Binge Guide: 'UnREAL' Gives Reality TV a Much-Needed Reality Check
Has the fairy-tale magic of The Bachelor started to wear off? Are you eager to see someone poke a few holes in the reality TV bubble? Well, your new binge-watch obsession has just arrived.
Lifetime, home of trashy Hollywood biopics and Dance Moms marathons, shocked us all this summer by unveiling a legitimately great TV series: UnREAL, a new one-hour drama that takes us inside the making of a very Bachelor-like reality show. And now that Hulu has made all ten episodes of Season 1 available for streaming, everybody can catch up and see that what goes on behind the reality TV cameras is way more dramatic that what ends up on screen.
UnREAL is the brainchild of veteran TV producer Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men) and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, who — surprise, surprise — worked as a Bachelor producer for nine seasons. Noxon’s TV drama talents and Shapiro’s experience in the trenches combine to form a smart, unflinching look at how the reality TV sausage is made.
Shiri Appleby (Roswell) stars as Rachel, a producer on Everlasting, a hit reality show where a handsome suitor chooses a potential wife from a bevy of eager female contestants. (Sound familiar?) But underneath the romantic veneer of horse-drawn carriages and fantasy dates, there’s an ugly reality: The producers pit the women against each other to stir up drama for the cameras. The women are more interested in camera time than a real love connection. And the suitor — Adam (Freddie Stroma), a rich British playboy looking to clean up his image — would rather bed a contestant than put a ring on her finger.
To anyone familiar with the rhythms and conventions of reality TV, UnREAL is a fascinating peek behind the curtain. Rachel is miserable and ashamed of herself for participating in such a farce — in the pilot, she wears a T-shirt declaring “This is what a feminist looks like” — but she has an undeniable knack for pushing the women’s buttons and manipulating them into fights and breakdowns. And back in the control room, her cold, calculating boss looks to spin every one of those fights and breakdowns into reality TV gold.
Constance Zimmer has been a welcome addition to quite a few TV shows over the years (Entourage, House of Cards), but she may have found a career-best role in UnREAL’s Quinn, the cynical executive producer of Everlasting who gives zero f—ks about romance. Or anyone’s feelings, really. She just wants good TV… and she’s willing to do just about anything to get it.
Quinn and Rachel’s love-hate relationship is at the core of UnREAL, and it’s not as simple as good versus evil. Quinn has a sympathetic side, glimpsed in her on-and-off affair with sleazy Everlasting creator Chet (Craig Bierko). And sometimes Rachel devises an evil plan that surprises even her mentor. We’re not sure if Quinn’s role is small enough to fit Zimmer into the Supporting Actress category at the Emmys, but we do know that both Appleby and Zimmer deserve nominations for their work here — two of the best female performances anywhere on TV last year, no doubt.
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As the season of UnREAL (and Everlasting) rolls on, the stakes get higher. Rachel is still hung up on her ex Jeremy (Josh Kelly), a camera operator who’s engaged to someone else… and she also strikes up a maybe-inappropriate relationship with Adam the suitor. The producers battle to wring every last drop of drama out of the girls, knowing that capturing a scandalous moment could lead to a promotion… and a cash bonus from Quinn. UnREAL does push into clear fiction at times — there’s a shocking twist midway through the season that no reality show has yet had to face — but the unrelenting drive to produce compelling television at absolutely any cost always rings true.
And if you catch up now, you’ll be ready when UnREAL returns for Season 2 this summer on Lifetime. It’s not looking to take its foot off the pedal, either: The new season will tackle the hot-button issue of race, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. alum B.J. Britt playing Everlasting’s first-ever African-American bachelor. In other words, things are about to get really, really real… and you’re not going to want to miss out.
Appropriately enough, Valentine’s Day is coming up next week, and if you’re single and dreading it, we can’t think of a better anti-romance plan than an UnREAL binge-watch session. So grab your friends and a few bottles of wine, and raise a glass to one of TV’s underrated gems.
Season 1 of UnREAL is streaming now on Hulu; Season 2 premieres this summer on Lifetime.
