The Bachelor Recap: What We're Loving (and Hating) This ...

fans and your trusty rose recappers. In honor of this rose-filled day, we decided to reflect on our own relationship with

. We've had a love/hate thing going on with Ben and the show itself this season. Sometimes, we want to ride a helicopter with it off into the sunset...and sometimes we want to hurl ourselves out of the helicopter so we can avoid all the horrible "leap of faith" metaphors. Here is what we're loving and loathing this season:?

Love:

It's still a great guilty pleasure:
After countless seasons of failed relationships and broken engagements, we can't bring ourselves to break up with The Bachelor because it's still a lot of fun. We still love gossiping about the crazies, complaining about the mean girls and recounting all the drama. And it's prime water cooler talk around our office. Tuesday mornings would be a little duller without having Ben, Courtney and the rest of them in our lives. Plus, we get to pass around awesome Bachelor auto tune videos (If you haven't already seen this, watch immediately.)

The girls are (mostly) real:
Hear us out: overall, these girls are as real as it gets for the long-running ABC show. Sure, there may be some fakeness this season (whether that means personality or looks-wise, we'll let you decided) but for the most part the ladies vying for Ben's heart have been women we could actually imagine--gasp--being friends with. The lovely ladies of the season have engaged in very little girl-on-girl drama this go-around, but leave it up to Ben to go for the one contestant set on stirring up trouble. Yes Courtney, we mean you.

The animal living in Ben's house:
Honestly, one of our favorite things about Ben is his dog, Scotch. He's adorable and he even has his own Twitter, @BensDogScotch

Hate:

The relationships are cookie cutter:
It took us a while to figure out exactly what was bugging us so much about this season, but we finally got it: Ben never describes, either to us or the women themselves, what he likes about each woman and what makes her unique. He always speaks in generalities like, "She's incredible" or "I could see a future with this woman," but he never says why. How is his relationship with Lindzi any different than his relationship with Nikki? It makes all the relationships, and the women, seem generic and bland. Say what you will about Courtney (and we've said a lot), but we can see why she stands out to Ben. She may be horrible, but she's different.

The Courtney show:
Speaking of this seasons' least favored contestant, let's talk about Courtney. She makes for good television, we can all agree on that. However, the way she monopolizes Ben's time, coupled with the fact that she uses the phrase "winning" more than should ever be allowed leaves us very few nice things to say about her. Except for maybe this warning plea: run Ben, run!

The animal living on Ben's head:
You've seen it, you've studied it, yet you still can't understand it. Neither can we. Lucky for all of us, Ben's hair has a Twitter. Enough said.

--Allison Baker and Alyssa Longobucco

More from SELF:

Last Week's Bachelor Recap

7 Ways to Get in the Mood This Valentine's Day

Dylan Lauren's Picks for Sexiest Valentine's Day Treats

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Source: http://www.self.com/magazine/blogs/selfystars/2012/02/the-bachelor-recap-what-were-l.html

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