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S02.E02: Insurgent


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Quinn and Chet begin producing two different versions of the show, forcing the crew to choose sides. Meanwhile, Rachel fears her new promotion could be at stake, so she takes matters into her own hands and ends up yielding unexpected results.

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I actually got distracted watching the episode. It could not hold my attention. Except when Shiri was on screen.  Season 1 was organic. Season 2 not so much. I am leaning towards sophomore slump. I'll officially hold back till the season is over. I think all the season 1 praise has gone to Sarah's head. I am also starting to get tired of Quinn's one liners. They are getting old fast. Hopefully they bounce back. Fingers crossed. Trying to stay possitive. More to come....

  • Love 17
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Even though it totally backfired, good for Rachel for going over both Chet and Quinn's heads. That show was turning into a huge mess. I hope the show can get back on track.

 I wanted Rachel to punch Quinn in her face when she said Rachel's mother was right. Quinn sees Rachel as a pet and treats her worse than Chet treated her. I hated that Quinn always took her Chet issues out on Rachel.

This new guy is going to be interesting but I hate that he validated Chet. Just please can we kill Chet? He's just useless and annoying. Of course his idea of what being a man means is to be a misogynistic asshole (oxymoron?). In fact I'm just tired of all the men on this show.

  • Love 13
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(edited)

That was forty minutes of frustration with a big payoff in the last five minutes. 

I was getting so weary with the Chet invasion, and Rachel moping and staring balefully at pill bottles with her mommy issues being too blatantly and repeatedly trotted out. I think my dissatisfaction with this season, especially 90% of this episode specifically, wasn't the show's fault (at least not mostly). This has been a bad couple of weeks, news-wise, and all this real life hatred has really beaten me down, so I really couldn't with the wall-to-wall unpleasantness that this show is basically all about. But beyond that, it did feel like something has been off so far this season. The Quinn/Chet show-off didn't really make sense, even within the lax boundaries of this show's universe, and it felt like all the nastiness kicked off too quickly and wasn't really giving us anything that different from season one.

As the episode was winding down, I was thinking that the show needed some new unknown entity to deal with. We already know the deal with Chet, Quinn, Rachel and Jeremy, and there's nothing really new in how they battle and align with each other. And just like that, it looks like we're back to having one show, and we have this new showrunner to try and figure out. And now I'm excited!

Also, Everblasting, even in the early 00's with Temptation Island and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, is way too ridiculous and trashy for TV. It was a Girls Gone Wild commercial at best. I loved Chet in the first season, for his storylines and occasional comic relief, plus the actor does a great job with him, but I think he might completely exhaust me this year. 

Edited by annewithaneee
  • Love 17
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I agree that something is just off with the show so far this season. Non-stop nastiness and one liners just seem so fake after awhile. The way the women are treated seems the opposite of how real contestants are treated on the Bachelor   show. The real show is edited to hell and back, but the contestants are not screamed at, threatened, forced to do things they are opposed to. It's like they took a good idea-the unreality of reality shows, than beat it to death. I liked Shiri last season, but seeing her mopey around and trying to outdo Quinn just doesn't feel funny anymore. And I have read lots of behind the scenes stuff about the Bachelor shows and the women are not talked to like they are dogs. Edited to be completely different than what they want to be, yes, talked to like this no.

  • Love 11
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(edited)

I thought this was better than last weeks opener for sure - which I enjoyed but felt seemed a bit scattered and left me a little unsure about the rest of the season. This felt More familiar, while still pushing into new territory and left me excited for next week.

I love Quinn and her lines will never get old for me. Constance and Craig are great scene partners and fighting is what they do best, so I'm here for this Chet/Quinn war.

I loved Rachel's preening at the end just before Gary pulled his stunt - I knew it was coming but Shiri really sold it. And I don't know what it is about Shiri but she is great at producing chemistry with every male she is paired with because she and Michael Rady were in that scene for less than a minute and already I agree with his character - this is gonna be fun.

Edited by basically
  • Love 9
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(edited)

I actually kind of liked seeing Rachel mope around. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I listen to a lot of depressing music. 

I liked when Rachel was manipulating the contestants. I don't like when she's sitting in the control room.

Parts of the episode was great. However I feel like sometimes they are trying too hard. I feel like each week Quinn is trying to top herself with all her one liners.

I think the show will bounce back next week when it gets back to normal.

Edited by earlbny
  • Love 3
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I thought it was pretty stupid for Rachel to try to go over Chet and Quinn's heads to pitch herself. Quinn's been the hardest partying, hardest drinking, hardest dick in the room for years, and it wasn't just for show. It was to get the bropig higher ups to sort of forget she has a vagina. Rachel's most known for is almost single-handedly ruining the show, twice. Of course he was going to bring in one of his buddies, who would know better than to stand smack dab in front of his boxing match.

Rachel's mom is a real piece of work. Who prescribes those kinds of horse tranquilizers based on 2nd hand information of how their "patient's" doing? Just ick.

