UnReal - Marti Noxon & Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
Season One & Three & Four
Season One
This show is a scripted drama that follows the production crew of a reality TV show.
I want you just to take a moment to consider what the last sentence truly means. This is a genius idea – I love it.
So it’s behind the scenes but not really because it’s scripted.
Take this a step further – they are also showing us scenes of the reality show: Everlasting. So because UnReal is scripted is the reality show. But it has to be scripted so that it appears not to be. Fabulous stuff to watch.
The two shows mirror each other so well and have important things that cross over making you care about what is happening in both of them.
The lead is one of the producers on the show and she is brilliantly manipulative. Coupled with that is the fact you can see she cares about what is happening to the contestants – she doesn’t want to do the things that she is doing to these people. But she does because it’s her job.
The psychological drama at play here is fantastic to watch unfold.
The female executive producer is also fantastic. Great at her job and realistic about what she has sacrificed to get where she has gotten. She wields her power unflinchingly – love it.
All the male characters are jerks. They all suck.
Season Three
The madness and lengths that these characters will go to to protect their interests return. They all start with a blood pact which Rachael almost immediately breaks.
Rachael’s arc this season goes from Essential Honesty back to her normal self.
As she goes down this path she frees herself from her mother – but we have seen this all before. What is interesting this time is that she tries to extricate her father as well.
In doing so it costs her the dream cabin but all for a good cause – until she learns that he had checked himself out of rehab to return home.
The back stabbing between her and Quinn is sad and we know it isn’t going to last long – it never does. When they unite against Gary it is great.
The change this season to have all male suitors after a female is an interesting change. It’s refreshing but doesn’t really get used as much as it could have been.
There are some truly great moments with Rachael this season. The super bitch of her Essential Honesty return is just spectacular to see.
Overall this season is a bit of a letdown. There isn’t anything new here. They are still hitting the same great beats of the first season but they feel a bit worn and expected now.
Season Four
We all thought we knew crazy Rachael. We were wrong. She goes full psycho in this series.
We are back at Everlasting for an All-Stars season. The reason All-Star seasons are good is because we all know the character’s backstory.
Because we joined Everlasting in season ten or something like that there are only so many characters we could know. They did well having August come back along with Roger who raped Maya in the first season of Unreal.
So we were set for fireworks from the word go, but instead of being Everlasting’s normal state of affairs, they brought on a Game’s Master.
I can’t remember what Quinn Says when she finds out. Something along the lines of the most boring form of entertainment – she isn’t wrong.
The Roger and Maya setup is truly horrible to watch as is watching Rachael manipulating the backstage fallout following it. This alone would have been enough for me to give the series the flick. But the previous seasons kept me going.
The Game’s Master Tommy, almost immediately becomes a full-on fanboy of Rachael. Happy to enable her most horrible whims.
Rachael is at her best when she is in opposition to someone, generally herself. By having no opposition after Quinn leaves there is no story anymore.
The main issue with this season is that we hate Rachael. While we never agreed with what she did in the past we were entertained and some sort of motivation justified the manipulation acts. Now it is just evil.
Quinn is right to cut her free. The whole baby arc takes a very dark turn at the end when we learn that she may have terminated the pregnancy without a reason and then lied to Chet about it.
Overall, it was a disappointing end to what started as a great series because they forgot how to write the lead character.
