Made In Chelsea, Lookalikes, UnREAL: how reality television got weird

I'm liking some of the comments at the bottom:


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I'll say this for TOWIE and Chelsea (which I've never watched and never will) - at least they don't ask you to spend bloody money on proceedings.

Even if its gotten weird, BBUK is still the gold standard for reality tv. There's nothing like it. It has ups and down (like this year, a serious down) but a good series of BB is absolutely unbeatable.

Once upon a time I'd have agreed with you.

BB was a one of it was unique ans different to the other reality shows, now it wants to be become like one of the other clones???? That's where it's going wrong it's trying be other towie type appealing to the the youth but that's the reason it's losing its way and its fan base.

I think i'm the only one who found this years series good..... mainly because of the housemates, I just liked so many of them.

No, you're not alone. I thought it was an alright series. I really couldn't stand the 2 weeks with the legends, because they just dominated the house with their pointless arguments and I thought Big Brother was orchestrating arguments practically every day by revealing nominations, secrets and outside info, which made the series really negative. I liked series more when they actually had some fun things from time to time, but I didn't find this one half as bad as some are making it out to be.

I think the housemates were largely good, there were a few disappointments, but there were more than enough characters to make a good series.

The article mentions the new series Unreal. It is excellent. It's a dark satire (probably closer to the truth that one would guess considering one of the producers also produced The Bachelor in the past) on reality tv. It's more about the manipulation behind the scenes then the cast on the show. Very compelling and the acting is top notch (main 2 female leads and many of the others). It revolves around a Bachelor like show but I think the manipulations could also fit with any reality show. It's on in America and sounds like it starts late July in the UK. You should be able to find the first 7 or so episodes online if you know where to look.

The show hasn't been marketed much imo and seems to have spread (at least here) by word of mouth.

Don't watch it if you want "good" and "bad" characters. Some may argue they are all morally corrupt but they aren't. They are just varying shades of grey. Fascinating

I loved it for the following cast: Marc, Joel, Nick, Harry (mixed opinions), Sam (her happiness), Cornflake (for Croel), and Jade for her delusions/lies that made her interesting….even grew to appreciate Jack. Also I like how in general (except for Danny's dramas with Marc and Brian's spin) how everyone got along overall even though they had their equivalent of separate alliances (pretty subtle and not so much a divided house for most of the time…it seemed worse than usual).

I liked more people this year then any other year so it was one of my favorite years despite Chloe winning and despite BB's protection of her. I don't hate Chloe but disliked her manipulative crying and deflecting her hypocrisy (but that was good gameplay so credit to her for that). Also she wasn't malicious (at least not in the house and her past isn't relevant even though I hate that taxi abduction situation). Also this season helped me get over my hard feeling about Helen and her win. I know I am in the minority about liking this season and not hating Helen but IDGAF
Last edited by Vicky8675309 : 20-07-2015 at 03:56

Unreal is on Lifetime (UK) at the moment, its exactly as you'd imagine it is, behind the scenes members of production saying and doing practically anything to manipulate the contestants and using their reactions out of context to tell the story they want to tell, winner, bitchy housemate, villian etc all chosen on day one..