  • Love 11
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Tonight was kind of a snore. I remember when this show started and the people on The Bachelor had to come out and say this was all garbage. Now, they don't have to. The show is ridiculous now. It's not behind the scenes, it's just scenes. I think the scripts just say "Rachel talks girl into wearing confederate flag bikini" without properly writing what you would actually have to say to get that to happen. The contestants are pretty much all acting the way it says to in the script, regardless of how real people would act.

If Everlasting was on a real network, it would be dead and buried by now. Plus, Unreal tries to maintain this fiction where the show airs every week so they have to react to every crisis instead of being able to edit the whole season before the first episode airs.

It's still worth watching, but I'll watch it after TURN from now on.

  • Love 10
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I say this about every show I watch that I really like, but I'm going to have to rewatch this episode again, mostly so I can have more coherent thoughts. I was working on something and half-watching, but what I saw felt kind of confusing and messy. I'm sure the chaos was intentional, but I just didn't quite hook onto it during this go-around. Part of it was just trying to keep track of who is manipulating whom and keeping track of each person's motivations, especially in relation to someone they are trying to control. Yeah, I'm definitely going to need to re-watch this episode to wrap my mind around it more.

Two things that stood out to me: (1) it was harsh to see Quinn suggest to Rachel maybe her mother is right about her, and (2) even though the writing for Jay's character is still a little messy for me, I liked his scene with Rachel when he catches her smoking.

My DVR cut off the last minute of the episode, but hopefully once I rewatch it, I can also get a better sense of this new guy. But real quick, am I correct to understand Rachel was gunning to upgrade from Showrunner to Executive Producer by talking to Gary? With this new guy, as of now she is still Showrunner, correct? Sorry, I just need to clarify terminology, I suppose!

Anyway, will rewatch and provide more coherent comments sometime later.

  • Love 2
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45 minutes ago, scartact said:

I was working on something and half-watching, but what I saw felt kind of confusing and messy.

It was confusing and messy - I don't think re-watching will fix that. I got sucked into this show last season looking for trashy summer fun, and even though it got too dark for my liking with the suicide, it was still good TV. This season so far is just a hot mess. Not just the Quinn/Chet fighting, which is bad enough, but the suitor has zero personality (the entourage isn't helping), and the women are one-note. And watching Rachel be completely out of her depth professionally isn't fun either. Her "I'm ready" plea to the studio head was very weak, and if I had been in his position, I would have hired someone else, too. 

  • Love 9
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5 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

Even though it totally backfired, good for Rachel for going over both Chet and Quinn's heads. That show was turning into a huge mess. I hope the show can get back on track.

 I wanted Rachel to punch Quinn in her face when she said Rachel's mother was right. Quinn sees Rachel as a pet and treats her worse than Chet treated her. I hated that Quinn always took her Chet issues out on Rachel.

This new guy is going to be interesting but I hate that he validated Chet. Just please can we kill Chet? He's just useless and annoying. Of course his idea of what being a man means is to be a misogynistic asshole (oxymoron?). In fact I'm just tired of all the men on this show.

I don't know, I think Rachel should have waited until both Chet and Quinn showed their "versions" of the show to Gary.  

No way would anyone in their right mind go for Chet's version.  I haven't watched the Bachelor, but from my anecdotal data, its women that push the viewership on that show.  There may be men who watch, but they don't insist on watching the show.  Very few women are going to want to watch a dating show that looks like it belongs on Spike TV, or some Cinemax after dark.  It boggles the mind that this new guy would think that Chet's version has more merit considering the likely demographic for the show.

Quinn is being a grade A bitch, and it could be Chet drama, and it could be just that this is Quinn's completely dysfunctional version of "tough love."

I also think that Rachel went to Gary because she feels like Quinn will NEVER had over the show, but I don't know, it seems like a very big move to go to someone's boss unless you're absolutely certain about the response.  Gary was clearly less than impressed that Rachel turned on her mentor.  And Gary must have also heard about Rachel's breakdowns and thought that there was no way he was going to give her total control of the show if he could call it.  Rachel might have done better with Chet/Quinn because they know her talent and they know that the reward is worth the small risk of total breakdown with her.

  • Love 11
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I have to believe the confusion and messiness was intentional. As if we're seeing it from Rachel's perspective--everything is out of control. She can't keep a handle on anything. I was on the edge of my seat, for real. I get up criminally early and watch something I've tivo'ed from the night before while I drink my coffee, and I didn't even settle back on my couch for the first 20 minutes. So while I was intellectually saying "there's too much happening, its a mess, they're trying to squeeze too much story into this" I hung on every word. Rachel's losing her mojo. Madison is begging to pick up a few crumbs of Rachel's genius but Rachel has no confidence. Quinn's trying the old Quinn tough love but Rachel's not feeling it. That scene with the boss, wow. You could smell her desperation. She sees it all slipping away. Come on Rachel!

