Advance review: Lifetime’s ‘UnREAL’ may surprise you for many reasons

We’ve had a chance to watch the first episode of “UnREAL” (premiering on Lifetime Monday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time), and what may be unreal to you is just how entertaining it is. We were not expecting the best new show of the summer season so far to be a drama exposing many of the dirty secrets behind a reality TV show. (Don’t worry: There are no spoilers in this article. Read with confidence.)

The premise of the show revolves around some of the people working behind the scenes on “Everlasting,” a dating program that is obviously meant to feel very much like “The Bachelor.” Everyone involved wants to produce the best show possible, but some may be more cutthroat than others in an effort to make that happen. Whether or not the show is actually realistic to what happens at “The Bachelor” is not entirely clear, but as a former reality TV contestant from a different show we can speak to certain elements’ authenticity.

Shiri Appleby stars on the show as Rachel, one of the people responsible for trying to make this show deliver the goods, but it is fair to say that she has a far more complicated opinion about it than others, let alone a very person life and ties to some others behind the scenes. She is a great lens in which to view the surrounding insanity, given that she has the same feelings about some of the process (especially the poking and prodding of contestants to tell their sob stories) that many would.

To us, the biggest scene-stealer in the first episode is Constance Zimmer as the completely cutthroat producer Quinn. This may be one of the finest roles to date of Zimmer’s career, allowing her to play both funny at times and completely despicable at others. There is more to Quinn that it seems, and her tactics may go beyond just making a good show.

Even with you knowing the game of the series almost completely a few minutes in, there are enough twists and turns here to keep you hooked. One of its big assets is that while we’ve seen some “tell-all” shows and TV movies before, they’ve never really captured the voice so well; instead, they feel mostly like someone pouring out their bitter feelings for a product. This has just enough satire and edge to it so that it doesn’t feel bitter, and is instead a thoroughly entertaining fictional world with a distinct point of view.

So long as you don’t want the fantasy of reality TV completely destroyed, we strongly recommend you give “UnREAL” a shot. The fact that it comes on immediately after the end of “The Bachelorette” (albeit on another network) is just perfect. Premiere Grade: A-.

You can watch the first nine minutes of “UnREAL” right now by heading over to the link here. Also, sign up here to get some other TV updates on all we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Lifetime.)