The Bachelorette went from fantasy to "reality" with Becca Kufrin's season

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"When Bachelor historians look back on the fourteenth season of The Bachelorette, dissecting vintage final rose ceremonies from their couches on Mars, they’ll find a fascinating record of doomed romance on a dying planet," says Amy Zimmerman. "Whereas past seasons have constructed an elaborate fantasy, Becca Kufrin’s Bachelorette stint resembles something a little bit closer to 'reality,' as an undateable cast of losers competes over an emotionally-traumatized woman who’s ready to settle for anyone who doesn’t immediately ask for the ring back." Zimmerman adds: "Becca Kufrin is the face of The Bachelor franchise’s evolution from 'meet your prince' to 'men are trash.' Either ABC producers are just too exhausted to try and make heterosexual romance look like fun, or they’re betting that casually cruel viewers will tune in to watch women get their hearts broken and make bad decisions. Alternatively, The Bachelorette big-wigs have simply been overwhelmed and rendered powerless by a deluge of bad men. There are just so many of them, swarming the set with their commitment issues, bad politics, and assault and battery convictions."

ALSO:

• The Bachelorette finale was more airless than usual since Becca inadvertently revealed who won months ago
  ABC executive on Garrett Yrigoyen's Instagram controversy: Becca isn't going to be with a guy with those actual views
  Garrett says "I didn't mean to offend anybody" in response to his Instagram controversy
  Becca joked with Jimmy Kimmel about possibly changing her name to "Kufrin-Yrigoyen"

The Bachelorette did something shocking in the season finale, acknowledging that politics do exist
The Bachelor franchise has always been political, but it's never acknowledged that politics exist before, says Kathryn VanArendonk. "It’s deeply entrenched in the politics of marginalizing people of color, celebrating and prioritizing privilege, and reinforcing stereotypes of gender and romance," she says. "It’s also always pretended that it’s completely neutral and none of those things exist. Any overtly political subject feels so out-of-bounds, so completely anathema to the show’s false veneer of inhuman romance, that brushing up against the hint of politics feels like a shock. It is surprising that the franchise finally felt so pressured by the political climate that it had to incorporate Garrett’s scandal into its fairy-tale world. But it’s not at all surprising that The Bachelorette responded to (the Garrett Yrigoyen Instagram) scandal by ignoring everything political about it." VanArendonk adds: "This season of The Bachelorette was presented with a political scandal, one that includes the messy intersection of social-media trolling, the selves we perform online versus the selves we perform in person, Trump-approved ideology, transphobia, the conservative fondness for casting immigrants as animals, and dangerous far-right conspiracy theories. Its response was to reframe the entire scandal as an easily surmountable obstacle in the path of a nice romantic relationship."

ALSO:

• The Bachelorette had its worst-ever season finale ratings
  Garrett Yrigoyen responded to reporters' questions on his Instagram scandal: "I don't believe David Hogg is a crisis actor. No, I don't"
  Becca defended Garrett: "When you use social media to create a judgment on somebody, it is such a small sampling"
  The Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. secretly visited Becca with Lauren Burnham during The Bachelorette taping
  ABC reality boss Robert Mills names The Bachelor frontrunners, including Grocery Store Joe, Blake and Colton

The Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay is a "little pissed off" after seeing Becca Kufrin's "happy ending"

In an Us Weekly article, Lindsay explained that she is thrilled that Becca received a happy ending. But watching last night's finale showed her "that I was denied my on-camera happy ending." She adds: "Do I sound a little pissed off? Well that is because I am. Take a trip down memory lane to exactly, oh let’s say one year ago. Becca did not sit on stage for three hours and watch the finale for the first time in front of a live audience. Becca did not have to deal with someone telling her she would live a mediocre life. Becca did not have to deal with being baited with real time questions about her emotions watching certain scenes. Nope, that was me. Let’s just be honest, Becca did not have the finale that I had. There was no controversy and she was not put in a position to face any. She was protected and I was placed on display for three hours and labeled an angry black female. And there will always be that stigma attached to my finale because it has been said that when truth is blurred by misinformation, perception becomes reality and all is lost."

Why didn't The Bachelorette explain Garrett Yrigoyen's Instagram controversy?
“Some stuff came out about my social media," Garrett said on last night's finale in explaining his Instagram controversy involving "likes" of hateful posts. As Emily Yahr points out, "despite an entire segment that followed about this topic, the show didn’t actually explain what Garrett meant with 'stuff' — which is a pretty crucial detail."