The Time I Went Digging And Struck Gold With UnREAL
Recently I’ve been finishing up UnREAL (which if you don’t know is a scripted series that’s essentially about the production of a Bachelor-like show called Everlasting). UnREAL originally aired on Lifetime, but life happened and the fourth and final season was released as a Hulu original not too long ago.
Finishing up this series got me to thinking about when I first discovered it. It was about 2 years ago, I was home for the summer, and I ran across a gif set of Constance Zimmer, Quinn, and Shiri Appleby, Rachel, with the following lines from the show:
Rachel: “We killed somebody, didn’t we?”
Quinn: “Yeah. Let’s not do that again.”
Lifetime
Side note: I could not remember this quote so I scrubbed through every single episode of the first season to find it. Of course this quote came from the last 4 minutes of the season 1 finale.
Side side note: Whilst scrubbing I came across so many people that I had forgotten were even in that season, like the guy that plays Sheriff Keller on Riverdale (Martin Cummins).
In that moment I knew I needed to find whatever show that was and watch it. I was working with minimal information at the time. I didn’t know the actresses’ names or the name of the show; however, I knew I had seen them both in other shows before. I remembered Constance Zimmer from a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy where she was trying to help convert the hospital into something more marketable to a buyer, or something like that. Shiri Appleby I had seen when I was trying to watch this show called Life Unexpected where I’m fairly certain she had a kid, probably as a teen, played by Britt Robertson and somehow they end up back in each others lives and also I think the father of the child was present? (I could easily look up the plot and be more informed, but I have chosen to rely on my memory alone). With the little information I had, I took to my favorite app, IMDB, and did some digging (see, the title of this post makes sense now). I will not bore you with the details of my search, but it led to me determining the show I was looking for was called UnREAL. I saw that it was available to watch on Hulu and without so much as even reading the plot I dove headfirst into a show that is at its core, wild and reckless. A few moments into the first episode I saw the character Rachel lying on the floor of a limo surrounded by girls in gowns with a shirt on that read “This is what a feminist looks like” and I knew I was in for something. I did not know what exactly, but I knew it was something.
That pilot both hooked and shook me. I had questions that I needed answers too, budding storylines that I needed to see develop, characters that were absolutely out of control, and I loved it. I was also seeing familiar faces: the blonde girl* that wasn’t Brittany Snow from John Tucker Must Die, the blonde girl** from Quantico, that one girl*** that was definitely evil (but for reasons that escape me) from The Vampire Diaries, and that guy**** that was like a DJ or something in Pitch Perfect. When I got to the end of the episode I noticed something and it felt like the ultimate betrayal. I noticed that UnREAL was a Lifetime series. It was in that moment that I debated ending it, my relationship with UnREAL. Then I was like, “No, you have to see it through. You know you wanna know who dies.” I decided to keep going with the show (clearly, or else I would not be writing this post). I also decided that I wouldn’t tell anyone about it, which is very out of character for me. After about 4 episodes I realized this show was worth sharing and I let it be known.
I would just like the record to reflect that I have changed my outlook on life. I no longer discriminate against televisions shows based off of their networks. Shoutout to UnREAL for my new lease on life.
*Arielle Kebbel
**Johanna Braddy
***Nathalie Kelley
****Freddie Stroma
I guess letting it be known is what brings me here today. I am letting it be known (to whoever is actually reading this) that the first season of UnREAL was magical. That is, if your definition of magical is death, lies, and deceit. When I say this show was full of drama, I mean it was FULL OF DRAMA. There were twists, there were turns, love triangles, affairs, you name it, UnREAL probably had it. This show took us behind the scenes of a reality dating show and showed us how producers push and manipulate contestants and the suitor to build the narrative that we see on television. Prior to UnREAL, my experiences with reality love shows were Flavor of Love, I Love New York, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, Rock of Love as well as his bus and I KNEW those were orchestrated. For some reason, in my mind The Bachelor/Bachelorette were different; however, in a post UnREAL world I know stuff is going DOWN behind the scenes, granted probably a bit less heinous.
This show is dark and twisty, but also funny. It touches on some very heavy topics and takes you on a morality rollercoaster. The main characters, Quinn and Rachel, are kind of horrible people. No, they are 100% definitely horrible people, but at the end of the day you somehow find yourself rooting for them and not for their demise. At least that was the case with me. I could hate Quinn and also love her. She was a self aware woman in power that delivered some ICONIC lines. Rachel, on the other hand, was consistently on the cusp of unravelling. She was battling with herself, and at some points I wanted her to succumb to the darkness just to see how far they would go with this show. There was something about watching everyone essentially manipulate everyone else that made watching this show a wild ride. You had to assume ill intentions at all times because no one could be trusted, at one point I stopped trusting myself. UnREAL is not a show for the hopeful because at every turn the hope dies, but that’s kind of the fun of it. If you love drama, have a Hulu account (or know someone who does), and have yet to see UnREAL, do yourself a favor and at least give the first season a try.
–T
P.S. Watch The Bold Type on Freeform, OnDemand, or Hulu