9 hours ago, basically said:

I loved Rachel's preening at the end just before Gary pulled his stunt - I knew it was coming but Shiri really sold it. And I don't know what it is about Shiri but she is great at producing chemistry with every male she is paired with because she and Michael Rady were in that scene for less than a minute and already I agree with his character - this is gonna be fun.

God, she's amazing, isn't she? All the regulars are great, but I don't feel that the acting is as good as last season among the women. Shamiqua, Faith and Anna were more compelling at this point than Confederate Flag Girl, Football Princess or Debutante are. Ruby interests me, though. 

I loved that tiny scene with Quinn and the editor, where she's showing him how to cut the scene to tell the story they want. You really get a glimpse of Quinn's ability and skill there. I enjoyed the reminder that Quinn is great at her work. 

  • Love 7
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(edited)
5 hours ago, RCharter said:

I don't know, I think Rachel should have waited until both Chet and Quinn showed their "versions" of the show to Gary.  

No way would anyone in their right mind go for Chet's version.  I haven't watched the Bachelor, but from my anecdotal data, its women that push the viewership on that show.  There may be men who watch, but they don't insist on watching the show.  Very few women are going to want to watch a dating show that looks like it belongs on Spike TV, or some Cinemax after dark.  It boggles the mind that this new guy would think that Chet's version has more merit considering the likely demographic for the show.

Quinn is being a grade A bitch, and it could be Chet drama, and it could be just that this is Quinn's completely dysfunctional version of "tough love."

I also think that Rachel went to Gary because she feels like Quinn will NEVER had over the show, but I don't know, it seems like a very big move to go to someone's boss unless you're absolutely certain about the response.  Gary was clearly less than impressed that Rachel turned on her mentor.  And Gary must have also heard about Rachel's breakdowns and thought that there was no way he was going to give her total control of the show if he could call it.  Rachel might have done better with Chet/Quinn because they know her talent and they know that the reward is worth the small risk of total breakdown with her.

I don't watch the Bachelor franchise either but I've been involved with focus groups about it (and other stuff, on the research side), and the demographics skew very female. (If straight men admit to watching, they say stuff like "My wife watches and sometimes I don't leave the room when it's on.") And I don't think the franchise is particularly classy but I think the franchise thinks it is, so the hyper-sexed version seems off-brand to me.

That said, I could maybe see going with Ever-blasting (UGH UGH UGH) if you are actively trying to court male viewers, particularly since the suitor is supposed to be a big-deal QB. (I don't think any of the real life Bachelors have been pro athletes, at least not famous ones.) But even then, I'd think you have to tone it down a little for the network - and they haven't said anything about changing the demographic, just that they want 20M viewers.

I really like that they're not shying away from race. I find it refreshing.

I'm getting kind of sick of Quinn's one-liners; she's feeling caricature-ish.

Edited by Empress1
  • Love 4
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Just now, Empress1 said:

I don't watch the Bachelor franchise either but I've run focus groups about it, and the demographics skew very female. (If straight men admit to watching, they say stuff like "My wife watches and sometimes I don't leave the room when it's on.") And I don't think the franchise is particularly classy but I think the franchise thinks it is, so the hyper-sexed version seems off-brand to me.

That said, I could maybe see going with Ever-blasting (UGH UGH UGH) if you are actively trying to court male viewers, particularly since the suitor is supposed to be a big-deal QB. (I don't think any of the real life Bachelors have been pro athletes, at least not famous ones.) But even then, I'd think you have to tone it down a little for the network - and they haven't said anything about changing the demographic, just that they want 20M viewers.

I really like that they're not shying away from race. I find it refreshing.

I'm getting kind of sick of Quinn's one-liners; she's feeling caricature-ish.

I think you bring up a good point....yeah, maybe you court male viewers, but on a traditional network?  I can't think of a single dating show that I think would get a primarily male audience.  Not even something completely trashy like Temptation Island.  I may not know much about men, but I can't imagine dudes suddenly going out of their way to watch the show just because their QB is on it.....I think it may be made more interesting to the men who are "forced" to watch it because there is a QB, but I don't know.  I guess if it gets coverage on ESPN maybe more men would just want to watch it out of curiosity.

And yes!  the Bachelor may not be classy, but its a franchise that thinks its classy.  Come on now, Ever-blasting?  with a bunch of torso shots...and I'm certain a few boobie shots for good measure?

The race discussion is interesting, because I thought the suitor was not feeling Ruby at all when they were talking.  And she didn't seem to think he was either.  So did he just pick her so he wouldn't get crap from his teammates?  I think, as usual they present a million places to go with the discussion.  Does he somehow end up with Ruby?  Does America go crazy if he ends up with the team owners daughter (and word up to Rachel for pretty much rolling her eyes when that girl complained about her dad getting her into Wharton)?  Do they start to push Chantal?  Do they push her over Ruby because Chantal is lighter skinned and has long, flowing hair consistent with a wifey?  

