UnREAL: Episode 10

"You're a manipulating slut!"  Castmember Grace to Rachel.

Yes, Rachel is a manipulating slut, and we wouldn't have it any other way.  I much prefer the manipulative slut to the whiner.  Finally, Rachel's embracing her Don Draper.  I also love the fact that they have allowed the Quinn-Rachel relationship to flourish.

The show deserves all the good press it's been getting including this and this. 

In celebration of the finale of UnREAL, some background on the show it is satirizing, The Bachelor. I have never worked on the show myself, so what follows is hearsay from people who have.  

According to my sources, the similarities between the fake show Everlasting and the actual show i are startling.  While that sounds like a "No, duh!" I was actually surprised to realize the degree to which this is the case.

The first and most startling gossip I have heard is that many of the characters on UnREAL are identical to individuals that worked on The Bachelor, and many of the stories are based on real life as well.

Moving on to some issues that are of interest maybe more to those of us in the industry:

1.  Producers drinking with cast members: I was honestly skeptical about the producers drinking with cast, largely I wouldn't want to be drunk on set and generally drunk people don't make for good workers.  That being said I have worked in environments where the cast is encouraged to drink, because messy.

However, I am told that producers on The Bachelor do in fact drink with cast members (as an incentive to get the cast to drink).  Generally producers have a drink or two and then start faking that they're drinking (as the cast member continues to imbibe).  Thus, the producer may order/pour a couple of Vodka tonics, and then start just drinking tonic.

2.  The competition between producers: I found the cattiness between producers to be a bit over the top and attributed it to the soapiness of the show.  However, I am told UnREAL is pretty accurate in this regard.  Although there are no cash incentives (a creation of the show that I find particularly annoying), the producers are apparently more bitchy and competitive than I have experienced.  They just happen to compete to advance in their field and pay rent, not for a thousand bucks or some shit.

3.  Producers cannot complete an exit interview (that's the interview conducted when a cast member is eliminated) until the girl has cried.  That's apparently where all the "So I hear tell you were abused by your babysitter" shit producers role out during interviews comes in.  Obviously we pretty much always want them to cry, I guess you would have incentive to be extra evil if you couldn't leave until you did.

4.  The house layout on Everlasting is almost identical to The Bachelor set, even down to where the Control Room is in relation to the the rest of the house.

5.  This has been reported elsewhere (possibly even in relation  to coverage of the show) but the cast are often kept outside to make them cold so that they might be more inclined to cry in interview (and likely scenes).

6.  While people don't actually live on set (as Rachel does) given the hours people work on Reality in general, and competition in particular, they do spend so much time on set that they often do laundry and even do sleep on the location.  That's part of the reason the crew feels like family.

Finally, although they only ever seem to call direction to A camera (and very rarely B camera) on Everlasting, there are definitely more cameras on The Bachelor set than on Everlasting (or any set for that matter)!

So that's it for UnREAL this season.  We'll be checking in with our girls Quinn and Rachel when the show returns.  Rachel loves Quinn and we love them both!

In the meantime I'll keep posting on Reality shows and the industry in general.  So please stay tuned.