Coming Out Colton looks more like a vehicle to rehabilitate Colton Underwood's image than a show about "coming out"

Esquire

"It's all so calculated," says Justin Kirkland of Underwood's Netflix reality show. He adds that "one of the reasons I was first invested in Colton's evolution is because I, too, was raised strongly in Christianity. God occupies a difficult place in a lot of queer lives, certainly in mine, but I understand the idea of it being a literal saving grace. It doesn't fit in a single episode. It hardly fits in a lifetime. Coming Out Colton treats it like a fire to put out just once, not a mystery to unravel again and again. It all begs the question, who is this production for? I'd feel a lot better if I believed that Underwood was truly trying to offer visibility for anyone at home whose desperate to figure out how to come out. But I don't. Underwood's decision to do it feels more like an opportunity for Underwood to rehabilitate his image. Something that feels especially the case as he addresses his past misfires, like the alleged stalking of his past Bachelor girlfriend, Cassie (who declined to be a part of the series). As for who is tuning in, I imagine the audience is largely separated into two camps: queer people hoping to find some semblance of respectable representation and members of Bachelor nation, who could, after 25 seasons of straight love being aired nightly, likely use a positive example of queerness in their lives. In pursuit of paycheck and compelling second act, Underwood lets them all down."