UnReal – “War”
Did anyone else feel a shift in the air last week? A sort of ripple in the space around you as time slowed, goosebumps spreading the length of your arms, hair stiff on the back of your neck? No? Maybe it was just those of us with a radar finely tuned to trash TV, as Lifetime’s sublime UnReal made its way back to air. UnReal isn’t actual trash of course, it’s an excellent show that happens to be about trash, satisfying the parts of your brain that respond to substantive character studies and also the parts that want to watch beauty queens push each other fully-clothed into swimming pools.
Season 2 takes up not long after last season’s finale as Quinn and Rachel begin work on a new season of “Everlasting”. Rachel has taken over for Quinn as showrunner and Quinn has done the same with Chet’s job, which was... executive producer? I think? No one pays attention to titles, suffice it to say Rachel is now Quinn, Quinn is Chet (Quinn actually says this verbatim). The new jobs don’t settle easy though; Quinn has to deal with network assholes named Gary and learn how to step back a bit from her show, and Rachel, in turn, must embrace her skills as a heartless manipulator, the source of much personal turmoil last season. Shortly after getting the world’s ugliest matching wrist tattoos, they take a celebratory trip to Vegas with network rep Brad in tow to reveal the series’ latest bachelor.
Somehow, amid table dances and bumps of blow, they find time to introduce the handsome Darius Beck, a well-known quarterback who’s hoping a stint on reality TV will smooth out some recent publicity issues (he said "bitch, please" to a white lady, which would probably, yes, be a scandal IRL. sigh). The network apparently has some issues of its own with the idea of casting a black man as their lead (not Brad, he seems pretty chill), which is of course a case of art imitating life, but Quinn ultimately sells them on the idea by promising an insane cast of racially-charged, sexist stereotypes that would virtually guarantee ratings for the show. Now the cast would normally just be insane, sexist stereotypes, so it’s not much of a leap for the crew, and Rachel sets off to cement her perfect powder keg of a cast and make some good TV.
Considering the show-within-a-show aspect of UnReal, this episode serves as a something of a reboot. There’s no reason for any of the last season’s girls to be back, or even Adam, though he’s already made an appearance in the form of a dodged phone call, but fortunately almost all of the Everlasting crew are still around, just not necessarily working the same gig. Jeremy is back and boy does he not take being dumped gracefully. Like, he is capital D-A-R-K dark now, I mean, this is Dateline, 48 Hours Mystery stuff. He says some pretty awful things to Rachel about her mental health and how he’s a new, hateful person now (he “killed” old Jeremy), and just as I was wondering aloud how he isn’t fired yet, Quinn utters the perfect, “If we fired everyone we had sex with, we wouldn’t have a crew.” Oh yeah, true.
Madison has been promoted to producer, though she’s still fighting way above her weight. In one phenomenal scene, Madison is out failing to interview beauty queen Chantal on the haunting death of her fiancé. Convinced she’s hopeless, Rachel is about to bust in and do the interview herself, but Quinn pulls her back; that’s not Rachel’s job anymore, it’s Madison’s. Rachel’s job is to pull the strings off set, and Quinn’s is to keep Rachel in line, apparently. Rachel force-feeds Madison her lines over a walkie with Quinn commenting in the background and the three women manage pull an utterly devastating interview out of Chantal. The whole thing is rough enough for Madison to vomit right there on set, but she’s left exhilarated by the success, god love her. This is all a really wonderful feminist message about how powerful work relationships can be, albeit in a morally unsettling context.
Also back, to no one’s satisfaction, is Chet, the actual worst. He’s been away for six months on a “Paleolithic lifestyle retreat” hunting in Patagonia and has all sorts of fun, new demeaning things to say. I suppose he’d always had demeaning things to say, but now those things have a sort of caveman spin to them, plus some serious true believer, cult-like undertones to boot. Chet’s scenes were surprisingly some of my favorites; he’s just so dumb and easy to hate, a big hilarious villain worthy of reality TV. Omarosa would be proud. So when the final act rolls around and it’s revealed Chet has hijacked the first night of filming in an effort to regain control of “Everlasting”, I was satisfied to see him promoted to Official Villain of the season. Last year he was just annoying, and now he’s a threat.
