I have Comcast internet service (triple play! cable TV, internet and phone service). When I log into the internet I have Comcast.net as my home page. On that home page is a moveable feast called “Today’s Highlights” which provides little teaser snippets of various salacious stories designed to lure you into the depths of various news or gossipy stories about celebrities.

One that caught my eye was a headline that screamed “Bachelorette Almost Shut Down!” The subhead beckoned with “The cruel antics of contestant Bentley Williams nearly brought the show to a screeching halt.”

I couldn’t help myself. I clicked.

Now, mind you I am not a fan of reality TV shows. Especially the ridiculous nonsense that is the Bachelor and the Bachelorette. There is something very contrived and scripted about those shows that turns my stomach. I know there are people who are avid Bachelor and Bachelorette fans, and that’s okay. It’s just not my cuppa.

That being said, the producers have allowed this show to go too far. Okay let me back up. I think that, if the stories are true, that Bentley Williams is a stone-cold sociopath and probably hurts small animals for fun. If he is indeed a sociopath, as any self-respecting fan of CSI crime shows can attest, then no doubt he fooled the producers, and the blame lies squarely on Bently’s cruel shoulders.

Now, I’m not sure yet what happened, because the teasers led me to click on the lasciviously labeled “See Bentley’s Behavior” video link, which was the Xfinity on-demand Hulu site where I watched a video outlining and hinting at Bentley’s cruel put-down of Bachelorette Ashley. Teaser clips of her heart wrenching sobs as she runs down the hallway and crawls into bed, pulling the covers over her head and sobbing her heart out. Clips of Bentley’s interviews away from Ashley hinted about how he wasn’t really interested in her, it was simply about the competition and her hot body and how he’d like her to “tickle his pickle.”

Ugh. Oh please. What a complete and utter Neanderthal.

He also made some references to how he was going to enjoy destroying her. Meanwhile, Ashley hints about how she knows “her future husband is in this room.” She talks about her connection with Bentley is strong, and how he could be “the one.” She states that she has “pretty good radar.”

Ummmm….maybe not so much.

Okay so now I can’t stop looking. It’s like a train wreck. You’re revolted and horrified, but you just. can’t. stop. looking.

The teaser clips didn’t show Bentley’s destruction of poor Ashley. So I click ont he full episode, patiently watching 45 minutes of mind-numbing empty-headed prattle. Bentley appears to be tender and sweet to Ashley. She’s falling for it. Inside my mind I’m screaming, “No, Ashley! Don’t do it! He’s a monster! The teasers said so!!” The show concludes with more teasers at the end about Bentley’s bad-boy behavior.

Ugh. Okay so that was just mean. I watched the whole freakin’ thing and they still didn’t get to Bentley’s emotional cruelty. So I click on the next episode. Surely it will be in this one.

I settle in to watch, not so patiently this time, more shallow nonsense. More fawning over Bentley, who got one of the three “advance roses” which keeps him immune from elimination on rose ceremony day.

At the end of that episode, nothing. Bentley’s still playing the doting prospective husband. Credits start to roll, and more teasers about Bentley’s bad boy behavior. I am frantically looking for the next episode, hoping that we will finally get to see this thing that has turned the Bachelorette on its ear.

Nothing. It hasn’t been shown on TV yet. Grrrrrr. I hate that. They’re trying to suck you in, and who knows when he actually does the nefarious deed. It may be that he makes it all the way to the last couple of episodes, drawing her in, weaving his web of deception, capturing her heart with the sole intention of stomping on it with the heel of his boot.

While it pisses me off that they sucked me in knowing full well the online episodes they had available didn’t show anything except more teasers, I had to admire their chutzpah and marketing savvy. It clearly works!

Whether I want to waste any more of my time watching episodes, trying to satisfy my morbid curiosity, is debatable.

What I find most appalling, is the producers of the TV program trading on this poor girl’s pain, and allowing this loser to continue on the show, even after his interviews stating that it was his intention to hurt Ashley. And what kind of horrible human being enjoys someone else’s pain?!? The guy sounds like he has the makings of a serial killer to me. He is heartless, cruel and unspeakably vicious, if the previews are to be believed. It’s horrifying.

And he is a single dad to a little girl. I think I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that. That poor girl, being raised by a monster! Why wasn’t this guy arrested??

Are things so bad that the TV producers think this kind of thing is okay? I know; it’s all about ratings, and dollars, and that kind of thing sucks people in. I mean, it sucked me in, and I find it completely appalling. But I think that the TV show should have an ethical conscience and refuse to be part of something so horrible, no matter how much money they make off of it. They went too far and crossed a line, in my opinion.

On the other hand, the whole thing could be completely staged. Who really knows. I just think it’s awful, no matter what.

On that note, I hope everyone’s having a wonderful Friday!