On another note, will Madison learn to manipulate enough to get Hot Rachel to the end?

  • Love 8
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(edited)

Here are some more thoughts on last nights episode. I actually got distracted watching the episode. It could not hold my attention. Except when Shiri was on screen. Season 1 was organic. Season 2 not so much. I am leaning towards sophomore slump. I'll officially hold back till the season is over. I think all the season 1 praise has gone to Sarah's head. I am also starting to get tired of Quinn's one liners. They are getting old fast. What I loved about season 1 was the fact that it was new, original, fresh and not another medical or court room drama. It was different. Now I feel like UnREAL is trying to too hard to top it's self. There is no need to do that. Don't get me wrong it's still one of the better shows on TV. It was my top show of 2015. As long as Shiri Appleby is on this show I will continue to watch. My gut tells me as the season rolls on they will find there way and bounce back. With Emmy worthy talent like Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer there is no way it could suck for too long.  Sometimes I wish I was in the writers room and other times I am glad I am not. 

 

Last night the cast took over the Entertainment Weekly  Snapchat. Not the whole cast but a few of them. The week before they took over Twitter. Every week they take over something to try and get people to notice/talk about the show. Do lots of shows do this?

Edited by earlbny
  • Love 5
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I found Rachel super believable. Her lines are just so perfect...as if she can't believe this shit storm she lives in.

Quinn tosses off her one liners. Chet is a fucking idiot. The Rachel who doesn't deal with the contestants is just honest. Like when she said Jeremy was being really dark. And when she asks Quin if she was talking to her mom. 

And tattling on Quinn and Chet bit her in the ass, but it was a good effort. 

  • Love 3
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4 minutes ago, RCharter said:

yeah, maybe you court male viewers, but on a traditional network?  I can't think of a single dating show that I think would get a primarily male audience.  Not even something completely trashy like Temptation Island.  I may not know much about men, but I can't imagine dudes suddenly going out of their way to watch the show just because their QB is on it

Right? Chet is living in some sort of fever dream. On the one hand he's all Iron John, MRA manspreader, but he's fighting to produce a dating show, which will never appeal the the testosterone crowd he so desperately wants! Why not go produce an MMA show, or one of those things like you see on Spike, about tattoo artists or blacksmiths? Why does he want to do this? As RCharter points out, men won't watch, no matter how many bikini clad torsos he shows, no matter how many pro sports ball players (and their entourages) he gets, because men don't watch this stuff. Which makes me think Chet is the same as he ever was--lazy, slovenly and self centered. He wants the show because Quinn wants it. He doesn't really have any original ideas, and his whole manly man schtick is going to wear thin real fast. I think he'll go back to hanging with the crew, getting high, telling stories, and cashing his checks. I don't see a real change in him.

  • Love 17
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So much to discuss, but I'm going to focus on Chet's beard.  I need him to change it or shave it off.  It's such a distraction to me, too scraggly, too rough, too something.  It didn't bother me as much last season, nor do beards in general bother me (I like plenty of bearded men), but something about his is just wrong somehow.

  • Love 4
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5 minutes ago, RCharter said:

I think you bring up a good point....yeah, maybe you court male viewers, but on a traditional network?  I can't think of a single dating show that I think would get a primarily male audience.  Not even something completely trashy like Temptation Island.  I may not know much about men, but I can't imagine dudes suddenly going out of their way to watch the show just because their QB is on it.....I think it may be made more interesting to the men who are "forced" to watch it because there is a QB, but I don't know.  I guess if it gets coverage on ESPN maybe more men would just want to watch it out of curiosity.

And yes!  the Bachelor may not be classy, but its a franchise that thinks its classy.  Come on now, Ever-blasting?  with a bunch of torso shots...and I'm certain a few boobie shots for good measure?

The race discussion is interesting, because I thought the suitor was not feeling Ruby at all when they were talking.  And she didn't seem to think he was either.  So did he just pick her so he wouldn't get crap from his teammates?  I think, as usual they present a million places to go with the discussion.  Does he somehow end up with Ruby?  Does America go crazy if he ends up with the team owners daughter (and word up to Rachel for pretty much rolling her eyes when that girl complained about her dad getting her into Wharton)?  Do they start to push Chantal?  Do they push her over Ruby because Chantal is lighter skinned and has long, flowing hair consistent with a wifey?  

On another note, will Madison learn to manipulate enough to get Hot Rachel to the end?

If I recall correctly, the Bachelor franchise actually does get occasional mentions on Pardon the Interruption if something crazy happens. I'm pretty sure I've seen them talk about it during the rundown, but only then (the rundown is when the hosts run through a list of topics for 30 seconds each). So I could see that happening, but I can't see active cross-promotion on ESPN.

There were two lines from Rachel that I loved: "Racism is confusing, isn't it?" and "Rich white girl problems are SO hard."

