UnREAL: Guerilla
June 22, 2016 2:59 PM - Season 2, Episode 3 - Subscribe
Quinn pits two vulnerable people against each other for ratings, with stomach-churning results; Rachel makes an impression on Coleman; Chet bros out; Darius is surprisingly adept at playing to the camera; some alliances shift.
“Guerilla” is very much about the ways a woman can be discredited without recourse. (NYT)
UnREAL skirts an interesting line when it comes to showing various sides of its characters. On the one side, they are fictional, so we know that Brandi, the ultimate fighter who goes off on Darius at the end of the episode, is not actually in a rubber room at this moment. On the other—and is it to the show’s credit or detriment or both?—her destruction for the sake of a ratings-grabbing TV episode was really hard to witness. (AV Club)
“Guerilla” is very much about the ways a woman can be discredited without recourse. (NYT)
UnREAL skirts an interesting line when it comes to showing various sides of its characters. On the one side, they are fictional, so we know that Brandi, the ultimate fighter who goes off on Darius at the end of the episode, is not actually in a rubber room at this moment. On the other—and is it to the show’s credit or detriment or both?—her destruction for the sake of a ratings-grabbing TV episode was really hard to witness. (AV Club)
Seems like the show/Darius would take a big hit from that lie, with the internet readily available to correct Brandi's backstory. Also, like, slander and other expensive torts. So yeah, big suspension of disbelief there.
Not my favorite ep, wish they would go back to more Rachel, and more race stuff. I could stand for less Chet, too.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:54 AM on June 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not my favorite ep, wish they would go back to more Rachel, and more race stuff. I could stand for less Chet, too.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:54 AM on June 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ugh, Chet stealing the baby. Not looking forward to anything about that storyline.
Also, in the show world, are we supposed to believe that what happens on Everlasting would actually have deep cultural meaning in general. There is a lot of talk about how having a black suitor would be some sort of huge cultural watershed moment and I can't tell if that is just the characters being delusional or if the viewer is supposed to believe that could be true. If the latter, it is falling very flat with this viewer.
posted by Falconetti at 7:31 AM on June 24, 2016
Also, in the show world, are we supposed to believe that what happens on Everlasting would actually have deep cultural meaning in general. There is a lot of talk about how having a black suitor would be some sort of huge cultural watershed moment and I can't tell if that is just the characters being delusional or if the viewer is supposed to believe that could be true. If the latter, it is falling very flat with this viewer.
posted by Falconetti at 7:31 AM on June 24, 2016
I think it's supposed to seem like a little of both. Like Unreal's creator w.r.t. the actual Bachelor show, Rachel's values are way out of sync with what she's doing, so she needs to believe that she's striking some kind of blow for equality in order to live with herself. And 2016 is laughably late for the first Black person in a specific reality TV role to be some kind of major TV moment. But it is also kind of true that this corner of the entertainment industry (at least as portrayed) is so regressive and risk-averse that without someone pushing hard, even a minor, belated change like this would never happen. And that's the world Rachel has been steeping in for the last several years. So I think it's supposed to both have a shred of truth to it and to show Rachel's broader loss of perspective.
posted by en forme de poire at 7:35 PM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by en forme de poire at 7:35 PM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by en forme de poire at 5:01 PM on June 22, 2016