UnREAL Series Premiere: Lifetime’s New Edgy Show with Shiri Appleby Receives Raves from Critics

Does Lifetime finally have a hit series? New drama/comedy “UnREAL” is receiving a lot of positive reviews from television critics. The show, which debuts tonight at 10 on the cable network, stars Shiri Appleby and is set behind-the-scenes in a dating reality TV show.

We all know that reality TV series, such as “The Bachelor,” are staged and what happens in production is what “UnREAL” intends to tackle. The series is created by Marti Noxon  and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro and takes inspiration from Shapiro’s indie film, “Sequin Raze,” which she released in 2013.  Shapiro, incidentally, worked as a producer on “The Bachelor,” according to NPR.

Rachel Goldberg (Appleby) is the producer of a hit dating reality competition show “Everlasting.” Her job mostly involves manipulating the relationships between the show’s contestants to draw out “dramatic and outrages” footage that Rachel’s boss demand from her.  The show gives viewers an idea of what can happen in the world of reality TV production, where there’s even more drama and story behind-the-scenes, apparently. Here, the people working on the show are the stars of “UnREAL.”

LA Times‘ critic calls the show a “splendidly realized show about reality TV drama,” while TV Line describes it as Lifetime’s “Breaking Bad.” The tone of the series is dark, but funny and Vulture says the series is “damn good,”

Intrigued yet? According to the star of the series, the show gets even edgier and raunchier.

“We would get these scripts and think, ‘There’s no way they’re going to let us shoot this. This is insane!’ But they’re really going for it,” said Appleby in the TV Line report.

“UnREAL” also stars Josh Kelly, Constance Zimmer, Freddie Stroma, Amy Hill, Johanna Braddy, Christie Lang and Nathalie Kelley.