his decisions.

While this season has been one of the worst (Juan Pablo and Arie ultimately take the title), we are happy that Peter got his happy ending with Madison and are excited to see all the drama these girls will cause in “Paradise” over the summer.