Currently, I’m queuing up the sixth episode of season three of “The Circle” to procrastinate writing this column. But that’s just the thing I want to bring up. I’m watching that, not “Bachelor in Paradise.” Why? Because “Bachelor in Paradise” is boring, and cooler shows featuring love, group dynamics and — of course —drama are doing everything BIP is doing, but better.
There, I said it.
My disclaimer is that I have never watched another season of BIP, so maybe they were better. I also have not continued to watch the current season, so maybe it’s gotten better. But I think it’s the fact that my attention has shifted and I don’t think I stand alone in this.
My friends and I started out so excited to watch “Bachelor in Paradise.” We watch “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” together, but that is half because it’s a good show to talk over. In the second or third week of BIP, we all just stopped watching it due to the unspoken agreement the show sucked.
“The Circle” is a Netflix reality show that premiered its third season this Sept.. Something that effectively pulled my attention away from BIP.
“The Circle,” for those who don’t watch it, puts a cast of people into a building and lets them only communicate through a message device called Circle. They can catfish or play as themselves, form alliances or flirt to stay in the game from week to week. You get knocked out if the influencers, the two people who are rated highest by the most people that week, choose to “block” you. Only after someone is “blocked” from the Circle do they have the opportunity to visit one players room and meet face to face.
The show has so much more variety to it compared to BIP. It’s not about hooking up with the most convenient person for strategic reasons but instead trying to forge real relationships and friendships — or as much as you can with a screen in-between you.
This could be due to editing, but “Bachelor in Paradise” feels so overproduced compared to”The Circle”, where the production is just the game that they are all playing. They themselves seem to have a lot more autonomy over how they are perceived by the other players and, in turn, the audience, which just makes it more like “reality” and interesting for viewers.
I know that part of this is just some of the odds being stacked against BIP. Since it’s a network show, they have to have commercials making the show drag on and on, something “The Circle” doesn’t have to overcome. You’re also able to binge watch “The Circle” if you want to, meaning it is easier to keep the watcher coming back to the show.
Still, though. I think BIP is just one example of the network reality shows that need to step up and stop discounting the ones on streaming services. The next season of “The Bachelorette,” which is set to start Oct. 19, will illustrate if this once reality show giant can keep viewers or will go under with the wave of much more gravitating reality shows that you can stream.
