UnREAL Ended a Complicated Season with One Genius Shot

The second season of UnREAL, Lifetime's fictional drama about the making of a reality dating show, was a mixed bag.

Constance Zimmer, who plays monstrous producer Quinn, and Shiri Appleby, as her second-in-command Rachel, were riveting every moment they appeared on screen.

The show introduced too many new characters and plot wrinkles, from an undercover reporter trying to expose the underbelly of reality dating show Everlasting; to an alarmingly surface-y treatment of both domestic abuse and racial profiling.

Part of the problem was that UnREAL was delving too far into being a soap opera, versus using the tropes of a soap to explore deeper characterizations of women in media.

Look: I caught the last ten minutes of Devious Maids before watching the UnREAL season finale, and the latter show is nowhere near that level of (purposefully) goofy, over the top soapiness.

UnREAL is still anchored by great performances and nuanced writing, from Appleby and Zimmer all the way to supporting players Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman as conflicted producer Jay, and Genevieve Buechner as stealthily crafty producer-in-training Madison.

In the finale, he pops up again, recruited by Rachel's ex-boyfriend, ex-showrunner Coleman (Michael Rady) to help blow the roof off all the illegal doings behind the scenes of Everlasting.

Season 1 ended with a conversation between Quinn and Rachel, as they lay on lounge chairs, ostensibly celebrating the end of another season of Everlasting, but in reality dealing with the emotional weight of the lives they destroyed.

[...] the attention to detail and structure of that last shot shows UnREAL can still be as smart and as powerful as anything on TV.