The biggest reason I've heard for not casting a black bachelor is that The Bachelor would then become a black show because the show would feel pressure to pair him with a black woman (Quinn is right that Black Twitter will blow up when the show airs), and to pad the contestants with more women of color, specifically black women. And then ratings would suffer because black shows get fewer viewers, etc. I'm guessing the school of thought is similar re: a black bachelorette. And I can say as a black woman who has spent time on dating sites, there are a LOT of men of all races, including black men, who say flat-out that they don't date black women. Match.com will send you suggestions based on your profile and I got so sick of reading a profile and thinking the guy sounded interesting and then scrolling down to the section where you check boxes for the races you prefer and seeing "black" unchecked. In many cases, I've seen every race checked BUT black. I started scrolling to that section first because if a guy wasn't interested in black women, I didn't want to waste my time reading his profile at all. OKCupid notes that black women get the lowest response rates across the board. Black women aren't perceived as desirable in a lot of ways, so maybe the franchise knows this (I mean, how far do black women typically get on that show?) and figures it's not worth trying to change that viewpoint.

I think America would go crazy if he ended up with the team owner's daughter, but it would come out pretty quickly that that's who she is so I think people would see it as a political move. I'm sure if he ended up with the lighter-skinned, straight-haired black woman there would be a strain of voices who'd be like, "oh, of course he passed up the dark-skinned natural-haired woke woman." Black Twitter would blow up if he ended up with Confederate Flag Bikini.

  • Love 24
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13 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

If I recall correctly, the Bachelor franchise actually does get occasional mentions on Pardon the Interruption if something crazy happens. I'm pretty sure I've seen them talk about it during the rundown, but only then (the rundown is when the hosts run through a list of topics for 30 seconds each). So I could see that happening, but I can't see active cross-promotion on ESPN.

There were two lines from Rachel that I loved: "Racism is confusing, isn't it?" and "Rich white girl problems are SO hard."

The biggest reason I've heard for not casting a black bachelor is that The Bachelor would then become a black show because the show would feel pressure to pair him with a black woman (Quinn is right that Black Twitter will blow up when the show airs), and to pad the contestants with more women of color, specifically black women. And then ratings would suffer because black shows get fewer viewers, etc. I'm guessing the school of thought is similar re: a black bachelorette. And I can say as a black woman who has spent time on dating sites, there are a LOT of men of all races, including black men, who say flat-out that they don't date black women. Match.com will send you suggestions based on your profile and I got so sick of reading a profile and thinking the guy sounded interesting and then scrolling down to the section where you check boxes for the races you prefer and seeing "black" unchecked. In many cases, I've seen every race checked BUT black. I started scrolling to that section first because if a guy wasn't interested in black women, I didn't want to waste my time reading his profile at all. OKCupid notes that black women get the lowest response rates across the board. Black women aren't perceived as desirable in a lot of ways, so maybe the franchise knows this (I mean, how far do black women typically get on that show?) and figures it's not worth trying to change that viewpoint.

I think America would go crazy if he ended up with the team owner's daughter, but it would come out pretty quickly that that's who she is so I think people would see it as a political move. I'm sure if he ended up with the lighter-skinned, straight-haired black woman there would be a strain of voices who'd be like, "oh, of course he passed up the dark-skinned natural-haired woke woman." Black Twitter would blow up if he ended up with Confederate Flag Bikini.

Word up to the bolded....I couldn't have said it better.  And I live in a pretty progressive state.  The struggle is real.  I'm not even going to get into the whole thing about black men, because that is a very interesting discussion....all I'll say is those are the same guys that will get super salty if you don't want to date them, or act like they are doing you some great big favor by deigning to talk to you.

I think that the desirability of black women is changing....very slowly....but its changing.  Kerry Washington would fail the paper bag test and so would Kelly Rowland and I think both of them are presented as beautiful black women.

I understand the concerns about a black bachelor.....I don't know how I feel about it.  Maybe they can just try with a guy who isn't lilly white and see how that goes?

I don't twitter, so I had no idea there was a black twitter....INTERESTING!

  • Love 4
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Chet's an idiot, how did he get that far in the business when he thinks paying music without legal rights to use it would be good tv? Rachel should have just let him bomb, like he would have won with things like that?

There was just too much on this episode I didn't like it. Too much Chet/Quinn bickering and too much of the entourage. We just need "The Bachelor" that's it.

  • Love 9
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2 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

Right? Chet is living in some sort of fever dream. On the one hand he's all Iron John, MRA manspreader, but he's fighting to produce a dating show, which will never appeal the the testosterone crowd he so desperately wants! Why not go produce an MMA show, or one of those things like you see on Spike, about tattoo artists or blacksmiths? Why does he want to do this? As RCharter points out, men won't watch, no matter how many bikini clad torsos he shows, no matter how many pro sports ball players (and their entourages) he gets, because men don't watch this stuff. Which makes me think Chet is the same as he ever was--lazy, slovenly and self centered. He wants the show because Quinn wants it. He doesn't really have any original ideas, and his whole manly man schtick is going to wear thin real fast. I think he'll go back to hanging with the crew, getting high, telling stories, and cashing his checks. I don't see a real change in him.

