‘The Bachelor’ premiere review: Liz Sandoz’s past with Nick Viall, ‘dolphins’ make for awkward night 1
The first night of “The Bachelor” arguably is never the pinnacle of entertainment for the ABC series, and there is typically one major reason for this: IT’S THE SAME EVERY YEAR. Someone gets drunk, someone does something stupid, and in the end a bunch of boring people are sent home that you don’t remember. Meanwhile, some of the disasters of the night always stay either because producers covertly want them to, or the Bachelor just as sympathy for how big of a disaster that they are.
Without further ado, let’s go ahead and get to the main event here: Liz Sandoz, who for whatever reason came on TV to date a guy in Nick Viall who she easily could have tried to date in real life. They hooked up at Jade and Tanner’s wedding (she was the Maid of Honor), he offered his number, and she didn’t want it! Their conversation after the arrivals has to be one of the most uncomfortable things that we’ve seen through multiple seasons of the show. We don’t know Liz, but the argument has to be raised as to if she just went on the show to get some TV time. She somehow stayed until next week, but there’s zero situation in which we envision this ending well for the two of them.
In second place, we turn to Alexis Waters a.k.a. the show’s new attempt to replicate Onion Ashley. She’s an aspiring dolphin trainer, and yet she dressed up as Left Shark before claiming repeatedly that it was actually a dolphin. (Left Dolphin?) She didn’t listen to reason, she made awkward noises, and there was more ham in here than on Christmas dinner. Yet, at least Alexis (who has the perfect last name for what she wants to do) seems nice enough, so we’ll give her crazy a past for the time being. It’s a step above Corinne Olympios, who tonight showed herself to be extremely wealthy, with an above-it-all demeanor, and completely disinterested in making friends. She kissed Nick, and while he kissed her back, it felt almost like the “I guess I must because it’s night one and I don’t want to humiliate her” kind of kiss. No real passion and no real spark.
There was a spark, however, with Nick and his First Impression Rose recipient Rachel Lindsay, the super-smart Dallas attorney who becomes one of the few minority women to get this kind of attention in the early going. To address that further, we understand that it feels weird to even single out that she’s a minority, but with this show and its history for not recognizing people of different ethnic backgrounds, it’s newsworthy when one actually gets some attention. Therefore, we have to single it out until it’s hopefully normal. Rachel does seem to be nice and down-to-earth, and she’s not the only one. We like Vanessa, who is mostly memorable because she’s one of the few people not wearing red or a single-color pattern. Also, we like Raven, who seems to be dressed to replace Vanna White on “Wheel of Fortune.” Anyone with an accent stands out right away!
As for most of the rest, there’s too many to count, which is why Night 1 is never that great. We do think Jasmine Goode a.k.a. the NBA dancer had a fun intro with Neil Lane, and we do give anyone credit willing to come out on a camel. Beyond these two and Alexis, none of the intros were altogether awe-inspiring. Nobody brought out a cheesy music group or wore a wedding dress.
As for Nick, he seems fine … but we do really wish that the show would get rid of the stupid shower scenes, or the conversations with the former Bachelors that feel incredibly forced. As if Nick didn’t call up Ben Higgins and Chris Soules long before showing up to film the show. Couldn’t we have had more time with his family or something instead?
Overall, this was fun — silly, repetitive, but fun. A decent start to what will hopefully be a nutty season. Grade: B-.
You can preview what’s coming the rest of the season on “The Bachelor” right now over at this link. Stay tuned for more! (Photo: ABC.)
