The Golden Bachelor

Gerry and these extraordinary women aren’t just here to make us sob. Once they started dating, they also proved they’ve still got the moves.

"Golden" has all the roses, ballgowns and pull-asides that have come to define the "Bachelor" franchise, but the stakes, emotions and characters are far more elevated. .... "Golden" is a tight, fast-moving hour with commercials, as opposed to interminable, sluggish two-hour installments like the other "Bachelor" series.

The Golden Bachelor has all the stuff Bachelor fans love. We just wish all of these sixty- and seventy-somethings acted with a touch more maturity and dignity.

For the most part all the usual “Bachelor” tricks and tropes apply, from the stilted awkwardness of the initial meetings and banter with Gerry to the pained expressions and carefully cultivated suspense during the rose ceremony. As for Turner, he comes across as earnest and little goofy, if perhaps a bit more pained about the thinning-the-herd aspect of the job than some of his younger brethren.

The Golden Bachelor may want to be a new chapter for this franchise, but in every frame, in every structural story choice and high-gloss jewel-toned gown, this series cannot stop screaming “I am The Bachelor.” All of the usual mechanisms are back in place.