The whole time he was going through his changes I was confused because I thought the same thing. Men don't watch this show unless their wives do and they have to. Women, who do watch, want the fantasy. They want the suitor rescuing Yael out of the pool after she fell in. (I think I love her. She's got it figured out.)  I definitely agree he wants the show because Quinn wants it and he wants to hurt her. 

  • Love 6
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(edited)
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Black Twitter would blow up if he ended up with Confederate Flag Bikini

And Confederate Flag Bikini's world would blow up if she ended up with a Black man, even if he is a pro ball player. I don't see her making that choice unless she'd be able to prove it was all faked just for the show. NDAs would likely prevent that. As it is the video of her flirting with him (or even more later) would live on in "no true Southern Belle" infamy. What I find interesting is that "wifey" Tiffany doesn't seem to have any of those concerns. Didn't she say she was from Texas? Even with her status as an NFL owner's daughter she'd be facing similar issues among their social peers. Probably worse since they'd likely see it as lowering herself to get with the help.

Edited by Joimiaroxeu
  • Love 3
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(edited)
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I don't twitter, so I had no idea there was a black twitter....INTERESTING!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Twitter

I hope this will not sound trite/insensitive as I am part of minority groups myself, and I don't want to make groups sound monolithic, but there is Feminist Twitter, basketball Twitter, etc. etc. twitters for a lot of groups!  It's kind of amazing and I have learned so much about activism (and things like basketball, etc. LOL) from Twitter.  There are some great communities - obviously some negatives out there too, but that's life I guess.

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I love Quinn and her lines will never get old for me.

This is funny, because I was turned off from them since the pilot.  Just feels like hacky writing to me, as if nobody would ever speak like that, or I guess the kind of person that would is a turn off or unrealistic to me.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
  • Love 3
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Ok, when the Suitor asked for a cheat sheet to get the girls' names right in the bracelet ceremony, was it just me or was that a call out to The Bachelor's NFL season where Jesse Palmer called the wrong girl's name out in the first rose ceremony? 

I love this show, but I do agree it's starting out a bit slower than last season.  I like the idea of the new show runner, because the Quinn/Chet sniping was dragging me down.  I do wish I could get my CCs to work on because I am tired of rewinding to figure out what Rachel mumbles.  I have no problem with anyone else on this show or others, but something about her mumbly delivery has bugged me since last season.

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And I can say as a black woman who has spent time on dating sites, there are a LOT of men of all races, including black men, who say flat-out that they don't date black women. Match.com will send you suggestions based on your profile and I got so sick of reading a profile and thinking the guy sounded interesting and then scrolling down to the section where you check boxes for the races you prefer and seeing "black" unchecked. In many cases, I've seen every race checked BUT black. I started scrolling to that section first because if a guy wasn't interested in black women

This is absolutely true and shameful, and doesn't even get into colorism regarding white men and Latinas. But it should be noted that black women are far more likely to only check the box for black men than women of other races are to check only men of their own race. Now there are a lot of good historical/social reasons for this, and I'm verrrry skeptical of how many white women are actually dating outside their race, but that disconnect exacerbates the problem.

 

As for this episode, It's the fastest hour on television. And the emotional violence of manipulating the contestants is still great. The way the show always zigs when you expect it to zag is magnificient. Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer deserve Emmy consideration. However, It bothers me a little bit that the show's done no work to make the supporting characters more vivid, particularly since this is not a new issue for the show.

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10 hours ago, scartact said:

Two things that stood out to me: (1) it was harsh to see Quinn suggest to Rachel maybe her mother is right about her, and (2) even though the writing for Jay's character is still a little messy for me, I liked his scene with Rachel when he catches her smoking.

I really liked this episode. I was really sad for Rachel and cried with her when Quinn was so cruel, but otherwise, I feel really invested because it's new territory for Rachel and because she's feeling it so much. And I hope Rachel owns them all by the end of the season, but she won't because they got renewed. 

Separately, what the hell is a paper bag test?

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3 hours ago, earlbny said:

Last night the cast took over the Entertainment Weekly  Snapchat. Not the whole cast but a few of them. The week before they took over Twitter. Every week they take over something to try and get people to notice/talk about the show. Do lots of shows do this?

It's not super common,  but shows with a lot of social buzz, like Game of Thrones or Outlander have been doing it.

 

2 hours ago, RCharter said:

I understand the concerns about a black bachelor.....I don't know how I feel about it.  Maybe they can just try with a guy who isn't lilly white and see how that goes?

Hollywood is very risk-averse, which is why we get a lot of sequels.  It takes them a long time to go even one inch off of the path they know.

