While watching last night’s episode of Paradise Hotel 2 on MyNetworkTV (that’s the slighty tamer version, the mature-rated version is on FOX Reality Tuesday mornings at 1 a.m. ET/PT), I realized one phrase kept circling around and around in my mind. That phrase?: I seriously don’t like these people!

I guess the premise of the show sort of excludes finding individuals with any real depth of character or virtue. After all, the only way to win the “ultimate prize” as it is teased, is to survive the longest by convincing other hotel guests that you’d make a good roommate because you are willing to do ANYTHING to win. But do the hotel guests have to be so dumb and one-dimensional?

First a recap: The show starts with a reminder that Chelsea was sent packing because James and Ryan turned on her when she wouldn’t have sex with either of them. James is now roommates with resident virgin Krista. She tells him that she thinks sex just gets in the way for men and women who don’t know each other well. That was the last sensible thing anyone said during this episode. Instead of agreeing, James insists Chelsea should have hooked up with someone if she wanted to stay.

The next scene shows Ryan, the dopey-looking surfer dude,  telling his roommate Lauren that he had every right to be angry with Chelsea since she told him how “slammin’” and sexy she thought he was then only wanted to kiss and cuddle.

Next we see Mike and Tanya giving each other aloe vera body massages. At breakfast the next day both Mike and Tanya insist they haven’t had sex…yet. Tanya also tells the girls she’d like to make-out with Ryan, James or Mike. She’s not choosy.

The girls then ponder the mysteries of house guest Nathan. They’re confused by his desire to read books and spend time alone. Or maybe they’re just confused by the concept of books themselves. ‘What are they? What do they do?’ (On a sad note, Nathan committed suicide shortly after taping ended. His scenes remain in the show per an agreement between Paradise Hotel producers and his family.)

Next we meet the newest hotel guest, “Johnny” from New York City. Johnny is 26 and some type of sales manager. The men’s first impressions of him range from James saying Johnny must be a meathead New Yorker to Raheim saying if he is Italian and from New York he must be cocky. Sadly their stereotypes,  and mine about not trusting grown men who have little boy names, end up being true.

Johnny unpacks his stuff in the “single” room where he finds a letter from previously eliminated hotel guest Chelsea. The Los Angeles-based singer warns him that Ryan and James are back stabbers and laments that the hottest girl (her) has already left Paradise Hotel.

Next Johnny has speed dates with all the hotel women. Mike and Tanya talk about their shared love of tattoos and being Italian. Johnny and Charte’ talk about her modeling career and his disbelief that she’s never been to NYC. Johnny and tomboy Lauren talk about football and how old they both are and Johnny and Tidisha talk about Raheim.

Later Johnny picks Tanya for a longer date (much to her roommate Mike’s annoyance). Somehow Tanya walks away from their mind-numbing hour together believing Johnny is deep and some sort of a writer. 

Johnny tells the hotel guests he is throwing an ‘Adam and Eve’ party that night complete with palm fronds and black underwear. Much like they did in the biblical Garden of Eden, the hotel guests compare tattoos, dirty dance, do body shots and toast to the hotel’s unofficial motto that “sharing is caring”.

The next morning at breakfast the hung-over bunch discuss the night before. Mild-mannered Nate tells Johnny he should apologize for how he acted around the women. Actions which included biting, licking, slapping and sniffing their bottoms whether they liked it or not. I think Johnny should apologize not just to the women but to humanity in general for being such a tool.

Eventually the hotel guests play their first round of ‘Pandora’s Box’ (no sexual innuendo there). They ask anonymous questions of each other such as why Tanya hasn’t slept with Mike yet? Tanya’s not-so-coquettish answer?: She probably will.

Later they all get drunk (surprise, surprise). Tanya and Mike go all the way and he tells all of his buddies about it by making a bizarre mating call that echos throughout the hotel. And who says romance is dead?

I know Paradise Hotel doesn’t try to be anything more than a trashy, exploitative reality show, but there seems to be a larger message about our culture in sexually-charged do-nothing shows like it. The message I take away is that many of today’s young women feels like their only value to men is how much of themselves they are willing to expose and exploit in exchange for nothing more than a passing approval. There is no respect, no begrudging admiration and certainly no love. She is used up then thrown out and somehow convinces herself that she is the empowered one. The man on the other hand smugly blesses his good fortune at not having to do things like buy dinner or court to find a quality woman.

Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Haven’t there always been sexually-liberated women and the men who desire their company?  Of course. But the constant bombardment of these images thanks in large part to the internet and reality TV has worn us down and somehow legitimized potentially dangerous behavior. We don’t question anymore whether it is right or wrong or healthy for people to act this way we just accept it. It’s on TV, it must be okay.

But I wonder where will all these annoying hotel guests be when they’re in their 40’s or 50’s? Will they regret exposing the worst and basest parts of their personalities to anyone who cared to watch? Maybe not. Who knows how society will be by then or how far reality TV will have gone. This show may seem like a quaint relic from the innocent past by then. Gosh - I hope not.