By Samantha Milowitz || Contributing Writer
Everyone has guilty pleasure; for some people it’s chocolate, for others it’s In Touch Magazine. For me, and so many others, the Bachelor franchise has become the ultimate guilty pleasure: the equivalent to the Kardashians dipped in chocolate with a side of Desperate Housewives. Stranded on a desert island with nothing to do but get drunk and hook up, Bachelor in Paradise always leaves you wanting more and is so bad you can’t look away.
The idea is to take contestants from past Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons and put them together to see if any of them are compatible. Each week, the guys or the girls have the power to hand out roses, the emblem of Bachelor Nation, to those they want to keep around and possibly pursue a relationship with. Those that don’t receive a rose are kicked off the island and sent home in a black van conveniently parked outside. Before the rose ceremonies, contestants get the opportunity to go on exotic dates and see if they have the potential to make it all the way.
For the past couple of weeks, every Bachelor in Paradise fan has looked forward to those Monday and Tuesday nights packed with drama, and now it’s over. This past week we watched as three couples left, “hand in hand,” with only two couples making it out alive: Raven and Adam and Taylor and Derek. While Chris Harrison hopes that watching the Bachelor will give us all hope to find love, what it really does is give us hope that we won’t end up like the Bachelor in Paradise contestants resorting to finding love in “paradise.” I have found that many find the show addicting, not because they envy the glamourous traveling and dates, but because it makes them appreciate their own lives.
As a college freshman, Bachelor in Paradise has become helpful in many ways. Talking about Bachelor in Paradise, or playing it in the common rooms, automatically attracts attention and is a perfect conversation starter. Debates and conversations automatically start like who’s there for the “right reasons,” whether or not Robby is trustworthy with such pretty hair, and the irritably close resemblance the twins show to the Shining twins.
It might sounds bizarre but the Bachelor in Paradise world shares a lot of similarities to the craziness that some freshmen in college are now experiencing; isolated in a new atmosphere meeting a lot of people in a short amount of time. Bachelor in Paradise gives us reassurance that no matter the type of weirdness we might be experiencing here, those people are experiencing something way more weird.
First- Year Samantha Milowitz is a contributing writer. Her email is smilowit@fandm.edu.