If “The Golden Bachelor” raises the stakes of romantic play, “FBoy Island” lowers them like a forget-me-not stick. One of the contestants, Vince, jokes with one of the women that they “shared the trauma” because they had ill-fated engagements on previous reality shows. But “FBoy Island” is wise in its own way, and one of its insights is that being a nice guy isn’t everything. Many men are excluded from the show not because women suspect them of being FBoys but because they simply hate them.
Then there’s Jerry. In the movie “The Golden Bachelor” he plays the role of a kind and accomplished man – a father to daughters, grandfather to granddaughters. As he jumps from date to date, he does the work of seeing women. He holds their hands, compliments their clothes, and listens to stories about their dead husbands. He kisses them and brings them flowers. But he’s not there to make friends. If Bachelor Gold believes women over 60 deserve love, she also believes some are more deserving than others.
After Joan leaves, drama is brewing between Teresa and Cathy, 70. Teresa tells a group of women that she and Jerry had a great date and a strong relationship, and that he talked to her about a possible future. This angers Kathy, who attacks Teresa for Jerry, accusing her of gloating.
In the real world, a woman tells her friends about her exciting date with her new boyfriend. But inside the palace, her friends are also her rivals, and her boyfriend is their friend too. When normal social laws are suspended, producers can intervene at will. Nice Jerry looks creepy as he repeats the old Bachelorette line: Faced with drama at home, he tells the camera, “I’m not here for that.”
“The Golden Bachelor” is still “The Bachelor.” The cast of older women succeeds in making the most artificial performances seem deep and real, but this also makes them difficult to watch. Jerry comforts Cathy and punishes Teresa. At the rose ceremony that evening, he made Teresa wait for the rose, shivering in a little dress, before he finally rescued her from the brink of elimination. Because of the thriller crime, she was reminded that Jerry had the power to make her disappear.
