MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT -- AMERICAN STYLE -- DECISION DAY

 



Now with decision day fast approaching on the Married at First Sight – Houston season, I have included an update to my original predictions.

Humans out there, I have a question for you. What would you try to find love? Wouldn't you love to take the guess work out of your hands and just have someone else pick your partner? I am a hopeful romantic who loves reality television but only the shows that help you find love, true love. So, I keep my screen tuned to the Bachelor, 90 Day Fiancée, and the ultimate challenge, Married at First Sight. I have followed this series faithfully since season one. I am sure most of you can figure out the plot by the title. It is a show where five strangers walk up to the altar, in front of their friends and family, and promise to love five other strangers the first time they lay eyes on them. A blind date that never ends. Now before you dismiss it as some creepy reality show meant to shock you, this show is really serious.

There are many things I love about this show. The thousands of singles who apply for the show are whittled down into a manageable list by the experts on the show, Dr. Pepper, Pastor Cal and Dr. Viviana. I don't know about you, but before I got married, dating was hard. If I were single, I would definitely try out for the show. I believe the experts couldn't do a worse job than I did choosing people to date. They cast people who seem relatable, not overly glamorous, and they have a good track record with diversity. At least they aren't going to set you up with a serial killer. They want the couples to succeed because success lends credibility to the show.

To keep the show from getting stale, every season they move to a new town. This season it filmed in Houston, last season in Atlanta. It moves around the country although they haven't gone out West yet, but next season they are going to San Diego. I can't wait. It has a pretty good success rate, twelve marriages and many children are products of this show. You can't fake babies for the camera. In contrast, only one Bachelor has married his Bachelorette, although sometimes they change their mind and go for the runner-up.

After the honeymoon, while the couples get adjusted to their new partners, they aren't sequestered, they keep up with their normal lives all while filming the show. They go to work every day, interact with their friends, and visit the family. To all you singles out there, this show is like a crash course in dating, you can learn about "what not to do" watching these couples navigate life with a new partner.

These were my predictions at the beginning of the season:

A new season is upon us, and it is now the time to decide, whether they will stay married or get a divorce. I will boldly make my predictions about the Houston couples after watching the matchmaking special. Rachel and Jose will go the distance, they seem like the perfect match. Brett and Ryan might have a shot, if he is ready to settle down with a real woman and not the imaginary one in his head. I don't give Johnny and Bao much hope because they are both perfectionists, and she has already met him and passed. I think Zack and Michaela will stay together, these two over achievers can achieve a lot together. Myrla and Gil make a beautiful couple, but her high maintenance ways will turn off firefighter Gil.

Update: Halfway to Decision Day

We are now at the point in the series when we have gotten to know these couples. They are real people to us now, we have had deep dives into their personalities, and we are finding out they are kind of like the rest of us, filled with lots of flaws and strengths. We know which couples suffer from a lack of chemistry the most important element of any relationship. Viewers hoped the older age of many of the couples would make them more mature and ready to make a commitment. It turns out age does not equal maturity.

Rachel and Jose were the perfect match for about the first week. They both rushed in before she realized he is a penny-pinching control freak, and he found out she is a spendthrift who does not like to be controlled. Last week Jose had an absolute freak out when she accidentally called him by the wrong name. Even I was shocked by the language coming out of his mouth. To make sure she got the point, he locked her out of the apartment. I’m pretty sure this couple will reconcile but it won’t last. I predict divorce.

Ryan is a serial dater who will probably keep on dating once the show is over. I hate it when the experts set the couples up with a partner who is hard to please. It is a sure-fire way to doom the relationship before it even starts. Brett is very pretty and she has a great personality her only fault, she is a human woman and not a Barbie doll. We’ve all dated guys like Ryan, it is an exercise in frustration knowing that you can never live up to the image in their head. Brett will be happier once this experiment is over.

In my first prediction I got it wrong. Bao didn’t pass on Johnny the first time, he passed on her. If I think Brett has high expectations Johnny’s are through the roof. If she is in a playful mood, he accuses her of being too giddy. Conversely, if she tries to paint a pretty picture, he tells her she is too intense. There is a reason these men are alone. I don’t know if there is a woman alive capable of making Bao happy. He is used to running when thing get real. I think the only reason he isn’t running now is because he is on television but he will. 

The next couple breaks my heart. Zack thinks Michaela is a hot head with a temper but I know she is just a broken woman who just lost her father. I also lost my father in my twenties and it killed me. For too many years I wandered the world looking to fill the hole in my heart, then I met my husband who always delivered what he promised. I never went crazy around him because he made me feel secure. Zack tells Michaela that he will be there for her but he really isn’t. He keeps gaslighting her every chance he gets. He can’t really understand what she is going through since he has both parents, and she can’t act rationally because she is in pain. I would love to see this couple make it but both of them aren’t ready.

Myrla and Gil both suffered through terrible traumas. They both lost their fathers in violent murders. It is a horrible thing to bond over but they can understand each other. The couple is very funny in the small doses we get on television. I’m not sure how her daily dose of negativity would play out in real life but Gil has the patience of a saint. I think a good-looking guy like him appreciates a challenge like Myrla. What happens when she falls in love with him? Will he lose interest? Please, let this couple make it, they are my last best hope.

I'm really excited to see if the rest of the season turns out to be train-wreck or heaven sent. Only time will tell. Meet you here at the end of the season!

DECISION DAY:

Now it is the end of the season. And I predict that Rachel and Jose will be the only couple to stay together at the end of the season, but they will break up soon after the show airs.

I can't believe how depressing this season was. Johnny, Zack, and Ryan are all looking for a superwoman. Ryan is looking  for a beauty queen who also wants to do everything he does. Zack wants a woman who never gets mad. I do admit Michaela is crazy, but I still think it is because of the death of her father. The loss of a  good parent leaves a person with such a pain body in their heart that it is hard to know what normal is. I don't  know what the hell Johnny wants because he keeps changing the parameters. I do think it is a shame that Myrla and Gil will probably break up over money because they are such a sweet couple.

I thought the older age of the contestants this season would make for happier couples, but I was wrong. It seems like with each year men's, and it was the men, expectations grow higher. The women were ready to do the work, but the men had such fairy tale expectations of marriage that no woman could measure up. 


Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!"


Please check out her most popular posts at CaraBetoia.blogspot.com  to find more blogs about cruising, casinos and anything that catches her fancy.

Below are the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships


 

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