Yeah, the show is GREAT at depicting how extreme the disparity can be between self-image and reality, how OTT people can be in buying into their lies about themselves with absolute sincerity. Based on the fandoms I know, there's often a frustrated expectation from the audience with such characters that they should have a moment of awareness or realization, and that if they don't, it means the show/writers aren't aware of the reality? And I don't think that's the case--like Rachel could easily go the rest of her days genuinely believing she's fighting The Good Fight for Righteous Reasons.Well, I've had that frustration. Although, I have less of a cranky expectation that the anti-hero recognize their badness so much as the people around them should recognize the badness to make it real to me. UnReal never let me down in that point. LOTS of people call Rachel out. To the point, that I actually end up a little on Rachel's side when Jay and Jeremy act like they're not in the exact same business. Or in Quinn's tantrum on loyalty when I'm
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Totally agreed on how Rachel's manipulation is being shown - very effective in the short-term but she doesn't have any follow-up. And it works really well seeing this in S2, because the audience knows her and like the crew can see her starting it all again with her new batch of girls/Darius. I think Jay's turning on her is part of her lessened effectiveness - he's willing to tell his girls not to trust her and has lost trust in her himself.
Although I also think he's kind of... well, he tried to get his own show out of Chet and couldn't, not unlike Rachel though she blew that up herself, and now he's stuck back there with Rachel as boss. I'm v skeptical of his “you're messing with a strong black woman's education” stuff because I think, just like Rachel, it's about getting to be self-righteous where you can because someone else did the shitty thing first.
So glad to see this post!! I want to talk about UnREAL but I'm scared of Tumblr spoilers.
Where are you in UnReal? What's a spoiler- unaired stuff or eps that aired? I really, really, really agree on Jay. He was part of the cover up on Mary's suicide and he was incredibly callous about it. His bottom is FAR lower than he likes to think of it. Maybe this is risky to say but I think Jay's priorities are silly, in and of themselves. Ruby basically taking a gap year before graduating isn't THAT destructive. There's a lot of ways for Ruby to go finish her education. Maybe if it was established that Ruby was leaving a lot of scholarship money or something by leaving school- but it wasn't IIRC. The most destructive action to Ruby, actually exists in the framework of the show itself- Ruby agrees to become a public spectacle and Ruby agrees to marry a guy that she courted under reality show conditions and didn't really get to really know if she wins
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He was part of the cover up on Mary's suicide and he was incredibly callous about it. His bottom is FAR lower than he likes to think of it. Maybe this is risky to say but I think Jay's priorities are silly, in and of themselvesYEP. And the fact that he calls back to Rachel's S1 line "remember when there were at least a few things you wouldn't do" - like her, it's about his self-image, and clearly her criticism of him being willing to out someone on TV chafed. I'm not sure those even are his priorities, either - I feel like he totally could've justified it to himself if HE'D been the one to get Ruby on the show. But as it is, he can be all I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT
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I don't know if you're up to date with the last ep. In my see-saw of emotions on this show, Jay came out much better in the last ep when it came to calling out Rachel than I thought he did before. I wrote posts on the new eps.
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Although I also think he's kind of... well, he tried to get his own show out of Chet and couldn't, not unlike Rachel though she blew that up herself, and now he's stuck back there with Rachel as boss. I'm v skeptical of his “you're messing with a strong black woman's education” stuff because I think, just like Rachel, it's about getting to be self-righteous where you can because someone else did the shitty thing first.
So glad to see this post!! I want to talk about UnREAL but I'm scared of Tumblr spoilers.
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