I was not one of the Ben lovers who wanted a whole season of his goofy yet sincere person looking for love. After the first episode of this season’s The Bachelor, I have to say, nothing has changed. If anything my opinion of Ben got worse with viewing. Now, I’m not impugning his character. He is obviously a genuinely nice guy looking for love, but choosing Ben has, in my opinion, led the producers to some decisions I think will kill the season.

Why in the world would they cast the group of women they did? There were probably four or five normal, pretty girls in the group. I thought there might be more until camera angles and crying dramas revealed the hideous truth. Do you think there’s a shortage of women who want to be on the Bachelor? No. I think there’s a shortage of women that want to be on the Bachelor who want to be with someone like Ben. Well, maybe a shortage of women who fit the ideal of what it takes to get on the show. I don’t mean to be shallow but we really don’t want to watch normal people fall in love. Watching The Bachelor is about escape and fantasy.

Ben is cute and Ben is goofy and Ben with Ashley was romantic, sweet, and almost everything we could all want in a guy. Women wanted to be to be loved like Ben was loving her. When you take away the context of Ben being recognized for the diamond in the rough, sincere, loyal and cute man that he is by Ashley, he becomes an average Joe. Everybody says they want an average Joe – until they get him.

Ben was amazed at the plethora of amazingly beautiful women before him. Why? Because he couldn’t get some of those women to look twice at him in real life at the bar! As we watched, looking for a Prince Charming, we found Ben in awww shucks mode clapping his hands like a kid and engaging in discussions with women like, “you do not, yes you do, no you don’t, yes you do”. Jr. High banter if I’ve ever heard it.

So then, what have the producers done that have probably killed the season for me? A bisexual woman who hits on another woman and he keeps her! And he keeps the psycho blogger Carrie Bradshaw wannabe? No way Ben chose them on his own. No way that girl got the idea to bring her grandmother with her on her own. The producers know that we’re not gonna be able to invest in Ben’s choices. They pretty much are saying the season’s gonna suck so let’s make sure we fill it with all kinds of drama and bad girl scenes so that maybe we’ll bring in new viewers who watch other cable reality shows like that.

The Bachelor has never been a virtuous show and most of the time it’s not even about real love, but in few other seasons have I had less hope of someone ending up with a real relationship. When the producer’s have a love story like Ashley and JP, Trista and Ryan, Allie and Roberto, or Jason and Molly they NEVER edit for the drama the way they did last night. My hopes of Ben finding real love in that group are pretty slim. I’ll think he’ll be dumped as soon as the fame goes away.

If I had to pick people I hope he keeps awhile they would be: Jennifer the red-haired accountant who introduced herself with numbers, Lindzi the first impression rose horse girl, or Jamie the nurse who stayed out of the drama. I think they each will be around awhile, but my bet is this season is more like Jake P.’s. Women wanted Jake but when they got Jake they got a season of Vienna. I don’t know who Ben will choose but I REALLY hope the season gets better quickly.