how nick viall became my favorite contestant after the bachelorette ended

To start, I hate that title. It’s terrible, and horrible, and lame. It’s too long and a flat out lie.

JJ O’Brien is my favorite contestant from any season of The Bachelorette.

However, titles are really hard. Just ask anyone who has ever written a book, or named anything at all for that matter. Regardless, you get the sentiment I’m trying to convey, and that’s good enough.

Mere hours before America watches one of Nick’s castmates, Chris Soules meet the love of his life (hopefully), I still find myself intrigued by Season 10 Bachelorette Andi’s runner up.

During his stint on the ABC reality dating show hit, Nick was anything but a favorite of mine. As my friends and I gathered around the tv that first Monday night, I likened him to Mr. Tumnus from Narnia. As the season progressed, he became more than just the half goat man, but the creepy, stalker half goat man when he lied in order to sneak into Andi’s hotel. Nick and Andi dates were a time for my friends and I to half watch, but mostly catch up on what was going on in each other’s lives.

Let’s see, how can I make this more clear to you? I WAS NOT A FAN.

Now, many months post-finale, I’ve gathered more than enough additional intel to know there’s more to Nick than meets the eye, or rather more than what ABC producers let our eyes see.

Here are the reasons Nick Viall became a thousand times cooler after Andi dumped him.

THAT FANTASY SUITE REVELATION THOUGH

Okay first off, don’t act like it was really that big of deal that Nick revealed he and Andi had sex in the fantasy suite. Like wow, omg, if you didn’t already know, that’s what typically goes down in there (unless you’re Sean Lowe, Virgin Bachelor, Perfect Man, Only Acceptable Adult Male Blond). I wouldn’t say Nick’s unfortunate slip of the tongue, and the drama that ensued, was enough to make me like him exactly. Instead, it was his response to the whole ordeal that really impressed me.

Nick immediately came under fire from a sea of women obsessed with reality television; he was villianized, and Andi victimized, by most. And in response to all the opinions of what he’d said in a moment of emotion and passion, Nick took the opportunity to do something much bigger than simply lash out or defend himself. Despite the fact that he was obviously still hurting from a very public break up, he wrote this incredible blog post for Sean Lowe’s blog, where he talks about how the greatest issue in what happened is that everyone thinks of sex as this inherently taboo subject when it shouldn’t be. He made a point of saying that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions on the subject of sex, but that regardless of those feelings, making sex a shameful subject is an issue that goes well beyond The Bachelor and it’s counterparts.

I am a huge fan of opening up dialogue on any and all subjects that others want to sweep under the rug, hide in the closet, or ignore altogether. Nick nailed it with his response, and his creepiness slowly started to subside.

Side note: I actually also thought his confrontation with Andi was perfectly reasonable and understandable. 

HIS TWITTER IS SORT OF GLORIOUS 

Bare with me as I explain. Bachelor In Paradise was a really great concept in that it helped me cope with the knowledge that I would never ever again see JJ O’Brien on my tv, and also any show where Chris Harrison makes stunningly attractive singles hand out roses is generally okay by me.

However, what was actually way better than watching BIP was without a doubt watching my Twitter feed full of former contestants’ live tweets. I love live tweeting. If I could make a living by live tweeting all my favorite shows, that is exactly what I would do, so I love other people who live tweet anything. Nick’s were without a doubt some of the best from the Bachelor bunch, and since his live tweeting skills were relatively on par with my own, I decided to really commit and follow him after the show ended. What I found: his sarcasm game is so strong and I love that.

Also he once retweeted me, and I am forever indebted for that. 

DID HE GET HOTTER OR IS IT JUST ME?

It’s as simple as that guys, he no longer looks like a goat man to me. He’s hella adorable now. How did this happen? Is it just the angle he takes Insta pics from? If so, teach me how to Instagram please.

HE’S STILL FRIENDS WITH JJ O’BRIEN

If you read this post in its entirety then I am impressed. Also, if you did so you know JJ O’Brien is my favorite Bachelorette contestant, so maybe that makes this a really biased reason, but who cares, I’m in charge here.

Really though, a bromance done right just makes a guy really adorable. Maintaining a friendship over distance isn’t easy, and knowing the abnormal circumstances under which they met makes it really awesome that they’ve remained friends. But most importantly, if you go to Lollapalooza with JJ O’Brien and you tell him that he can be your Valentine’s Day date then you have mad cool points and I am jealous of your chill. REAL JEALOUS BRO.

HIS GET OVER AN EX ADVICE: WATCH FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL A LOT

There’s actually way more to it than that, but he wrote an advice piece for Bustle on how to get over an ex. While the other points have seriously great merit too, what really matters is that you just watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall over and over until you start to confuse yourself with Jason Segel and think that you have upgraded from Kristen Bell to Mila Kunis while your ex gets stuck with Russel Brand. Once you’ve watched it that many times, you are golden. You will not only have successfully gotten over your ex, but you will also promptly be admitted into a psychiatric hospital for evaluation after you approach Neil Patrick Harris to reminisce about the good ‘ole days of filming How I Met Your Mother.

No need to actually read his article now. That’s definitely what he said. Verbatim. Except not at all.

Seriously though guys, he’s apparently not a satyr/faun sort of creature with a penchant for stalking his lovers, and after actually reading the Bustle article, I felt inspired to throw together this quick list. Plus maybe it makes me seem less obsessed with JJ O’Brien. No, no it doesn’t really do that, but maybe he’ll pass this along and then we can all be friends and hang out and bake cupcakes and paint our nails and play truth or dare, and, and… Maybe we could do something a little more normal, or whatever.

What do you think? Who are your favorite and least favorite former Bach contestants? Were you a fan of Nick? What are your reasons? Still not a fan of him? Tell me why. Are you excited that The Bachelor is back tonight? Let me hear whatever you have to say in the comments below. 

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