The Golden Bachelorette star Joan Vassos has criticized Mel Owens as The Golden Bachelor star and hinted she's very disappointed in his season so far.
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"People probably go, 'Oh, he doesn't need this show to find love. He probably has women all over him.' But I also feel like... by now, I should know something about him. I still know nothing!" Joan complained to Ben Higgins during the October 9 episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."
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Joan continued, "He just doesn't open up. And by the way, he didn't do it in [Episode 4] either! So I feel like we're going to run out of time, and we may get to the end of the season and not know Mel. And that's going to be a problem."
Ben suggested that Mel needs a moment of vulnerability, or an "emotional breakdown" of sorts, to connect with the audience.
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Ben essentially hopes to see Mel sad over a particular exit or conflicted between bachelorettes.
"He says the right things. He listens to the ladies talk, they tell him how much they like him, and then he says, 'That's great. That means so much to me.' We don't know him at all," Ben complained.
"We don't," Joan agreed, "and we're going to run out of time."
Joan said she has a feeling Mel was being "coached by producers" at this stage in the game.
"I feel like he's being coached and he doesn't have it in him, is what I'm afraid of, that we're just going to run out of time and he just isn't going to give that to us," Joan noted.
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"Because we're getting pretty far along into this!... He started out with 24 or 25 women, and we're getting down to where things are going to get serious, really soon. We're going to get down to hometowns soon, and we know nothing about Mel!"
Joan repeated to Ben, "I'm just afraid he doesn't have it in him. He doesn't have anything to say!"
Joan and Ben discussed how The Golden Bachelor "feels very Bachelor" this time around with the drama and focus on physical connections.
Joan, for her part, is still happily engaged to her The Golden Bachelorette winner Chock Chapple.
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Since The Golden Bachelorette process worked for Joan, she's apparently worried about the direction Mel is going in.
Joan vented to Ben about how Mel seemed to be focusing too much on chemistry without diving deeper with his intelligent and sweet bachelorettes.
The Golden Bachelor's latest episode on October 8 featured Mel having a photo shoot with a group of women in which there wasn't much talking, and he even rolled around in the sand while making out with Cindy.
And that wasn't the first time Mel had a makeout session, knowing that other women were watching him.
"I mean, we saw it in the pool [with Nicolle], right?!… It seems a little voyeuristic to me," Joan shared.
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"I don't think that, as me watching the TV, I really want to see that kind of intimate moment. I don't want to see anything that intimate. Kisses are okay, but rolling on top of each other is a little too much for me, especially with a Golden."
Joan seemed to think Mel's hesitation to open up and let his guard down was because of his ego.
"[I thought], 'Can you let go of all your status in the world?' He's a lawyer and was a professional football player. I think he has all this, kind of, ego in him," Joan admitted.
However, Joan complimented Mel by saying she was glad that he seemed to let loose and have fun during his one-on-one date at a festival with Peg.
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