Are You Ready For UnREAL: A Look Into The “Everlasting”

By: Stacy Miller

Last year’s summer guilty pleasure “UnREAL” returns to Lifetime with its second season of sex, lies and videotape. Tonight, viewers will get a further glimpse into the behind the scenes antics into the making of a fictional reality dating series.

Roswell’s Shiri Appleby plays Rachel Goldberg the producer of “Everlasting,” a reality dating show in the vein of ABC’s “The Bachelor.” She is driven and not above exploiting contestants’ strengths and weaknesses in favor of getting great footage. But she also has her own weaknesses that she tries to keep hidden (unsuccessfully) including a very public meltdown that threatened her career.

While Rachel attempts being a cut-throat producer, her boss Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) succeeds as she has the knife ready to slash at anyone who gets in her way. She is the Alexis Carrington (The top villain played by Joan Collins in the 1980s nighttime soap “Dynasty”) of the television producing world. She refuses to let women play second fiddle to men in the profession any longer. It is revealed in “UnREAL” that the idea for “Everlasting” came from Quinn even though her coworker/lover Chet (Craig Bierko) tried to steal it from her. Quinn sues Chet for the rights to “Everlasting” and after initially trying to fight her, he agrees to grant them to her.

Both Rachel and Quinn have a vulnerability that they try to conceal from the world in order to be taken seriously by their male counterparts. But deep down, all they want is love and acceptance. When a woman tries too hard to be tough, she’s often overcompensating. Rachel is the daughter of a domineering psychiatrist mother, which has contributed to her feelings of self-loathing. She never felt that she was good enough or strong enough in her mother’s eyes. Being a producer on “Everlasting” has given her a strength she has never known. For once, she is the one in charge and giving the orders instead of being forced into falling in line. At times, she has exhibited moments of feeling alone even though she has power as a producer. She was involved with coworker Jeremy (Josh Kelly), but her behavior pushed him into the arms of another woman. However, his unresolved feelings for Rachel brought the couple back together. There was a complication to their relationship though in the form of Adam Cromwell (Freddie Stroma). Adam is the eligible bachelor of “Everlasting” who found the paper dolls/potential suitors less appealing than his beguiling producer Rachel. Adam and Rachel carry on an affair while filming the show, much to Quinn’s chagrin when she discovers it. Adam wants to do right by his family, but can’t deny what he wants for himself.

Quinn wanted to be a power television executive couple with Chet. Although she knew he was married, Quinn thought that it was a marriage in name only as Chet assured her that he and his wife weren’t sharing a martial bed. Imagine Quinn’s shock and humiliation when oops…Chet’s wife Cynthia (Sonya Salomaa) turns up pregnant. But Quinn shouldn’t have been surprised that Chet was a lying, deceitful bastard. Marriage didn’t stop him from pursuing her all those years ago. And, ironically, history repeats itself when Chet carries on a sexual relationship with Quinn’s production assistant Madison (Genevieve Buechner), resulting in Madison later becoming one of Everlasting’s producers. Quinn is not a woman who easily gives her heart so Chet’s betrayal had to have been extremely painful for her.

In addition to behind the scenes characters like Rachel, Quinn, Chet and Jeremy, “UnREAL” also focused on the lives and personalities of the contestants vying to win the eligible bachelor. These bachelorettes ran the gamut of types you’d expect to find on a dating show- the single mother struggling to make a better life for she and her child, the bitch, (C’mon, there’s always the bitch in every show. How else could you make the heroine worthier than to show her polar opposite?) the sweet country girl who is too good to be true that butter would melt in her mouth and of course, the angry black woman. Although it was campy fun, the black contestant was a little over the top. I doubt whether the ladies interviewed to appear on “The Bachelor” would get past the audition process if they exhibited such behavior. But I believe that is part of the appeal of “UnREAL,” as it’s a mixture of reality television and the real world of television blended together into a tasty meal of soapy goodness.

Themes of drug use also played a large part in the first season of “UnREAL.” There were many scenes involving pills and cocaine. The series being on cable allows for such material to be shown that would have otherwise been censored by network television. In a particularly surprising and shocking moment of the first season, Mary Newhouse (played by Ashley Scott) jumps off the roof of the “Everlasting” house after her bipolar medication is switched by producer Shia (Aline Elasmar) in hopes of getting better footage for the show.

As the first season of “UnREAL” concluded, Adam had chosen Anna (Johanna Braddy) to unite with him in holy matrimony. There were discussions regarding a possible spin-off of “Everlasting” that would focus on the couple’s married life at Adam’s family vineyard. But Anna realizes that Adam is no more than a rich, spoiled playboy and definitely not husband material and made like a runaway bride. Anna’s departure accommodated Johanna Braddy taking the role of Shelby in ABC’s “Quantico.”

Quinn shared her information with Jeremy about Rachel’s affair with Adam and Jeremy called it quits with Rachel…again. The sad thing is that I believe that Rachel truly loves Jeremy. I’m not so certain about her feelings for Adam. Yes, she is attracted to him, but I don’t sense a deep love there. I think Adam may care more for Rachel than she does for him in fact. I hope that we get to see Adam again in Season Two to force Rachel to confront her feelings for him.

With Season Two close at hand, it will be interesting to see how the characters of “UnREAL” will grow. I see Rachel and Quinn developing not only a friendship, but more of an understanding of each other. If you take a look at the two characters, they are really more alike than even they realize. But Quinn is a lot better at playing the hard-as-nails bitch than Rachel is because with Quinn, you never see the hurricane coming until it is right on top of you and it’s too late to take cover. She has an excellent poker face and can get you to fold before she does. I also want to see more of Rachel’s rivalry with Shia and Quinn’s dealing with Madison.

Previews for the upcoming second season indicate that the eligible “Everlasting” bachelor will be an African American star quarterback named Darius Hill (played by B.J. Britt). This is an interesting development for the show and I applaud the writers for this change of pace. The landscape of society and television viewership is a mixed one so exploring this path will open unique storyline possibilities. It will be interesting to see who Darius choses as his bride. I’m hoping that the show doesn’t go the safe route and have him pick the African American female contestant and rather take a page from Shonda Rhimes with her shows like “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “How to Get Away With Murder” and show an interracial coupling. I can’t wait to see more of this character and his storyline.

There were several standout contestants in the first season of “UnREAL.” The second season may offer even more great characters that will have viewers oohing and aahing over. As long as the new characters don’t fall into the stereotypes found with some of the first season characters, viewers should be happy. The sophomore season of any television shows faces the difficulty in living up to the first. Can the characters that we have learned to care about still strike emotion in us and keep us tuned in? Rachel and Quinn can’t be allowed to be the same as they were in the first season, we have to see how the mistakes they’ve met affected them. Will they do things differently, and if so, how will their new choices play in their dealings with other characters? Will the new characters be exciting or snooze-worthy?

“UnREAL” is one of those television shows that is easily addictive. The writing, characters and acting is sharp. It makes viewers wonder whether this is how it really is producing reality television. Could the behind the scenes drama be better than anything that is played in front of the camera?

Not too long to wait to find out the answers to these and other burning questions. “UnREAL” Season Two Premiere will happen before you know it. We can’t wait to see these bad people make good television.