It is difficult to assess the usefulness of this book for potential readers because they exist along a very wide spectrum. Some watch the series and enjoy it. Some freeze-frame the season tease, looking for identifying marks on ankles and wrists so that they can determine who is still receiving roses as the series draws to its conclusion. The latter are likely to pore over social media sites, spend hours studying (and posting on) message boards and reserving Monday evenings for watch parties. For the latter the book may not offer much in the way of new information; for the former it might be a revelation.
In sports, there are some who simply watch games, others who can name tertiary prospects in the minor leagues and identify the number of years left before free agency for dozens and dozens of players. The difference with baseball, e.g., is that contract information, vital statistics, etc. are all in the public record, so that a more searching analysis is possible. For the author of BACHELOR NATION it all comes down to what can be discerned in a highly chaotic and highly subjective ‘public record’ and how many people are willing to talk to her. If my math is correct, she spoke with 61 people and probably a number more who wished to maintain anonymity. With 34 seasons in play (at the time of writing) there are many, many more who were unavailable.
Bottom line: she was reasonably assiduous and also delved into the professional literature on love and relationships as well as the published material on the series (= a 9 pp. bibliography). We are, of course, talking journalism here, not scholarship. The book contains a good deal of interesting gossip. We learn about Mike Fleiss’s habits with weed and potential romantic entanglements with one of his executives, along with the prices of his homes. We find out who pays for the women’s gowns and under what circumstances, learn about the actual location of the Bachelor mansion and the manner in which the set is dressed for the shows. There are long discussions of the editing process and the manner in which contestants are manipulated (sometimes cruelly). We get an up-close-and-personal account of the activities of the producers and meet some of them personally. We learn that Chris Harrison’s initial interview for the host gig was a bust. The material on Instagram advertising revenue (the motivation for some contestants to appear) was fascinating (to me, though perhaps this is commonplace information for younger viewers).
Along with the technical information there is speculation on why the show works and why people watch it. Fleiss’s answer is straightforward: everybody’s been dumped and everybody’s fallen in love (or tried to); hence the show is eminently ‘relatable’. He sounds like a freshman theme in a comp class at a third-tier college. Eternal questions are posed: how can you fall in love that fast? How much pressure is put on the bachelor to propose? Why is the fail rate so high? Etc.
The one thing that is not considered at any length is that the show is a form of (highly commercial, middlebrow) art. Dryden says that we install larger-than-life statues in public squares so that they look real from the street below. In other words, art turns on exaggeration and very ‘unrealistic’ things are done to create the sense of ‘realism’. We explore a life in a novel that requires 6 hours of reading; there is very little room for the dead space which characterizes our actual lives. An Edna Ferber novel might take a few more hours but could cover multiple generations of ‘experience’. The fact that the Bachelor/Bachelorette covers a search for love in several months worth of series (and then offers forms of ‘follow up’ in their spinoff shows) makes the process look downright leisurely.
The more interesting question is why do viewers study ‘Reality Steve’ Carbone’s spoilers before viewing the show? He was interviewed and he opines that the spoilers don’t really spoil; they simply offer a different way of looking at the show. Once you know the basic plot arcs you can concentrate on the shaping of the show by the producers and editors. I agree with this and would note that we know the end of King Lear and The Great Gatsby before we read them. How does that work in highly-commercial, middlebrow work? And how would we compare the plot arcs from series to series to spinoff to spinoff with other seriocomic shows containing an ensemble cast? The very notion of ‘cast’, commonly used by Chris Harrison, e.g., is suggestive. I’ll spare my readers an academic lecture, but point out that while some of the book is nearly unreadable (the sections concerning the author’s life and attitudes) other sections are informative and suggestive.
Three and a half stars.
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What a phenomenal read. Kaufman gives the inside scoop of this addicting and sparkling franchise and explains why we all are addicted.
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2018
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 15, 2018
If you want the psychology behind the Bachelor, this is a great choice. But I was just looking for the juicy gossip :)
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2018Top reviews from other countries
Jeff F
Interesting to learn how the world of "reality" television operates whether you care about the show or not - highly recommended
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 17, 2018
