‘Bachelor in Paradise 3’ premiere review: Is the Chad Johnson legend over?
Going into this season of “Bachelor in Paradise,” we feel like Chad Johnson had become somewhat of a folk hero among Bachelor Nation. Sure, he was obnoxious, aggressive, and at times terrifying on JoJo Fletcher’s season, but he gave production memorable quotes and has been wonderfully entertaining calling out other guys for being fake.
Tonight, we may have seen the legend end, like so many other great ones do. You see, the fact that Chad was belligerent and a jerk to many people was to be expected; the larger problem was that he took that to a level of calling out some other women and, per Chris Harrison, being incredibly rude to the people at the hotel in which they were staying. He got ridiculously drunk, which any returning contestant should know is something that you don’t do on the first night, especially when you are someone with a history of coming across as aggressive.
The confrontation with Harrison, which eventually led to him claiming that he does nothing other than drink mimosas in a white robe, was the most revealing part. From there, we realized that through all of his hoopla about not needing money or fame, he did want something more out of this and cares a lot about his image. He even seemed to think that he could be the Bachelor out of this, which is odd because no guy has ever done that off of “Paradise.” Then again, we’re not sure Chad studied up on franchise history before going out to Mexico.
There’s a difference between a good villain and a terrible person. Chad’s a great villain on social media, where he can take his time to plan out what he says and does. On TV and with alcohol in him, it’s easy for him to be a terrible person. We legitimately think he didn’t remember saying some of what he did to Lace Morris (who he was kissing mere hours before the you-know-what hit the fan) or Sarah Herron, but that doesn’t change facts.
Getting rid of Chad was the only decision production could make, given for the most part Sarah and many other women may have walked out rather than stay on the show. Also, maybe the hotel even wanted him gone. It’s hard to say. Like some of the guys we were super-interested in seeing him on the show and what he’d be like without the pressure of having to chance only one women. He was a disaster here, and when so many people all hate you from two separate seasons, it’s pretty likely the problem is not them anymore.
Did anything else happen in the premiere besides Chad? It felt like Jared Haibon and Jubilee Sharpe’s date was shorter than the time the camera focused on him snoring. Lace and Grant Kemp are getting closer, Nick Viall has an interest in Amanda Stanton, and apparently Izzy Goodkind and Vinny are on their way to being the #1 romance in terms of previously-irrelevant people in the history of the franchise. The theme song is fun, and we do like some of the characters. This just went a little too far off of the crazy train for us, and production is of course complicit with allowing Chad to drink as much as he did. Episode Grade: C.
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