Chet’s actions have completely undermined Rachel’s authority, so Quinn must take over at the last minute in order to keep him at bay. I must admit, it’s satisfying to hear Quinn barking orders at the terrified crew and oblivious cast again, just the good old days, but Rachel looks devastated to lose her power so quickly. Rachel is convinced she’s changing the world with this season, and maybe she is, but this episode serves as evidence that she is no longer concerned with the means she uses to reach her ends. It’s beyond shady to convince Ruby, the bright Black Lives Matter activist, that "Everlasting" is worth dropping out of school for, for instance, and firing Jeremy’s focus puller (ha) for being a “sexist man-baby” is, yes, pretty gratifying, but also a bit retaliatory. Those two situations are different, but Rachel seems to have lost the ability to tell the difference, even if she wanted to. She does everything in service of the show, and none of the in-between matters. So when she loses all that power so quickly, will she employ the same standards to get it back? I think you know what I'd guess if I were a betting man…
UnReal – “Insurgent”
Picking up right where we left off, Quinn is large and in charge, ordering people around from high atop a balcony like a third-world dictator wearing business couture. Rachel is pretty bummed, holed up in an office ignoring Quinn’s calls over the walkie. With Quinn taking over the show and the other producers managing the girls, Rachel doesn’t really have a job anymore. Quinn assures her the situation is temporary and that she should just start managing some girls with Jay and Madison, so she sucks it up and heads off to incite a catfight.
Ironically, the bulk of the drama in this episode stems from a massive catfight (cat battle? cat war??) going on behind the scenes of “Everlasting” between Quinn and Chet. Trying to produce the show together lasts about 8 seconds, so they end up splitting the crew and shooting two separate versions to submit to the network side by side, each convinced they know what will sell. Quinn’s show is a fairytale, built on romantic fantasy with a solid foundation of petty drama, AKA classic reality TV. Chet’s is raunchy, testosterone-infused, GirlsGone Wild mayhem, which is not without successful precedence either. Of course, trying to film all this simultaneously is just nuts, and the crews spend a lot of time trying to sabotage each other but essentially just twisting in circles.
Rachel, though not thrilled with how the show is going (she was supposed to change the world!), is still good at her old job. The goal for the first episode is the aforementioned old-fashioned, racist catfight, so she basically brainwashes Beth Ann into donning her infamous confederate flag bikini. I mean, Beth Ann had been carrying it around in her bag, so maybe it wasn’t such a reach, but she does seem to understand this sort of first impression will probably not be garnering a lot of positive attention. But one woman does not a catfight make, and though the flag suit is only meant to bait Ruby, it's not surprising that she is up for the fight, at first. Jay is on the other end of the issue, though, and when Ruby starts to question Rachel’s promises he levels with her.
I loved everything going on with Jay in this episode, and it’s great to see him fleshed out beyond the dishy, disillusioned, but somewhat one-dimensional coworker he was last season. Jay was always particularly invested in the black contestants on the show knowing full well they didn’t have a chance, but with Ruby he stands in her corner like never before. When Ruby wants to UNLEASH on Beth Ann, Jay convinces her to hold back, to play the long con and stay on the show. When she decides Darius is just a sellout who isn’t worth her time, Jay keeps her head in the game. Ruby stands for everything Jay wishes he could if he weren’t in so deep with his job, and for the first time he seems to think his girl might have a real shot at winning, so he truly supports her. Jay is also completely over Rachel’s bullshit, and whether or not he’s completely right or she’s completely wrong, he is no longer pulling any punches. Jay may be the last good man in reality TV.
