Last Sunday, the season finale of the new TV series UnREAL aired. As a dark comedy written as a behind-the-scenes look at the sculpted realities of a fictional "reality" show similar to The Bachelor, it is a worthy watch on many levels and for many audiences.
Here's three types of person that should watch UnREAL:
As a die-hard fan of reality TV, you have to catch every episode the night it airs, so you don't get spoilers of what's going to happen. You take everything as face value, believing it as you see it portrayed. Well, you shouldn't. You should watch UnREAL, and get an idea of what really happens. You'll see what actually happens before the story is twisted to fit the plot that was decided before the season even started you'll see the lengths that the producers go to to get things to happen, with more drama the better. Best of all, you'll see how money controls everything just to get viewers. For you, UnREAL is an educational course and probably the closest thing you'll get to an honest behind-the-scenes take.
If you're like me, you despise reality shows. You know they're a total lie, with everything edited to perfect believably. You'll enjoy UnREAL as the dark comedy that it is meant to be, laughing at the ridiculousness of what the contestants do, and cheering on the producers in their god-like meddling. It's a happy ending for someone, right?
Many people love to hate Frank Underwood and Francis Urquhart. As the star characters of the House of Cards shows, they meddle and manipulate to whatever end is necessary to get the end result they wanted. (The U.K. series is great.) If this type of story is you kind of thing, and having the main character be a villain makes you here them on even more, watch UnREAL. The executives even offer their underlings cash rewards for getting the contestants to do the ridiculous, knowing that it will driver viewer numbers, which means she gets paid more.
"[UnREAL] realises the failure of Network TV" — John C. Dvorak
In the end, I'd give the show four stars out of five. A little depressing, but very insightful. Kudos to John C. Dvorak for the recommendation of UnREAL to the No Agenda audience on episode #730.