‘UnREAL’ Season 3 Is Here To Remind You That Good TV Is Much More Important Than Feminism

If we’ve learned anything from The Bachelorette, it’s that when you gather nearly 30 hunky men together to compete for a woman’s heart, they’re going to be bitchier and more dramatic than when women do it — not to mention, pretty easy to look at. So now that season 3 of UnREAL has moved towards a Suitress, being pursued by a variety of hotties, the show is pulling itself back on track from…whatever was going on in season 2.

If you fell off last season, you should mostly be able to catch up during the “Previously On,” and you’ll also be reminded of why you were so obsessed with the first season of the Lifetime drama series. Now, not all is regained. But there’s a lot of progress and potential as well as cattiness and yes, even some girl power buried in there too.

Our Suitress is Selena, “The female Elon Musk,” and with Masters of Sex star Caitlin FitzGerald in the role, we’re getting a new kind of reality star. She’s pretty, she’s rich, and she’s smart, giving Rachel (Shiri Appleby) and Quinn (Constance Zimmer) a lot to work with. The show, Everlasting, is on the brink of cancellation, yet UnREAL has already been picked up for a fourth season, which must mean they have a lot of enticing tricks up their sleeves to come.

Rachel is still as fragile as ever, no matter what she says or believes, as she clings tightly to a new program encouraging her to be honest about everything. Too bad she works in reality TV. Quinn is as Quinn as ever, as she manipulates the Sutiress’ on-screen image, mostly, you know, to piss off viewers who despise her for seemingly having it all. Well, of course, except for what really matters: pesky ol’ love.

This season of UnREAL will really wrestle with the notion of whether this drama is a feminist show or not. On one hand, you’ve got females as the focus, in charge, getting shit done. On the other, you’ve got men dictating what other men are actually attracted to in a woman — and it just might not be this particular Suitress. Questions of how to act on dates and how to attract men and even dating co-workers all arise, with viewers left to make their own decisions, and more importantly, learn from these characters’ mistakes. UnREAL does perhaps too good of a job, especially this season, of facing the harsh reality for women that being powerful at work might earn you lost of cash, but that doesn’t mean it earns you love.

Madison (Genevieve Buechner) is moving up the professional ladder, for better or worse, and is given a lot more to play with, and prove, during this season of the show. Chet (Craig Bierko) has toned things down a bit, yet remains obnoxiously right when it comes to matters of the male mind. Brandon Jay McLaren enters as Dr. Simon, the new on-set psychologist, and we get a peek at Jay’s (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) personal life a bit more this season, yet for the most part, the main players are back exactly how we like them.

UnREAL is returning at just the right time: with the end of The Bachelor next week, this new season will fill that juicy, dramatic hole left in your viewing schedule — which has honestly yet to be satisfied throughout Arie’s season of the ABC reality show. If you can forgive the fictional Lifetime behind-the-scenes show for its season 2 sins, there’s a lot to enjoy here. The sex, drugs, and quippy one-liners we’ve all grown to love are back in full force. And while the show figures out exactly how “feminist” it actually is, one thing’s for sure: there are very few other shows that dare to express the complexities of being a woman, in both the professional and personal space. Every type of female relationship you can imagine is examined here: co-workers, friends, mentors, competitors, and each to varying degrees of drama. These women must confront what they really want when it comes to resolving past issues, where they see their careers going, and how important it is to them to obtain love — and how they’ll go about that, exactly. Discussions of bodies and money and sex are had in truly bold and fun ways, making the show as scandalous as it is sincere. So perhaps, that this show is giving women not only equal but much more screentime than men, proves that feminism actually makes the best TV.

Where to watch UnREAL