My Take on the Jake and Vienna Battle on The Bachelor

I always watch the ABC dating reality show, The Bachelor (and The Bachelorette) with an eye-rolling smirk. Maybe I'm cynical and old fashioned, but I can't help think that The Bachelor is nothing more than a bunch of people in a transparent bid for fame and TV time.

Admittedly there have been exceptions, but by and large, most of the people who participate in this reality TV series have questionable motives.

Then again, in this age of Google, twitter, facebook, myspace, and YouTube, one can hardly be shocked to find that even love and private lives have become commodified past times. Still, I won't insult my readers by declaring I'm above it all, because if I truly were, I wouldn't be a.) spending time at home passing that proverbial popcorn and b.) spending the time to pound out the pixels to write about it afterwards.

So before you start pelting me with virtual tomatoes, let me be the first to admit my complicity in the whole matter.

I just recently watched the interview between host Chris Harrison and last season's Bachelor, Jake Pavelka and his ex-fiance, Vienna Girardi. Recent tabloids have reported that Jake and Vienna were no longer a couple. While their breakup comes as no shock, the bitter tabloid feud that followed became a curious and bitter volleying of he-said, she-said.

The producers of The Bachelor knew sweeping this under the rug was not an option. And so, sitting together for the first time since their break up, Jake and Vienna were noticeably clipped and cut off in their body language. It's evident these two bear a palpable animosity toward each other. It was no more than 6 months ago that Jake professed his love to Vienna, got on bended knee and proposed to her in front of the cameras. And now it devolved into a highly emotional blowout for all of America to see - the flipside to all the lovey-dovey romance we're so accustomed to seeing on this show.

So Who Fared Better: Jake or Vienna?
Well, Jake was finally revealed to be the cold, fame-hungry heel that he'd always been, and Vienna, though more heartfelt and earnest, still came off as a bit shrewish. Still she cited solid examples of their break up, while Jake could only smolder and talk down to her like a child.

But more importantly, who cares? Why does anyone break up? The only difference in this case is that we are fascinated by the dissolution of a relationship between two C-List celebrities. Far as I'm concerned, the producers of The Bachelor needed to have Jake and Vienna come back, if only to save the franchise and much less to get to the truth.

When so many of the past contestants have dissolved their relationships since the show began, the series runs the risk of becoming, pardon the pun, dated. Continuing to produce a one-sided dating reality show with the emphasis solely on romance, scenic getaways and beautiful people gazing lovely at each other, would essentially be admitting the show is a farce. The updates on past contestants, whether fairy tale or train wreck, are crucial for that romantic element of the show to survive season after season. It lends authenticity and reality when neither truly exists in the first place.

And who really wins? The show, of course. It managed to parlay its relevance by revealing the soured flipside of romance gone wrong, and then justify its existence in the name of reality.

If you ask me, it's just Jerry Springer's more sophisticated sibling.

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Sources:
ABC, The Bachelor Episode, Aired July 5, 2010