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Without reading any of the other comments: I was kinda disappointed in this. I think it's getting waaay too complicated and convoluted. It would be fine to watch Quinn become Chet, and Rachel become Quinn, and Madison become Rachel - but all this other stuff with Chet was just overkill and made the storyline needlessly messy and overdone. More torturing of contestants! That's what we watch for!

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(edited)
33 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

This is funny, because I was turned off from them since the pilot.  Just feels like hacky writing to me, as if nobody would ever speak like that, or I guess the kind of person that would is a turn off or unrealistic to me.

I feel like both Quinn and Jay speak in sound bytes, but to me it's more exaggerated with Jay (although I really do like the character and think the actor is very cute).

16 minutes ago, romantic idiot said:

I really liked this episode. I was really sad for Rachel and cried with her when Quinn was so cruel, but otherwise, I feel really invested because it's new territory for Rachel and because she's feeling it so much. And I hope Rachel owns them all by the end of the season, but she won't because they got renewed. 

Separately, what the hell is a paper bag test?

The paper bag test is a tool used to promote racial discrimination & colorism. If as black person, your skin was as light as or lighter than a paper bag, you got certain privileges. Darker, not so much. Entrance to clubs, Greek organizations, even CHURCHES, was denied or granted based on this.

Edited by Empress1
removed unrelated stuff
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I realized today that the show makes me anxious, and I don't want to feel that way watching TV. I want to escape. And being a woman who struggles with mental illness, I have real concerns with how Rachael's issues are portrayed, and "reacted to" by the rest of the crew. I get enough of that hateful shit in real life; I don't need it on a make-believe TV program. I don't know if I can keep going with this.

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You guys, I am embarrassed to admit this but I don't really know what's going on. If someone would take pity on me and answer my questions, that'd be great. Or tell me if they are valid questions because the show hasn't addressed them.

1) How did Chet "steal the suitor," and how does he have any power over the show at all? Can anyone just show up on the set of a television show and start ordering cameramen and producers around, and they just have to listen because...reasons?

2) IS RACHEL THE SHOWRUNNER OR NOT? I swear I have heard them call her the showrunner, but Quinn keeps saying SHE is in charge, and now with Chet, I just have no idea what's going on, and I am ashamed.

3) Why is Jay risking his job to help Black Power Chick? 

4) So they are taping the premiere of Everlasting and they totally skipped the exit-the-carriage intros? They're just having a pool party with no introductions whatsoever? 

The thing I do seem to have a grasp on is that Madison wants to be "the new Rachel," but that is just so stupid the way they're handling it, because Madison is terribly unconvincing. She looks like she wants to puke all the time but she reads the script that doesn't at all match the way she is playing it. Is this how the actress wants to play the conflict? Because it is truly awful. Razzie-Award awful.

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1 hour ago, ClareWalks said:

You guys, I am embarrassed to admit this but I don't really know what's going on. If someone would take pity on me and answer my questions, that'd be great. Or tell me if they are valid questions because the show hasn't addressed them.

1) How did Chet "steal the suitor," and how does he have any power over the show at all? Can anyone just show up on the set of a television show and start ordering cameramen and producers around, and they just have to listen because...reasons?

2) IS RACHEL THE SHOWRUNNER OR NOT? I swear I have heard them call her the showrunner, but Quinn keeps saying SHE is in charge, and now with Chet, I just have no idea what's going on, and I am ashamed.

3) Why is Jay risking his job to help Black Power Chick? 

4) So they are taping the premiere of Everlasting and they totally skipped the exit-the-carriage intros? They're just having a pool party with no introductions whatsoever? 

The thing I do seem to have a grasp on is that Madison wants to be "the new Rachel," but that is just so stupid the way they're handling it, because Madison is terribly unconvincing. She looks like she wants to puke all the time but she reads the script that doesn't at all match the way she is playing it. Is this how the actress wants to play the conflict? Because it is truly awful. Razzie-Award awful.

1. He just showed up and stole the suitor. There's enough of the 'old' employees that they didn't do much when Chet came to the set and picked up the suitor. I think since Chet was the boss before, plenty of the employees who worked under him just let it happen. Maybe reasons and maybe because they've seen enough backstabbing and show runner changes in their lives that they just kind of roll with it. That's why Quinn is so mad about Racheal losing the suitor. It was her job to watch him.

2. Not exactly. She was but then she lost the suitor so Quinn took it back. Don't be ashamed, Chet basically walked back in and took back his power and then went to his buddy and played golf and convinced the network exec to give him his power back. 

3. My guess, for now, guilt. He knows what a train wreck this show is and doesn't want to see it take down someone who he may admire. 

4. Quinn and Racheal decided to switch the intro up because they were going to surprise all the girls at once with the color of the suitor. There would be more fireworks with going that way rather than each girl getting surprised. Then Chet kidnapped the suitor and demanded bikinis to go with his new vision for the show. (which as said by many, seems to be a temptation island or something equally trashy.) 

