‘Bachelor in Paradise 2’ review: Ashley Iaconetti’s fantasy-suite dream with Jared Haibon

Tonight’s “Bachelor in Paradise” episode was all sorts of weird. In between Ashley S. and Mackenzie, we had a whole parade of awkward conversations. Also, it felt like Mackenzie was sitll completely into the whole alien shtick that we got on the show the very first time that it aired.

We’re not going to waste too much time on Mackenzie here, mostly because we really don’t care too much about her not knowing the difference between “Spanish” and “Mexican.” Instead, we gotta talk about what we feel is the main event to us: Ashley Iaconetti demanding that she needs a fantasy-suite date from Chris Harrison with Jared Haibon, just to make sure that Jaclyn Swartz doesn’t steal him away. It’s the most ridiculous idea ever, but this is why she was cast on this show!

Make no mistake, Ashley is very self-aware when it comes to what will get on-camera. Her stunts throughout the season are further proof of that, and she has to know at this point that Jared really isn’t that into her, right?

This episode as a whole, though, really needed to focus much more on Ashley and her demands and less on the whole Mackenzie story since it just feels so ridiculous and put-on for TV. With Ashley, we feel like it is a little less shtick, and a little more about being crazy for the sake of it. Sooner or later, though, this has to be a show about romance, right? Even more so than any other moment, the problem that we had with tonight’s episode is that there was almost no genuine romance at all. Grade: C-.

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