Should You Peer Behind The Reality Dating Show Curtain With UnREAL?

What Is This Thing?

Think a reality dating show just happens? Oh ho ho, you are so naïve! Every "spontaneous" event at Everlasting -- in which an eligible bachelor winnows a field of a couple of dozen ladies down to the one who'll be his wife -- is actually orchestrated by a control room full of steely, amoral TV professionals...including the one who just returned from having the meltdown that almost ruined last season's finale.

When Is It On?

Mondays at 10 PM on Lifetime.

Why Was It Made Now?

The Bachelor/ette franchise (sorry, Chris Harrison, but I refuse to call it "Bachelor Nation") has become such a cultural phenomenon that it's spawned Chris Harrison's career as a romance novelist, the parody Burning Love, and the award-winning short film Sequin Raze, from which UnREAL has been adapted.

What's Its Pedigree?

Co-created by (divisive) former Buffy The Vampire Slayer showrunner Marti Noxon, UnREAL revolves around Rachel, played by Shiri Appleby, formerly of Roswell, ER, and Life UneXpected; she's the one who had a nervous breakdown before the events of the series premiere take place. Quinn -- House Of Cards alumna Constance Zimmer -- is the show's Executive Producer and the Machiavellian genius who's brought Rachel back to the show and is apparently complicit in blackmailing her into continued employment. Also leering around the fringes is series creator/burnout billionaire Chet, who's played by Craig Bierko at his louchest. As for the ladies: you may recognize them from Jericho (Ashley Scott), The Secret Life Of The American Teenager (Francia Raisa), Greek (Johanna Braddy), or The Vampire Diaries (Arielle Kebbel).

...And?

This pilot is so watchable. If you are a Bachelor addict, you will appreciate the attention to detail lavished on Everlasting, the show within a show: the first lady climbs out of her carriage with her violin, ready to do a bit to make bachelor Adam (Freddie Stroma) remember her in the crowd of bachelorettes, while in the control room, Quinn screams that the first arrival can't be a woman of colour because, as everyone knows -- including the black crew members present, given that they don't bother trying to object -- non-white contestants are only present to fill quotas and won't last more than three episodes. If you don't watch The Bachelor, the cynical manipulation of the "real" show participants will leave you smug in your decision not to start.

In protagonist Rachel, there's huge potential for insufferability: she's returned to Everlasting very reluctantly after the scandalous events that for most of the episode are just hinted at, but that we see in raw footage played for new hire Lizzie (Rachel's ex Jeremy's current fiancée); she still believes the show is toxic, but because the production has pressed charges against her that are still pending, her labour is being extorted on the vague promise that they'll be dropped if she co-operates. All this is by way of saying it would be easy for a bad performer and bad directing to make Rachel a grating whiner, but Appleby walks the line perfectly: we can tell both that Rachel is barely hanging on to her composure on the set, but also that she knows she is great at doing this pretty terrible job.

And it's Rachel's talent for handling Everlasting volatile meat puppets that is what makes UnREAL so gripping. The plot keeps putting her in seemingly irresolvable situations, and then letting us watch her smoothly figure them out. Adam still hasn't signed his contract as filming on his premiere episode begins? Rachel will take care of it. The MILF has figured out she's been cast as the pathetic joke? Rachel knows how to keep her committed. But even when Rachel manufactures a surprise twist to spare the feelings of one bachelorette, we barely get a chance to think she might be stealthily using her considerable powers for good before the sacrificed lady has to be humiliated on her way out, and Rachel knows exactly how to do it. It's riveting.

...But?

I guess we're supposed to invest in the stakes of Rachel's broken relationship with Jeremy, but Josh Kelly, who plays him, is so blah that it's kind of impossible. I'm also wary of Braddy, who ruined all her scenes in Greek for me, though so far she hasn't had much to do and thus is okay by me.

Also, as with Burning Love, if you don't have at least a working knowledge of the tropes of the source material, it probably won't be that effective.

...So?

A twisty drama full of unapologetically mean jerks getting shit done? What part of that wouldn't I like? This was one of the most instantly addictive pilots I've seen in a while. Check it out.