A Little Under-The-Radar TV: 'UnREAL'

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

If you're a dedicated WEEKEND EDITION listener, you know we've been giving you all sorts of reasons to curl up with a good TV series over the last few weeks. We've been checking in with various television critics about which shows you may not have heard about this year, but you should be catching up on them. Today, NPR's own Linda Holmes joins us in the studio. Hey, Linda.

LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Hey, Rachel.

MARTIN: OK, I understand you're here to pitch us a show called "UnREAL." All I know about this thing is it's a little bit of a behind-the-scenes of reality TV and that crazy world.

HOLMES: That's right. This is a show that ran in the summer on Lifetime. And it's a drama about - primarily about a couple of women who work behind the scenes at a show called "Everlasting," which is basically "The Bachelor."

MARTIN: OK (laughter).

HOLMES: And the woman who created it, based on a short film she had done, actually worked on "The Bachelor."

MARTIN: Oh, so she knows what she's talking about when she's writing this story.

HOLMES: You would think. You would think so, yeah.

MARTIN: OK.

HOLMES: And the two main characters are a producer who is kind of one of the wranglers of the contestants, and she's played by Shiri Appleby. And the other sort of main person is her boss, who's kind of this lady who unapologetically manipulates all the contestants and everyone in her - she's played by a terrific actress named Constance Zimmer. So these two women kind of run this show together. And it's a really - it really does center the experiences of these women producers as well as the many women who come on as contestants who find themselves subjected to whatever they subject them to (laughter).

MARTIN: And so you said this as an aside. But I want to drill down on this idea of manipulating the contestants because this is what we all - fans of "The Bachelor," I am one of them - you sit back and you think, this person has been told to do this or somehow been manipulated into this emotionally fraught situation. And this is what they play up.

HOLMES: Yes, I would say the outlook of "UnREAL" is that what the contestants are doing is not fake exactly. It's not scripted. They don't tell them, say X, say Y. What they do is they goose them in certain directions.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "UNREAL")

CONTANCE ZIMMER: (As Quinn King) OK, come on, let's go people. Protect the wifeys (ph) Anna and Grace and starve our villain Brittany until she is mean like a pit bull. I want to pickle the rest of them, OK? You get cash bonuses for nudity, 911 calls, cat fights, all right? Have a good show everybody.

HOLMES: They encourage them to feel certain ways. They...

MARTIN: They spin them up.

HOLMES: The spin them up. They ply them with booze. They isolate them. They make them feel very insecure. The short film that was the inspiration for the series is really just a producer talking to one contestant for, like, 10 minutes gradually just breaking her down. And that's the idea that they've kind of expanded into this bigger world.

MARTIN: That's dark, man.

HOLMES: It's extremely dark.

MARTIN: That is dark stuff.

HOLMES: The show is very, very dark. And I think it's one of the few shows that has explored women who are anti-heroes in kind of the same way that we've had tons and tons of male anti-heroes who are very morally dodgy.

MARTIN: Do you have to be a fan of reality TV to get into this show?

HOLMES: I think it has special resonance for people who recognize the tropes that they're talking about. But I think the drama of having a job that you're very good at, that you feel terrible about being good at, is recognizable to a lot of people. So I don't think you have to, but I think definite if you're a fan of reality shows in general or "The Bachelor" in particular, you get a little bit of a boost in what you're going to get out of it.

MARTIN: All right, I like it. It's going on my list. NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. She hosts the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and the Monkey See blog. Thanks so much, Linda.

HOLMES: Thank you, Rachel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.