This morning I was treated to an advanced screening of the premiere episode of The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love, the fourteenth installment in the well-known ABC series starring one lucky guy looking for his bride among 25 aspiring ladies.

Writing about television certainly has its perks, just as being The Bachelor does. But with great power comes great opportunity for screwing up. For example: I did get to watch the season premiere a couple weeks early, but now I have the harrowing duty of giving you just the right amount of juicy hints about the episode, without giving too much away.

See if I'm up to the task below. (Mild spoiler warning!)

I think I can handle it, especially when my job doesn't seem tough at all compared to what this season's Bachelor, pilot Jake Pavelka, is up against. The drama--the kind that only a group of 25 beautiful, vulnerable women in very high heels could create--starts from night one. Will he make a safe landing with the love of his life, or will he crash and burn?

(Oh yeah... the pilot analogies start early, too!)


See the 25 women, plus their ages, hometowns, and occupations:
Meet the Cast of The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love

Before any of the women meet Jake, the video introductions to 17 (!) of the 25 ladies reveal that...

• Ali, 25, once lost a boyfriend to the addicting power of video games.
• Tenley, 25, is a former Disney princess who married young, and hasn't been with another man before or since.
• Elizabeth (KY), 29, is a Captian in the Air Guard, and has terrible fashion sense from so much time in a uniform.
• Rozlyn, 28, is a model who is used to relying on her good looks for everything.
• Christina, 25, is a "guys' girl" who plans on falsely complimenting the other women to get ahead.
• Vienna, 23, is a spoiled daddy's girl who can't drive and enjoys dressing up her tiny pup for their 1-on-1 lunch dates.
• Ella, 30, is a Southern single mom who believes with all her heart that she and Jake are meant to be.
• Gia, 26, a swimsuit model, claims she isn't lucky with guys. [Riiiight.]
• Kirsten, 25, calls it like she sees it: "I will definitely cut a bitch if someone pisses me off."

Plus, in our lengthy (re-)introduction to Jake and his abdominal muscles (on the beach, in the shower, making eggs...) we learn more about this sexy Southern pilot, including that:

• He's looking for the "holding hands in the grocery store" kind of love that his parents have.
• He would give up flying if he had to for the perfect woman.
• He rides a motorcycle. Right up to the front of his new mansion, in fact!
• He knows he was too intense with Jillian on The Bachelorette, and plans to tone it down and listen more this time around. (He certainly has that luxury, but you can't fight your nature.)
  
• And (some of us already knew this) Jake believes absolutely, 100% that he will find the love of his life on The Bachelor: 'I'm going to walk out with a fiance. I can just feel it."

That sort of absolute (some might say, naive?) certainty is just ripe for high-running emotions from the very beginning. Which is exactly what we get.

During the Meet and Greet...

• Coming out of the limo, some of the girls go to extreme lengths to become memorable to Jake. Watch out for: a peacock feather, leather gloves, a bag of dirt, a lucky coin, a pair of aviators, and an accidental fall... right into the Bachelor's arms!
• One woman hands out jelly beans as a "condolence prize" for the other women who will be leaving.
• One woman cries when she is denied alone-time with Jake.
• Another reveals that she is deathly afraid of flying (or used to be) and hasn't done so for eight years.
• One uses her knowledge of a second language to come on super-strong to The Bachelor with a "landing strip" joke. (Yikes!)
• Another dons a flight attendant's outfit to get Jake's attention... but ends up getting even more attention from her competition. (See video of this moment here!)
  
• One woman shows up wearing an engagement ring... but it's not why you think.
• One woman forces Jake to lie down on the ground so she can have her way with him. (Again, not how you think!)
• One woman worries that the kiss she gives the Bachelor came on too strong, but it ends up paying off in a way she didn't expect. And jealousy abounds!

Again, I don't know which 15 women will stay when The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love premieres on January 4, but I can tell you that there may just be a correlation between how beautiful this cast of women is, and how much trouble they are about to brew up for The Bachelor.

The quick season preview promo, which airs right at the end of episode 1, is a must-see. Viewers are already speculating about the shocking "scandal" hinted at in the video, which is revealed to be about an affair between one of Jake's candidates and "someone else in the Bachelor house." Thankfully, for those of us who relish drama as much as we do instant gratification, it doesn't look like we'll have to wait long to find out. The clips of the major confrontations about an elicit affair make clear that it will occur within the first few episodes. And that Jake might just lose his cool for the first time since we met him on The Bachelorette.

What I'm most pleased to tell you is this: before watching the premiere, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of covering this season of The Bachelor. Jake has always come across as a little too hokey and idealistic for my tastes.

But, whether it's from the diverse cast of characters that comes in to surround Jake with all their competitive craziness, or the irresistible hint that something secret, dirty, and never-before-seen is about to blow up in his face, I'm now genuinely excited to watch The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love this season (despite that terribly corny subtitle).

I hope you'll follow along with me here at BuddyTV as I cover the whole season with recaps, interviews, wild conspiracy-theory op-eds, and more. Watching alone will be entertaining, but having you along will make it a whole lot more fun.

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What are you looking forward to this season on The Bachelor? Will Jake find true love? Which bachelorettes give you the best first impression? Let me know your thoughts below!



(Source: ABC)