UnREAL: My New Favorite Show

All week my phone has been lighting up with texts regarding The News.

The break up of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. 

Everyone knows how much I love Ben Affleck. Friends thought I might be taking it hard. Or planning to try to get him on the rebound. (Thanks for that text, Uncle Dan. Reminder: I am happily married to your bestie.)

And I am disappointed in Ben. Because Jen seemed really good for him. She’s always shopping at farmer’s markets for God’s sake. So I was rooting for their yin and yang to be the secret ingredient. They could be the celeb couple that makes it.

 I wanted to believe the fairy tale. Except there is no fairy tale. For a romantic like me that’s hard to take. Which is exactly why I stopped watching “The Bachelor” franchise last year. Because in its 15 year history, precisely two of the bachelors had true love on their minds. The rest were thinking about their upcoming gig on “Dancing With The Stars”.

The romantic in me is disappointed by Hollywood love stories. But the cynic in me is not. Which is why my favorite show this summer is “UnREAL”. It’s about the television crew that films a reality dating show suspiciously like “The Bachelor”. Only “UnREAL” shows the behind-the-scenes maneuvering responsible for all the meltdowns and fantasy suite action. 

There’s Rachel, the good-hearted producer coerced into making the unscrupulous show. There’s Adam, the prince allegedly looking for love but really looking for publicity and a paycheck. And then we have the cast of girls. All are competing for a fame that’ll let them write their own paychecks once the season’s done.

At one level the show’s a silly soap opera but at another it’s a morality tale. Which character’s choices are the most despicable? “UnREAL” actually asks some serious questions about the high price of getting ahead and our insta-fame culture.

Plus all the episodes are new this summer, which makes the series much more entertaining to watch than the re-runs everywhere else.

It seems true love can’t be manufactured. But a wicked satire about true love?

Absolutely. Check it out Monday nights on the Lifetime network.