Don’t you know that the more you pick on someone the more defensive the female audience (not to mention Ali) is going to feel about him? You’ve managed to take someone who was beginning to rub me the wrong way and make me jump to his defense. My initial thought was that Justin seemed a little calculated this week, but after every single guy in the house attacked him I’m having my usual reaction of thinking that maybe he’s just misunderstood and feeling a little desperate. It’s happened before: Ali’s champion bitchery turned the tables on how I felt about Vienna, David’s “man code” brought out sympathy for Juan that otherwise never would have shown up. The more the guys pick on Justin the further up he’ll travel in my estimation, it’s sad but true and the day Bachelors and Bachelorettes realize that it’ll be great for the show’s tired storylines.
So Justin’s sitting in the middle of the pack for me, raised by my pathos but diminished by his own desperation. Beneath him are the 5 guys I can’t stand and above him are the 5 guys I really like. Coming out on top is dreamy Roberto (an easy frontrunner) who speaks 4 languages, plays major league baseball and salsa dances. The other top spots go to Chris L (who hasn’t gotten his 1 on 1 yet but seems promising), sexy/goofy Frank (who I love but sometimes comes off a bit intense) and enigmatic Kirk (who stepped up this week and had me hooked with very little screen time). Sitting round the middle with Justin are Jesse (who seems like a good guy but wrong for Ali) then Jonathan (who is a wimpy little girl, but at least he’s not a jerk). At the cold end of the scale are Chris N (who remains somewhat anonymous but rubs me the wrong way), Ty (the recent divorcee who’s both annoying AND wasting Ali’s time), Kasey (the guy who’s going to start cutting himself out of obsession next week- alrighty then) and Craig R (who spends 98% of his time snitching on other guys instead of talking to Ali).
On the whole, this is a polarizing group of very silly boys. Though there certainly is a high contingency of dreamy this season (hello Roberto, Frank and Kirk), there’s also a heck of a lot of ick factor (Kasey, Craig R and Ty- not to mention the not so dearly departed Craig M). There are 4 guys I like, 4 guys I don’t, 2 guys I think are flat out wrong for Ali and 1 guy I can’t make up my mind about because no one will stop picking on him long enough to let me drawn an independent conclusion. How’s a girl to choose?
Click on the image to see a larger version of this year’s Bachelor Scale.
PS: As for the guy who breaks her heart (according to the promos)? I’m putting money on Roberto, he’s gotta be too good to be true, right?