UnReal - Return - Review: “Welcome To Reality?”

Welcome to reality…er…well…kind of reality?

I feel that a full disclosure should preface this review. I have a very large and very passionate dislike of “reality” TV. I even did a paper in college on how scripted and unrealistic “reality” TV is. For those reasons I was intrigued by this show from the moment I first heard about it. UnReal seemed like it would bring to light all the things that led me to dislike “reality” TV so much. And yes, for those wondering, I will likely keep using the quotations in reference to “reality” TV, because “reality” TV is about as real as pigs that fly.

The first person we get to meet is Quinn (Constance Zimmer) who is in charge of this charade of a “reality” show called Everlasting. She calls things as she sees them and is unapologetic in her analysis. She will be everyone’s new favorite HBIC within the first minute of this series.

Here we get to meet the lucky bachelor of this story, Adam (Freddie Stroma), who seems like he’d rather be anywhere else than on this show. He is a hotel heir who thinks he can have any girl he wants and is happy to flirt with and sleep with any woman he can.

We get a sequence that is a brilliantly played mockery of a bad intro to an even worse “reality” TV show. The show goes all horse and carriage as we are introduced to the first contestant, Shamiqua (Christie Laing). She tries to woo Adam with her violin and seemed to be doing a decent job of it, but alas her attempt at a good first impression is shot down as Quinn screams cut and production stops. Not only is Shamiqua not “wifey” material but “she’s black” and in Quinn’s world those are things she cannot work with. A whole discussion arises about race and how we have a “barely black” President. But my favorite line of this opening, and possibly this entire episode, is brilliantly delivered by Quinn as she says, “It is not my fault America is racist people”. Given what is going on in this country of late it’s a very timely statement and a big reflection of the white washed “reality” shows we see on TV today. I had to do some Googling to see if a Bachelor or Bachelorette of color has ever been cast, but I can find no evidence of one. A few contestants of color, but none of them ever seem to be able to win. I don’t watch those shows, so someone please correct me in the comments below if that last statement is wrong.

I have to admit I had to double check at this point that this show was actually airing on Lifetime. It is demographically a solid fit for the network, but considerably edgier than any other program they have on right now or have ever had on.

Shamiqua is nixed from being the first contestant to meet with Adam and here we get to meet our leading lady, Rachel (Shiri Appleby), whom we meet as she is in a limo trying to get the last group of ladies to the set. This group also provides us Life UnExpected fans with a mini reunion as contestant Britney is played by Arielle Kebbel, whom had a recurring role on Season 2 of that show, where Shiri starred. It’s immediately obvious that Rachel has sold her soul to this show as she looks utterly unenthused to be amongst this group of women. She is devoid of emotion, but extremely good at her job as she keeps Quinn at bay and all her women on task by telling them about the suitor they are preparing to meet.

Rachel’s story really begins once they reach the set and everyone seems utterly surprised to see her. It’s immediately obvious something has happened recently and it was fairly epic. We find out she went a bit crazy during a prior cycle of Everlasting, but we only get the story in quick snippets until the end of the episode. What we do get to see is Rachel manipulating these women to get Quinn her shots and she’s brilliant at it. Shiri was perfectly cast because Rachel has to be an expert manipulator who can in an instant win a person’s trust. Both qualities are solidly portrayed by Shiri.

Rachel receives her first big test when Adam pulls a runner and disappears. She is tasked with finding him and bringing him back before Chet (Craig Bierko), the creator of the show and Quinn’s maybe boyfriend, fires half the staff. Rachel finds him and uses her ability to make anyone like and trust her to convince him to come back to the show. I did sense some sparks between them and that would certainly be an interesting twist in a future episode if they hooked up. She is definitely Quinn’s go to girl and it’s obvious why Quinn pulled the strings she did to get her back.

At this point 4 of the women take center stage:

Britney, she is Quinn’s favorite and very quickly branded the villain of the show. If Quinn gets her way Britney will play the villain card well into the finals. She grew up in foster care and isn’t the most mentally stable of the group. Quinn will do anything to keep this girl mean and in the spotlight. At one point she even orders Britney to be starved to make sure she remains as villainous as possible. Quinn’s villain does not disappoint as she throws out jabs at the other girls every opportunity she gets. Arielle brilliantly runs with this role and brings great depth to Britney. At certain points Arielle’s performance makes it hard to not like the villain of the story and at other points I was hoping one of the other ladies would bitch slap her right off the show.

Mary (Ashley Scott), the MILF (yes the show brands her that way) of the contestants. She has an abusive ex-husband and a young daughter she adores. She is guarded and smart, but not even those qualities can save her from the brilliant manipulation skills Rachel possesses. Mary questions Rachel’s ability to be trusted, but a few mentions of how good a guy Adam is and a crafty reference to Mary’s daughter and our smart MILF becomes another of Rachel’s victims. You have to feel for Mary as she is one of the few genuinely decent women on this show. In the name of full disclosure I’m a bit biased towards Mary because I’ve been a fan of Ashley’s since her Dark Angel and Birds of Prey days. This is a great part for her and I think it’s a good fit for her to make her first series regular TV return since Jericho sadly went away. So I’m rooting for Mary even though I don’t see her being able to survive the dynamic duo of Quinn and Rachel.

Faith (Breeda Wool), described by Quinn as “the horse faced tear jerker and a virgin” as well as “a linebacker in a jumpsuit”, and not expected to make it past the first elimination. I’m not familiar with Breeda’s prior work, but she brings so much innocence to Faith that you immediately like her and want to smack Quinn for singling her out to not make it through the first cut. She’s the dark horse of this group of contestants and I think that’ll lend her to be around until the end.