5. I like to think Madison is conflicted about what she is doing. But it is kind of a weird portrayal. Is she a genius or an idiot. 

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Thank you @joanne3482! So Chet basically just kidnapped the suitor, in a way? I didn't know how Chet could hold someone hostage since I assume Darius had signed a contract with Everlasting. I wonder how they'll make this work with people making two different TV shows at the same exact time. Sounds like a clusterfuck waiting to happen!

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5 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

And Confederate Flag Bikini's world would blow up if she ended up with a Black man, even if he is a pro ball player. I don't see her making that choice unless she'd be able to prove it was all faked just for the show. NDAs would likely prevent that. As it is the video of her flirting with him (or even more later) would live on in "no true Southern Belle" infamy. What I find interesting is that "wifey" Tiffany doesn't seem to have any of those concerns. Didn't she say she was from Texas? Even with her status as an NFL owner's daughter she'd be facing similar issues among their social peers. Probably worse since they'd likely see it as lowering herself to get with the help.

Racist white trash marry black men all the time. I know some personally.  A rich black dude would get a total pass. The one least likely to marry the black guy is the owner's daughter. He can't offer her what she doesn't already have.

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(edited)

Every time I think this show is completely different I am reminded that's it's on Lifetime. The network stepped in and told Sarah that she had to keep Jeremy around. They wanted him to be UnREAL'S version of "Mr Big". Sarah also had a falling out with Marti Noxon. She left to focus on Girlfriends Guide. 

I am not sure what to make of Maddison. Is she great at what she does or just dumb. I feel like Yael may manipulate her all season long. The problem with some of these actors is the fact that they are newbies. Non of them have been working that long.

Edited by earlbny
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4 minutes ago, earlbny said:

Every time I think this show is completely different I am reminded that's it's on Lifetime. The network stepped in and told Sarah that she had to keep Jeremy around. They wanted him to be UnREAL'S version of "Mr Big". Sarah also had a falling out with Marti Noxon. She left to focus on Girlfriends Guide. 

I am not sure what to make of Maddison. Is she great at what she does or just dumb. I feel like Yael may manipulate her all season long. The problem with some of these actors is the fact that they are newbies. Non of them have been working that long.

Uh, Jeremy as Mr. Big?  Who the hell dreamed that up?  Total fail.

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2 minutes ago, RCharter said:

Uh, Jeremy as Mr. Big?  Who the hell dreamed that up?  Total fail.

That was a Lifetime thing. It was mentioned in the New Yorker article about Sarah.

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Just now, earlbny said:

That was a Lifetime thing. It was mentioned in the New Yorker article about Sarah.

Is there one person at Lifetime that is in charge of terrible ideas?  First Project Runway, now, UnReal with Jeremy as Mr. Big?????  Like, huh?

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(edited)
12 minutes ago, earlbny said:

Every time I think this show is completely different I am reminded that's it's on Lifetime. The network stepped in and told Sarah that she had to keep Jeremy around. They wanted him to be UnREAL'S version of "Mr Big". Sarah also had a falling out with Marti Noxon. She left to focus on Girlfriends Guide. 

It's been quite some time since I watched Sex and the City but I don't recall Big being outright cruel to Carrie the way Jeremy is. If he's supposed to be Rachel's end game, they have a LOT of work to do. And I don't care about Rachel's love life so I'm not that interested in seeing that work.

Edited by Empress1
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Sarah wrote him as a one season character.  The networks stepped in and said he needs to stay. They said he's like the guys in Lifetime movies. The network wants Jeremy to be Rachel's Mr Big. I've seen some of my favorite shows change for the worse because the network stepped in. 

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Agree, @ClareWalks. (I always thought Aidan was too good for Carrie.) Rachel and Jeremy have history, but he's emotionally abusive at this point. No one should be rooting for them - and I don't even think we're always supposed to like Rachel, she does terrible things. That doesn't mean I want her with a dude who talks to her any kind of way.

I ... guess ... you could argue that Rachel and Jeremy are both really fucked up (I agreed with Carrie and Big as end game because I thought they were both assholes, but I know that's an unpopular opinion) so they might work - but the solution is to get them sorted out, not put them together. They're toxic for each other.

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20 minutes ago, voiceover said:

Also: Mr Big: funnier, sexier, and no way would Carrie run off with someone else when HE was available.

He's the Aidan Shaw.

Thats what I'm saying, even at his very, very worst, there was something charming and sexy about Mr. Big......he was rich, cultured, masculine.  Jeremy is mean, whiny, and boring.  There is no charm and at this point, no spark.  This isn't the sort of show that even calls for a Mr. Big.

I don't think Jeremy is a Mr. Big or an Aiden.  Jeremy is like one of those terrible stories about a bridge and tunnel guy Samantha inadvertently has sex with and then he starts to stalk her and she has to pretend to be a lesbian so he will get the hint and leave her alone.

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