UnREAL: Future
August 4, 2015 5:25 PM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe
An unwanted guest returns to the set; Rachel faces a betrayal; Adam makes a large, life-changing decision.
Maybe it's just me, but I felt like Jeremy's actions made no sense in this episode. Why fake a proposal in front of everyone? He ends up humiliating himself more than Rachel. And why go to Rachel's mom? Nothing I have seen so far suggests that he is vindictive. Part of my issue with Jeremy as a character is that I never particularly cared about his relationship with Rachel, so I also don't really care when it all falls apart. None of that worked for me.
Also, things seemed to move too quickly in this finale, like they compacted 2 episodes into 1. Adding Britney seemed especially cut-able (even though it offered some great jokes), as did going to London. We didn't need either of those things to really take down Chet or Adam.
I don't know. Somehow this episode felt less coherent and less true to the characters than the ones that preceded it. But I will say that the 2 scenes with Quinn and Rachel alone were phenomenal. I love their relationship, and I don't think there has been anything like it on TV before. More of that in season 2, please!
posted by joan cusack the second at 8:27 AM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, things seemed to move too quickly in this finale, like they compacted 2 episodes into 1. Adding Britney seemed especially cut-able (even though it offered some great jokes), as did going to London. We didn't need either of those things to really take down Chet or Adam.
I don't know. Somehow this episode felt less coherent and less true to the characters than the ones that preceded it. But I will say that the 2 scenes with Quinn and Rachel alone were phenomenal. I love their relationship, and I don't think there has been anything like it on TV before. More of that in season 2, please!
posted by joan cusack the second at 8:27 AM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
I totally agree with your comments on Jeremy. I thought that it was inconsistent with everything we've seen from him to 1) intentionally call her out in front of the entire show & 2) go talk to her mom. Also Jeremy needed to stay wholesome in order to contrast with Adam. If Jeremy is dark & crazy, then the choice isn't so clear.
I think it was a poor decision based on the unexpected pickup for a second season.
I really enjoyed S1, but feel like this should have been a single season show.
posted by Burgoo at 11:17 AM on August 5, 2015
I think it was a poor decision based on the unexpected pickup for a second season.
I really enjoyed S1, but feel like this should have been a single season show.
posted by Burgoo at 11:17 AM on August 5, 2015
I think calling Rachel out was totally consistent with Jeremy (who wasn't wholesome at any point) and how he acted all season long. I'm not sure about the mother thing, granted -- that was fairly obviously a scene that was filmed to air if there was a S2 and not otherwise. But I wanted to see more of the mother anyhow.
Like most people, I was not invested in Rachel + Jeremy except inasmuch as I wanted it to stop happening. (Same as Rachel + Adam, and indeed Adam + anyone at all. I was briefly hoping he would choose Britney.)
I really loved the entire ending. I didn't see the bringing Britney back thing, which was deliberately stupid but in any case irritating, but watching Quinn and Rachel destroy Chet was great. (I'm less sure about her revenge on Adam, though it was amusing.)
posted by jeather at 12:40 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Like most people, I was not invested in Rachel + Jeremy except inasmuch as I wanted it to stop happening. (Same as Rachel + Adam, and indeed Adam + anyone at all. I was briefly hoping he would choose Britney.)
I really loved the entire ending. I didn't see the bringing Britney back thing, which was deliberately stupid but in any case irritating, but watching Quinn and Rachel destroy Chet was great. (I'm less sure about her revenge on Adam, though it was amusing.)
posted by jeather at 12:40 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
If Jeremy is dark & crazy, then the choice isn't so clear.
I'm still puzzling out what I think the thesis of the show is: does working in reality TV turn people amoral or does it naturally attract people who already have compromised ethics? With Jeremy it really could go either way, since he seemed (like Rachel did, at first) to be a Good Person, but then he--in very rapid succession--gets engaged to another co-worker, inserts himself into the show drama, cheats on his fiancee with Rachel, breaks up with his fiancee to pursue Rachel, and then tries to humiliate her in front of everyone. They may not be a great couple, but they're more alike than not.
Adam has a lot of conflicting motivations (his reputation, his finances, lust, cowardice, self-preservation), but I don't think he ever showed an interest in wanting to hurt or dupe anyone.
posted by psoas at 5:21 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm still puzzling out what I think the thesis of the show is: does working in reality TV turn people amoral or does it naturally attract people who already have compromised ethics? With Jeremy it really could go either way, since he seemed (like Rachel did, at first) to be a Good Person, but then he--in very rapid succession--gets engaged to another co-worker, inserts himself into the show drama, cheats on his fiancee with Rachel, breaks up with his fiancee to pursue Rachel, and then tries to humiliate her in front of everyone. They may not be a great couple, but they're more alike than not.
Adam has a lot of conflicting motivations (his reputation, his finances, lust, cowardice, self-preservation), but I don't think he ever showed an interest in wanting to hurt or dupe anyone.
posted by psoas at 5:21 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
But I will say that the 2 scenes with Quinn and Rachel alone were phenomenal.
Their exchange of "I love yous" was as dysfunctional and still moving as anything I've ever seen. Quinn brings out (or liberates?) the best of the worst in Rachel, and it seems like Rachel's poised to surrender to it. I really love that their devotion to one another is written so that it's poisonous and reluctant and because everyone else has let them down.
posted by gladly at 5:41 PM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
Their exchange of "I love yous" was as dysfunctional and still moving as anything I've ever seen. Quinn brings out (or liberates?) the best of the worst in Rachel, and it seems like Rachel's poised to surrender to it. I really love that their devotion to one another is written so that it's poisonous and reluctant and because everyone else has let them down.
posted by gladly at 5:41 PM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
I absolutely loved the finale. Jeremy doesn't seem clever enough to really get back at Rachel, and I agree, it doesn't seem in keeping with his character to enlist her mom as part of some sort of weird revenge scheme. He seemed very bland and slow during the whole season without a lot of passion. But, I will definitely watch the next season!
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 12:20 PM on August 10, 2015
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 12:20 PM on August 10, 2015
I loved the meta-line in the Rachel and Quinn scene about "our audience doesn't care about women's jobs."
I think the show did a good job featuring a strange central female friendship and women struggling to get ahead at work without being obviously about those things.
At first I didn't understand how Lifetime got this show, and I thought it fit in more with the HBO style dramas, but after seeing the final episode with the Quinn and Rachel relationship focus and how that recast the tone of the earlier episodes in retrospect, I now understand it more as belonging to this network. And I think it's a good direction for them, too! Still have the crazy drama and weird stuff, and the dumb appeal of the "behind the scenes Bachelor" crap, but be about and for women on a deeper level too.
Thumbs up.
posted by rmless at 8:34 AM on August 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think the show did a good job featuring a strange central female friendship and women struggling to get ahead at work without being obviously about those things.
At first I didn't understand how Lifetime got this show, and I thought it fit in more with the HBO style dramas, but after seeing the final episode with the Quinn and Rachel relationship focus and how that recast the tone of the earlier episodes in retrospect, I now understand it more as belonging to this network. And I think it's a good direction for them, too! Still have the crazy drama and weird stuff, and the dumb appeal of the "behind the scenes Bachelor" crap, but be about and for women on a deeper level too.
Thumbs up.
posted by rmless at 8:34 AM on August 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
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I was all set to go "yes, yes good, that is an acceptable ending" and then that asswipe Jeremy shows up at her mom's house and I started physically frothing at the mouth and shouting at the screen.
God damn, even when this show is being predictable it's really good at setting its hooks in your emotions. When it sidesteps.... damn.
posted by sciatrix at 5:28 PM on August 4, 2015 [2 favorites]