UnReal is finally back on our screens for season three and the question on every fan’s lips is, ‘was it worth the very long wait’?
Now, this is where I could start to wax lyrical about the groundbreaking nature of this wickedly dark drama that takes audiences behind the scenes of a The Bachelor type reality TV dating show called Everlasting, shinning a spotlight on the true manipulation and ugliness it really takes to make your favourite TV show.
But instead of me telling you why this season of UnReal could actually be better than the first two, I’m going to tap in some outside talent, someone on the ground-floor of this whole operation who can tell us what’s really been going on. And that someone is the formidable Constance Zimmer, who plays the scene- stealer Quinn King on UnReal.
Watch the season three trailer for UnReal to see all the action that is unfolding on Stan.
It’s no secret to fans of the show that this series of UnReal has taken a bit of a different turn, but in this case the 47 year old actress believes the strongest part of this new era is not just that Everlasting now features a suitress instead of a suitor.
She believes the true meat of this season comes from bringing in a character to star on the fictional series of Everlasting who is there for a completely different set of reasons.
“Besides the obvious flipping of the table, which is the fact that we now have 25 hot men surrounding us on set everyday, I think the writers made a very good choice in terms of having this particular suitress as someone who has chosen to be there. She’s not there because she needs to clean up some public mess that’s all gone awry,” said Constance.
“Serena the suitress (Caitlin FitzGerald) really believes in the process and that already sets her apart from everyone else because we don’t need to convince her to stay. But what that does create is an entirely different dynamic on the show. She wants to run the show, she doesn’t understand that, as we like to say, that’s ‘not how the sausage is made’. There’s a lot more that goes into it.
“These men we had on set were fairly dramatic and it was really fun to watch the men, and I mean the actors themselves, to see the drama they were creating. It was really interesting because you could tell that it was something that these male actors had never been able to play before. And I mean all these characters, these types. They were all super dramatic with each other, it’s unbelievable the stuff that they pull off this season.
“I have to say, I might have enjoyed it all way too much. Just watching them behave pretty much worse than any female characters we’ve had on the show before.”
The Binge host Laura Brodnik traveled to the set of UnReal and discovered a whole bunch of secrets about how the show is really made (Post continues after audio.)
Besides seeing the Everlasting mansion now packed with male suitors fighting it out for a woman’s attention, instead of the other way around, the other story thread fans have been eager to see unwind this season is the aftermath of Jeremy’s (Josh Kelly) drunken attack and assault against his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Shiri Appleby) at the conclusion of season two.
Season three of UnReal is set to tackle some big issues along the lines of consent, sexual harassment in the workplace and themes very much brought to light in reality by the current #MeToo movement and mood.
With the show tapping so deeply into current conversations, it’s hard to believe that the script was written and the scenes filmed more than a year ago, before the Harvey Weinstein allegations broke and kicked this whole important conversation into overdrive.
“We actually shot season three a year ago and we wrapped in May of last year. So when we where shooting season three we had no idea how unbelievably relevant the topics we’ve been discussing would become,” said Constance.
LISTEN: Unreal season three seems awfully similar to The Bachelorette. Is there a link there? We discuss, on The Binge. Post continues after audio..
“Things have changed and there is a bigger conversation around sexual harassment in the news now. We were oddly ahead of the curve without even knowing it. Our writers were ready to talk about these stories and ready to explore them. And now we’re excited that it seems like it will be easier to believe people who have gone through situations like this because there has been such awareness around it all.
“It all seemed so much more controversial a year ago, when we filmed it. But not so much now with all the stories that have come out.”
So, with a host of new characters and intense female-led story-lines that echo the real life conversations we’re having right now, was season three of UnReal really worth the wait?
The verdict is…it absolutely was.
New episodes of season three of UnReal drop every Tuesday on Stan. Seasons one and two of UnReal are available to stream now in full on Stan.
For more TV and film reviews and interviews, you can follow Mamamia Entertainment Editor Laura Brodnik on Facebook.