These past two seasons of the Bachelorette and Bachelor have certainly been memorable. They have both obviously been different than past seasons because of the pandemic, but the contestants is what sets them apart.
This past fall, Clare Crawley began her journey as the bachelorette, before she quickly fell in love with Dale Moss. They are no longer together, but he was the one she had her eyes set on since the beginning of the show. After their departure, Tayshia Adams entered the Bachelorette bubble to start her journey.
I believe that Tayshia’s season was one of the best in franchise history. Many people root for drama while watching the show, but sometimes it is nice to see authentic people who are truly looking to find the love of their life. Tayshia’s season was full of men who were open to being vulnerable and having in depth conversations. Ben opened up about his body image issues, and mental health struggles, which has never really happened before on the show. Ivan had long conversations with Tayshia about the Black Lives Matter movement, and racial injustice issues in America. Multiple men opened up about their experiences being divorced, which Tayshia was able to relate to. It was the mature and deep conversations that made this season memorable, and raised the bar for the quality of contestants on the show.
I had very high hopes for this season because of the quality of this past bachelorette season. However, so far, Matt James’ season has been full of women who are bullying each other, and causing unnecessary drama. While this usually happens on the show, I don’t think it has been to this magnitude before.
Matt James has never been a part of any show in the Bachelor franchise before, so he has not had first-hand experience dealing with the drama. He is best known for being fan-favorite, Tyler Cameron’s best friend.
However, the biggest source of drama has come from the women. Specifically, someone who calls herself Queen Victoria. Victoria has chosen someone to focus in on and finds a way to make sure she goes home. Other women in the house have joined in on the bullying and even led to a woman leaving because she couldn’t deal with it anymore. There have been multiple women who have spread rumors about the others that could negatively affect the rest of their lives. Luckily, Matt made the right decision to send both Victoria, and Anna home, who were the ones leading this harmful drama and bullying.
The true difference between these past two seasons in the bachleor franchise is the respect between the contestants. On Tayshia’s season, the men always repsected each other and focused on their connection with Tayshia, compared to how the women on Matt’s season are just focused on themselves. While there are some exceptions on Matt’s season and some are there to find love, the show has mainly focused on the drama, instead of the conversations.