Gorgeous! Beautiful! Amazing!

Gag me! If I heard the description gorgeous one more time last night I think I would have been physically ill.  I’m still excited about this season, but I feel really bad for Emily.  I think it’s pretty obvious from their tongues hanging out, nervous, panting reactions that she’s going to have a hard time getting a guy to look past her exterior to really see who she is on the inside!  Then there’s the fact that what should have been a bumper crop of good-looking men is a big group of really average Joes. Thank goodness that there seem to be some men that might have brains, be in it for the right reasons, and look better on TV than their pictures at ABC.com suggested.  Yes, Emily might have a chance for true love after all – IF she can fight through the masses of worshipping idiots to find the keepers in this sorry group.

The limo introductions were pretty pathetic.  I’ve never seen a more jittery group of guys.  Their lines came off as rehearsed and cheesy.  I mean, come on! Prince Charming? Tony’s a nice looking guy but that was way over the top! He, along with Kalon were obviously just looking for that first impression rose (Which she was smart enough to give to a genuinely nice man – but more on Doug later!) Thank God she gave fitness model Jackson the boot after he maligned her with an overused quote that only makes the teen girls I teach swoon! And poor grandma guy – he probably thought he was making a witty comment on the girl who had her grandmother come to the party last season but I don’t think Emily was smart enough to catch on in the moment…probably too overwhelmed by the number of men and names to keep straight.

It was interesting to see her first impressions of some men though.  If you watched her carefully, it seems she would giggle and blink a lot after talking to guys she was attracted to.  Men that fell into this category were Arie (race car guy), Jef (water bottle company owner), Charlie (Mr. Normal Nice Guy), Nate (who she touched first and said smelled good!), John (also known as “Wolf”), Alejandro (San Fran boy) and Ryan (ex – pro football guy.

Twitter was buzzing with comments from fans all the way through the show.  It seems the fans out there were torn between super hot Ryan and normal guy Charlie! I think both will stay around awhile. It’s also fairly observable from the previews that Jef has a future on the show.  He got a really good edit as someone who is looking to see beneath her surface to the real her…still, he was quoted saying, “Her fiancé died so I think she deserves the best.” Um, yeah – that’s logical, right? Jef does have another thing going for him though.  She described him as the “cool guy” and hoped he thought she was “cool”, too.  Sooooo high school, BUT soooo telling.  He’ll be sticking around.

Daddy Doug received the first impression rose for his ability to make her feel relaxed and the way he manipulate their conversation to be about their kids without making it seem like he was using his son.  That letter was an ace in the hole to get him through the first rose ceremony and it looks like it paid more than he expected with the first rose.  He may end up on her nerves eventually but he’s there for a few more weeks.

If I had to place bets now that we’ve met them all I would change my top five to the following: Ryan, Jef, Arie, Charlie, and Nate.

Other guys that will stick around simply because the producers need conflict will be Chris (They were already setting him up to be Mr. Competitive), Stevie, and Kalon.

I like the places they seem to be heading this season and it’s cool she gets to take Little Ricki with her.  I just sincerely hope she can curtail her use of the term “Golleeeeeeee!” so I can make it through the rest of the season without strangling her.

***I haven’t been reading spoilers but in a straight up article I looked at it appears Sean Lowe plays a bigger role in the season than I woul dhave thought – especially since I didn’t mention him….hmmmm 🙂