In the end, a few girls manage to get ahead. Blonde football princess, and Quinn’s choice wifey, Tiffany first thinks her father, the owner of Darius’ rival team, is somehow involved and wants use her to get sign Darius over. She hooks up with Romeo, Darius’ cousin and manager, thinking it will finally change her public image as a “football wife”, but Rachel manages to convince her to bury the incident and at least get to know Darius first. The harder side of that scandal to quash was convincing Romeo not to tell Darius, but Rachel understands their dynamic and the fact that Romeo isn’t here just for fun; he’s Darius’ manager and the only reason they’re doing the show is for some good publicity. Tiffany is the surest way to achieve those ends.
Ruby doesn’t completely win Darius over, but she makes her point and stays in the game. Yael, or “Hot Rachel”, as she’s better known, becomes a contender in the eleventh hour by faking a slip in the pool and allowing Darius to “save her”, a calculated damsel in distress play that works so well she’s called first during the elimination ceremony. Beth Ann rather impressively spins her super racist bathing suit catastrophe into the episode’s promo fodder (in lieu of a decent catfight) when she apologizes to Darius and sheds the damn thing right on camera (“BOOBIES!!” Chet cries manically).
Speaking of, some of the most troubling scenes stem from the burgeoning mentor/mentee relationship between Chet and Jeremy. Those two together are bearded evil, I say, the Devil's stubble. In theory it’s fun to have a Bizarro World Quinn/Rachel teaming up against the real thing, especially when they’re at odds, but the whole thing lacked direction and just felt like Dr. Evil and Mini Me were running around set wreaking havoc. This would have been tough enough for Quinn and Rachel to deal with if they were at their best, but their uneasy team up at the beginning of the episode devolves quickly. Rachel is desperate for validation after losing her show so quickly, to be appreciated for the many small things she’s done right, but Quinn, reeling from the fear she’ll lose the show all together, doesn’t care about the little victories because Rachel screwed up so majorly by letting Chet back in the first place. In an episode so focused on catfights, and impassive Quinn lays this out coolly and Rachel sinks further into a quiet depression.
There’s a beautiful scene near the end where Jay lays into Rachel for trying to become Quinn in the worst possible ways, and they fight dirty- about Jay not having the stomach for the job and Rachel’s lofty ambitions when it’s questionable if Quinn will ever even let the show go at all, and he stalks off leaving her alone. I’m not a paranoia expert but I do know that isolation does not make it better. The whole episode sort of spirals around Rachel as she fumbles over what her role is. She crouches, devastated, smoking a cigarette alone, and the wall she's leaning on is pulled off camera as her whole world just falls away, piece by piece.
It’s from this mindset that Rachel makes a Hail Mary play (am I using that right? I’m no Tiffany football queen), driving over the Gary from the Network’s home and ratting out Quinn and Chet’s shenanigans. She’s angling for a promotion herself, but when Gary shows up the next day the buildup is painfully obvious. After viewing the two final pitches, Quinn’s overly-sentimental drivel and Chet’s plotless bikini parade (minted “EverBlasting”, a top-notch groaner), Gary walks in a smarmy-looking newbie named Coleman to take over the show and Rachel's smug smirk vanishes. Coleman runs a Youtube surrogate or makes a lot of good vines or something, it’s all very vague, but he draws viewers in big numbers. I’m sure nothing good will come of this, but hey, at least he’s objective, and he gets a read on Rachel pretty quickly, so I’m interested to see how all this will play out. If the first episode of the season was about power, this one was certainly about losing it, and clinging to what remains. With that in mind, I can't imagine a brand new boss will sit easy with anyone at "Everlasting".
Post Script:
What do you think of Darius? Nice guy or tool?
“I’m not manic, I’m changing the world.” - my new motto
“Who decided to make her a producer, anyway?” “Chet’s penis.”
What was your favorite scene, from either episode? I so love the moment after Rachel fired Jeremy's lackey, when they called her a bitch as she's walking away and she just smiles.
Madison wants to be Rachel! Bless her lil heart.
Rachel’s mental health: yikes. I don’t even know where to start. Should she take whatever random meds her mom sends her through the post?
Also, pills and a judgy note: worst care package ever?
What do you think of the season so far? UnReal does not tread lightly- do you love it or are you offended? I can't imagine there's an in-between.