Grace (Nathalie Kelley), a Brazilian swim suit model who loves to have “a powerful animal” between her legs…oh come on people, get your minds out of the gutter she’s talking about horses. Well maybe she is, but I’m fairly certain she wouldn’t mind riding Adam’s horse either. She’s the pretty girl of the group and gets a boob feel up from Adam during a pre elimination sit down. The pretty girl always makes it far in these types of shows so I think we’ll have plenty of time to get to know her. Again I’m not familiar with Nathalie’s prior work, but she does a good job here. I get the impression Grace is going to be another master manipulator.

After the boob feel up of Grace it’s up to Rachel to get things back on track by pulling Adam away and removing his mic for a little private chat. During said chat she plants an idea in his head that leads Quinn to lose her villain during the cut and for Faith to survive another week. No matter how much I like Arielle as an actress I was so glad to see Faith win over Britney.

That leads to a phenomenal showdown of wills between Britney and Rachel as Quinn orders the latter to produce a good exit interview. What we get is an epic battle and a near stalemate until Rachel gets some insight from Dr. Wagerstein (Amy Hill), the resident shrink on set, that leads to Britney being tricked into delivering just enough to make Quinn happy. You can tell Arielle and Shiri have worked together before because they play off of each other with an ease that only comes with experience with your scene partner. I hope Britney will pop back in again because Arielle nailed the characters edgy personality that hid how broken she was on the inside.

Not even Quinn can save Britney here and she becomes our first major casualty. Other women got left out too, but they don’t count since I’m fairly certain their names were never even spoken.

We do finally learn exactly what led to Rachel’s hiatus. During the finals, of a prior cycle of Everlasting, Rachel got drunk and told the girl in the scene that she was about to get dumped. She then took a production car and sped off in it. She managed to not only get a DUI but damage the car as well. Oh and she left behind her then boyfriend, Jeremy (Josh Kelly), whom is now not only working on the same show but now engaged to Lizzy (Siobhan Williams) whom also works on the show. No matter how opposed Jeremy seems to be to Rachel being back the amount of chemistry they have screams the birth of an epic love triangle or square if Adam gets mixed up in all this. If I were Lizzy I’d be concerned right about now because if it comes down to a battle of wills Rachel will crush her. Which is unfortunate because I really like the innocence Siobhan brings to Lizzy. But I think that innocence will be Lizzy's downfall. I predict she is in for a hell of a ride in the coming weeks.

At the end of the day Rachel just wants a nice relaxing visit with her therapist and to make a work schedule plan for the community service she has to serve because of her DUI. Except Quinn has that covered and the new girl on set now gets to attend the community service in Rachel’s place. Got a feeling that will backfire on all of them at some point. I’m still curious how Quinn handled the DUI if that was her idea of handling the community service.

As the episode closes Rachel watches the women on various monitors. This sequence sets up some of the drama we can expect from these women in the weeks to come. I’m very interested to see how Rachel’s story plays out. She is damaged and broken and being back on this show can’t be healthy for her. I’m sure we’ll see her fight future spirals of emotional breakdown and I think it’ll make for some brilliant drama.

Of all the relationships on the show the one I’m most interested to watch unfold is the one between Quinn and Rachel. Quinn seems to genuinely care what happens to Rachel, but at the same time the show is her number one priority and Rachel is her ace. She does a lot to get and keep Rachel, but essentially blackmails her to keep her on the show by holding the threat of jail time over her head. I believe at the core these two women are friends and will protect one another, but it is such a flawed friendship that I’m excited to watch it unfold and develop. Plus Constance and Shiri have a great on screen dynamic, so this should be a fun ride.

In review, this was a solid start to the series. Constance and Shiri truly have the responsibility of carrying this show squarely on their shoulders and they do so brilliantly. They have a very large cast, of mostly women, to lead and lead they do. This first outing also shows that Lifetime is willing to break the mold and take some big risks. In the first episode alone we got a debate about black contestants in the first minutes and I lost count of the number of times Quinn called someone a bitch. What was truly surprising was that the network did not censor or cut the line “her old shriveled pussy”. If this show does well we could be seeing Lifetime start to become more risqué and less conservative. Now if they would just bring back Witches Of East End I’d be very happy with the choices this network has been making.

This marks the end of my very first review for SpoilerTV. This show and this episode will always hold a special place for me because of that. This episode covered a lot of ground, as pilot episodes usually do, so now that the intros are out of the way future reviews may not have to be this long. I hope you enjoyed it and I really look forward to reading your thoughts below. If you’re a “reality” TV fan I especially want to hear your thoughts.

Please join me next week for another fun romp into the world of UnReal.

About the Author - Aimee Hicks

Aimee works for a local newspaper and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was. She has a long list of shows that she loves to watch and can be found on twitter (@ahicks83) live tweeting about each new episode whenever she can. A list of her favorite shows includes (but is not limited to) the following: 12 Monkeys, Orphan Black, Outlander, Chasing Life, Scorpion, The 100, The Night Shift, Bitten, Black Sails, 2 Broke Girls, Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Continuum, Lost Girl, Faking It, Falling Skies, Finding Carter, Once Upon A Time, Orange Is The New Black, Switched At Birth, The Fosters, The Flash, The Originals, Teen Wolf, Under The Dome, & Z Nation. The upcoming shows she is most excited about are: Supergirl, Dark Matter, UnReal, Blindspot, Lucifer, Legends of Tomorrow, Stitchers, Recovery Road, Shadowhunters, Quantico, Code Black, Heartbreaker, and Chicago Med. She has a large and passionate dislike of ""reality"" TV, espeically ""reality"" dating shows, but has a weakness for Americas Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. But those two don't really count as ""reality"" shows, at least that's how she justifies those guilty pleasures. She was the original creator and co-founder of LOST Video Island (lostvideo.net) which is still operting under the management of the very capable and skilled group she turned it over to.

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