reality tv - at least they got one thing about Vancouver right

I’ll be honest — I didn’t watch much reality tv this week, for a couple of reasons which I’ll get into in a moment. A “real” event on television that I did watch was the Oscars, an experience that I found unsatisfying. Not only were many of the winners unsurprising, but such programs are more fun when they either break down enough to draw attention to their constructedness (see: last year, or any Superbowl mishap) or when they are executed flawlessly (an option foreclosed, in this year’s case, both by the jerky and laggy quality of the Hulu stream and by presenters’ continual invocations of last year’s mixup).

My search for the perfect reality show to watch for this week was hampered on the one hand by, as Charlie mentions in his post, the feeling that any show I found would be unsatisfying to watch alone. House Hunters International-type aspirational programs — i.e., the closest I’ll ever get to buying an apartment in Paris — aren’t as exciting without my mom nearby, to roll our eyes at the family’s impossible demands or inevitably scoff at their final choice with, and cooking shows aren’t as exciting without some meat-eating friends to watch with.

On the other hand, I spent a truly ridiculous amount of time trying to find a particular rainy episode of The Bachelor Canada — season 2, episode 2 — which my dragon boat team and I participated in the filming of. The franchise seems to have astounding control over the show’s dissemination: there is nary a YouTube clip or torrent to be found. Without being able to watch the segment, my memories of the experience consist mostly of the hurry-up-and-wait that I hear is typical of filming (not fun when you’re sitting motionless in freezing rain) and the wretchedness of the contestants, who, in the interest of television and attracting one male’s gaze, were not really appropriately dressed for the constant cold drizzle. One Huffington Post recapper accurately encapsulates my memory of their experience thus: “The next morning, the ladies team up for a dragon boating challenge in an effort to win coveted extra time with Tim, while pretending that rowing in the cold rain after spending at least an hour painstakingly styling each tendril of hair is your idea of fun.”

Finally, I was able to find a few stills from the episode on Facebook. The cognitive dissonance of looking an almost-daily occurrence for me (miserably wet paddling sessions at these docks) and knowing it was watched nation-wide as part of a polished reality show is definitely still there.

“Vancouver in the winter? Perfect for a dragonboat race! Tim is rowed into the scene by some miserable looking dragon-boaters in the freezing rain.” - Bachcaps