In a scathing review by Slate, Arie Luyendyk of the 22nd season of The Bachelor was referred to as “one of the most boring Bachelors in the history of the franchise.” Can’t we all agree that we’ve found this season – only five episodes in – a bit of a yawn?
Bachelor Nation has been hitting audiences with the same-old, same-old all season long. There’s Chelsea, the mom who wants to be seen as something more; there is Bekah M. who (despite some unique off-air drama) is just an age-difference storyline; there is Krystal, the witch with a capital B who the other girls just sit around gossiping about. In other words, nothing new.
So, where’s the drama? Where’s the pizzazz that we all secretly crave from watching The Bachelor? Well, it migrated to another show called UnREAL.
GIF courtesy of giphy.com
UnREAL is currently in its third season and has a bucket load of all the drama from The Bachelor that we love, plus a ton more that we never expected. The show, a scripted show which airs on Lifetime, was created by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro. Shapiro was hijacked into working on the set of The Bachelor in 2003. It wasn’t until she threatened death by suicide that she was released from her contract and was able to leave the show.
Based on the psychological games and hidden agendas of the producers interacting with contestants on the set of reality-TV-dating show titled Everlasting, UnREAL exposes the dark underbelly of The Bachelor. It follows producer Rachel (Shiri Appleby) as she returns to working on-set after a psychotic break and is forced back into manipulating the female contestants into creating the most drama for the show’s ratings, all the while dealing with her own mentality, love life, and intense boss, Quinn (Constance Zimmer).
The show takes on poisoning, suicide, racism, rape, murder, and a whole lot more, all with the same tropes of “wifey,” “MILF,” and “villain” you’d find on the actual show The Bachelor. In UnREAL’s second season, Everlasting had its first African-American Bachelor and in the current third season, Everlasting has its first female Bachelorette. All in all, if you miss the drama and are willing to take on the dark, feminist humor, give UnREAL a try.