The Bachelor is too dangerous a television series to try to watch alone. That's where Rose Buddies comes in: Media experts Rachel and Griffin McElroy — get this! — watch episodes of The Bachelor family of products, and then — this next part is genius — talk about them on a podcast. They'll have their erudite analysis ready for you the morning after new episodes of The Bachelor, or The Bachelorette, or Bachelor in Paradise or of whatever other hellspawn is birthed from this franchise's fertile womb.
We're getting down to the end of Rachel's tenure as Bachelorette, and -- you guessed it -- we're right back in that pre-hometowns slump. Join us as we dive into all the hot dates from this week, and as we discuss the SHOCKING eliminations as we get down to the final four.
There was no new episode of The Bachelorette this week, but we wanted to record SOMETHING, and this is the result of that desire. We're basically just talking about our favorite stuff in the least Goopy way we can muster.
In this feature-length Rose Buddies, we break down the two episodes of Bachelorette that aired this week. I don't know if the Congressional Medal of Honor has ever been awarded for recapping four hours of garbage-time television, but hey, there's a first time for everything.
Additional reading:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-vexing-racial-politics-of-this-seasons-bachelorette
https://theringer.com/the-bachelorette-episode-6-recap-rachel-lindsay-170377b84594
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bachelor-franchise-is-exploiting-race-for-ratings
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/arts/television/bachelorette-rachel-lee-kenny.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/the-bachelorette-reveals-itself-for-what-it-is/532002/
Fair warning: This is a pretty tough episode to listen to, and it was a pretty tough episode to record. We're covering everything that went down during the suspension of Bachelor in Paradise, and also recapping a super problematic episode of The Bachelorette. There's a lot of rotten stuff happening right now that we're trying to sort out; we ask for some patience as we figure out what comes next.
CW: Racism, Sexual Assault
Additional Reading:
http://www.refinery29.com/2017/06/160041/bachelorette-lee-garrett-provoking-kenny-angry-black-man
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abc-racism-on-the-bachelorette-is-not-entertaining-its-gross_us_594896bce4b07499199e13b0
https://theringer.com/bachelorette-week-4-recap-a7bd701d239
This week's episode of The Bachelorette featured a lot of fun dates and a lot of super-not-fun horseshit back at the mansion. Not literal horse shit, mind you -- we all know this franchise is too afraid to actually deliver on THOSE goods.
This week's episode had it all: The blossoming of new love, an adorable dog attending a dog party, a marriage-themed obstacle course, and, of course, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It just methodically checks off all the elements required for a good episode of television.
Additional Reading:
https://www.bustle.com/p/peter-rachel-praised-therapy-on-the-bachelorette-in-a-huge-move-for-destigmatizing-mental-health-issues-60969
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-my-journey-bachelorette-critic-guest-star-guest-column-1006560
The new season of Bachelorette has begun! In today's episode, we discuss Rachel's fateful meeting with 31 eligible bachelors, a few of whom are just absolute bridge trolls. The same cannot be said for A.J., who is the light of our lives, the sun in our sky and the light unto our path. Let's go!
Additional Reading:
http://www.marieclaire.com/culture/news/a27304/the-bachelorette-2017-premiere-recap/
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/23/529705257/the-bachelorette-may-have-a-black-star-but-its-still-set-in-a-white-world
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-it-matters-that-white-people-are-watching-a-black-bachelorette_us_59232998e4b03b485cb3d554
We did it. We beat it. We finished watching the final four episodes of Bachelor Pad Season Two in a single week, a feat that we wouldn't recommend trying to recreate at home. See you next week for the Bachelorette premiere!
We're halfway through watching this season of Bachelor Pad, and boy howdy, do we feel guilty about watching any of it. It was like we were really thirsty, dying in a desert of bad television, and now we're quenching ourselves on straight-up toilet water.
After talking about it constantly during the span of this podcast, we're FINALLY discussing Bachelor Pad, the short-lived offshoot of the franchise we know and ... tolerate. Specifically, the second season of Bachelor Pad, which pops off very hard in the premiere and never really stops.
