Recommendation: UnREAL, Season 1

Co-created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, UnREAL follows a large, extremely messy cast of characters who are creating and competing on a fictional dating show called Everlasting, a not-so-subtle stand-in for The Bachelor. The narrative eventually centers on the love-hate relationship between cynical showrunner Quinn King and self-destructive producer Rachel Goldberg, played by Constance Zimmer and Shiri Appleby, respectively.

What I loved: UnREAL is bleak, grim, and darkly funny. While season one isn’t even a decade old, its comedic sensibility feels edgy and in your face, as if it’s from a bygone era. I often found myself laughing out loud and wondering if I could pull off the same jokes today. In particular, UnREAL delivers cutting critiques of The Bachelor franchise’s consistent bias against non-White participants and lustily subverts the romantic (read: sexist) tropes the long-running franchise has both exploited and exacerbated on its way to reality TV dominance. This biting satire also does a superb job showing viewers how the reality sausage gets made. Everlasting’s — and by extension The Bachelor’s — preditors2 ply participants with booze, deprive them of food, isolate them from the outside world, and induce them to cry on camera, all to manipulate the contestants and create world-class cringe.

Tragic auto-fiction: Emily Nussbaum interviewed UnREAL co-creator Shapiro, who was a real-life producer on The Bachelor, for Cue the Sun!’s chapter on the ubiquitous dating show. A quick read between the lines suggests UnREAL is less a fictionalized depiction of reality and more a documentary masquerading as entertainment. For my money, this makes UnREAL an even stronger show, and The Bachelor an even bigger train wreck.

One and done: UnREAL ran for four seasons, but the consensus among critics and fans is the subsequent years fell short of the first’s misanthropic magic. I tapped out accordingly, but if anyone has watched the whole series and recommends seasons two through four, please let me know.

Final verdict: I absolutely loved UnREAL season one and believe it belongs in the pantheon of all-time great television shows. Do yourself a favor and binge-watch this weekend.

Where to watch: Netflix.