Our fast food fanatic, celebrity absorbed society surely doesn’t have a shortage of addictions to choose from. On the end table right beside the Diet Dr. Pepper, People magazine and cheese puffs is the remote control, ready to be massaged with an eager viewers delight!
Mondays, a once dreaded day of the week (I cry during the “Dancing with the Stars” off season), now have two very tasteless yet delicious reasons to stand up and cheer: “The Bachelor” and “True Beauty.” Along with all the closet fans out there, I’d like to send a kiss as juicy as the drama that unfolds to the creators of this ABC Primetime line-up!
“The Bachelor” is still going strong after 12 seasons, one successful spin off series a la “The Bachelorette,” countless inevitable break-ups and broken down dreams. The new season is no exception with Jason Mesnick starring as the lucky Bachelor for Season 13, an adorable and divorced single dad from Seattle whose dreams of marriage were crushed by the voluptuous DeAnna Pappas during the fourth installment of “The Bachelorette” (very incestuous TV entanglements, indeed).
Jason has whittled his way from 25 single ladies down to just 4 eager for his hand in reality marriage infamy! Pickings are not as slim at this stage in the game as they have been in past seasons. Jillian from Vancouver (The Dark Horse), Melissa from Dallas (The Bubbly One), Molly from Milwaukee (The Kisser), and Naomi (The Hot One) from Austin are all solid contenders for Jason’s heart. I’m counting down until Monday when Jason travels to their home towns to meet the parents and his possible future in-laws (yikes). Jillian reveals the secret of her mother's depression (uh, isn’t that hereditary?), Naomi’s whacked out mom hosts a funeral for a bird, Molly’s family proves to be eccentric and conservative, while Melissa’s parents are uncomfortable with the whole national primetime spotlight thing and do not appear (you mean you don’t want to be the source of my Monday night entertainment? shame on you!) I’m predicting Naomi; the relationship flight risk will be the only one left standing roseless on Monday night. Although she has that whole Eva Mendez thing working for her, she’s too immature to play house just yet with Jason’s ready made family. Besides, Hollywood will be knocking on her door soon for some raunchy reality magazine cover. And they don’t care if her mom is a total nut job! I’m counting down until the tragic magic begins next week!
Thankfully, Monday night isn’t quite over when the last rose is handed out. “True Beauty” the new reality show from Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher hosted by former MTV VJ Vanessa Minnillo immediately follows the Monday night line-up and is just as addictive. Some may say this is just another hour of mindless entertainment but I have to tell you, I think really hard during the whole 50 or so minutes about how lucky I am to not be so self-obsessed and shallow. True Beauty is about a group of overly gorgeous people who think they're competing only in a beauty competition for $100,000 and a spot in People magazine’s “The Most Beautiful People” edition. The tangy twist is that the contestants do not know that they are secretly being judged on their inner beauty (I have yet to see any examples of inner beauty just yet so I keep watching). So basically you get see really overly good looking wanna be actors and models behave like total self absorbed celebs while competing in photo shoots and challenges. What else would you rather do at 10:00 pm on a Monday night than fasten yourself to your flat screen for three hours?
With only a few shows left until this Primetime line-up wraps (tissues please) I am already in pursuit of finding the next show on the hot list! I think I may have found one specifically for all the fanatics out there obsessed with Reality TV. A reality series called “Obsessed” that the A&E Network has put in motion is scheduled for premiere later in 2009. It’s a Real-Life series exploring the lives of individuals debilitated by extreme anxiety disorders, including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder and various phobias. Finally! Perhaps they’ll be facebooking me soon to star in the Obsessive Reality TV Disorder episode? Stay tuned!