Tash is playing The Bachelor villain's handbook to a T. But she's not acting alone.

The Bachelor returned to our screens this week after an 18-month break. 

During this hiatus, I imagine there were a lot of conversations between the production team about how they could bring a once-beloved TV show back from the brink of death. 

The original format just wasn't working anymore. It was tired. It was predictable. And try as they might, the franchise wasn't generating the viral moments that it once did. It wasn't tapping into the zeitgeist. Or creating conversations. 

I imagine they sat down in a boardroom somewhere and picked over the ashes of what was once as much of an Aussie institution as a Bunnings sausage, listening to 'How To Make Gravy' on repeat on December 21, and fondly remembering the first season of Australian Idol. 

Because when The Bachelor was at its best, there was nothing that could measure up to it. It was the fresh out of the fryer, heavily salted KFC chips equivalent of reality TV. 

Watch the trailer for The Bachelors. Post continues after video. 

If you've read this far and made it through all my very specific Australian metaphors, you probably remember the feeling of those first few heady seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. 

Watching them was an event and the finale episodes garnered the same kind of traction as an NRL grand final. 

I imagine as they were sitting in that boardroom somewhere, occasionally reaching for a Mentos from the bowl in the middle of the table, the producers went through what was and wasn't working. 

Instead of a safe choice like Jimmy Nicholson, they found three wildly different men, each representing the kind of men who have drawn a crowd to the franchise before. 

Felix is the bachelor who is supposed to rile us up. He's the Blake Garvey or the Honey Badger. 

Thomas is the good guy, the old school romantic who we're all supposed to fall in love with. Think Tim Robards or Sam Wood. 

And Jed is the wild card. The one who's supposed to surprise us. Like Matty J or Richie Strahan. Or Ciarran Stott and Timm Hanley from The Bachelorette.

The predictable red carpet arrivals were replaced with a round of speed dating.

Gone were the old school episodes that included a single date, a group date, a cocktail party and a rose ceremony. And in were group chats between bachelors and contestants, and a rose ceremony that became a forum for the women to air their grievances. 

They took some of the power away from the bachelors, finally acknowledging that they were mere mortals, and gave it to the women - allowing them to choose whether they accept a rose from their chosen bachelor or try their luck with one of the others. 

When it came to the contestants, they took cues from what we've responded to in the past. We love an underdog, a nice 'girl next door' who we all fall in love with and who eventually gets her heart broken.

Think Nikki Grogan or Brittany Hockley. 

This season's underdog is Kiki. She seems almost too nice for the franchise and that's always a sign that a contestant is going to burrow their way into our collective heart. 

On the flip side of that coin, we love a villain. 

Someone we can turn against as a society and really go to town on in the group chats. 

Think Keira McGuire. Laurina Fleure aka she of the dirty street pie. Cat and Romy from Honey Badger's season.

Tash was quickly established as this season's villain during last night's episode. She found out Jess was in an open relationship with another man on the outside and told her bachelor Felix. Then she found out Jasmine had an OnlyFans account and told her bachelor Jed. 

They were pretty dirty tactics, pulled straight from The Bachelor Villain Handbook. And they were prompted by a behind the camera voice who asked Tash to "spill the tea". 

I woke up this morning to countless tweets and headlines about how Tash was a sl*t-shamer. How she was b*tch. How she was a villain. 

And look, her behaviour wasn't great. 

But Tash isn't acting alone. Tash and The Bachelor producers are giving us exactly what we want. The kind of drama that will give us something to get riled up about. The kind of behaviour that will start a conversation about 'girl code', and 'sl*t-shaming' and 'polyamory' (a new edition to the cannon).  

When you look at it like that, Tash is working overtime. Contributing more to The Bachelor economy than the countless contestants whose names we haven't even learnt yet. 

Tash is a player in this game, but like all reality TV contestants, she's not aware of all the rules. She's never stood in front of a packed stadium of roaring fans who all have something to say about her. 

And that's not a situation you can really grasp the reality of until you've experienced it yourself. 

So, yes, Tash is playing The Bachelor Villain Handbook to a T, but she's not in it alone. 

And she's giving us exactly what we want. 

Keryn Donnelly is Mamamia's Pop Culture Editor. For her weekly TV, film and book recommendations and to see photos of her dog, follow her on Instagram and TikTok. 

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