What’s Worth Watching: ‘UnReal’ for Monday, June 6

UnReal (10/9c, Lifetime): You won’t believe all of the sex, the boozing and the backstabbing going on in the fictional reality dating show Everlasting—and that’s just behind the scenes. The cynicism is breathtaking as the twists get even darker and nastier in the second season of UnReal, Lifetime’s poisonously entertaining cult breakthrough.

We know UnReal is unreal if only because the new “suitor” in this unsparing Bachelor parody is, hold the tabloid presses, an African-American: football superstar Darius Hill (B.J. Britt), who, like last year’s princely star, Adam, is in serious need of image rehab. It’s unclear why the cocky jock thinks this hot-tub cesspool of half-naked lust and dehumanizing control-room manipulation will throw anything but shade on his reputation, but even someone as allergic to the genre as I am might watch a show where the hunk is cornered by a Southern belle in a Confederate flag bikini.

All hail Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer as Rachel and Quinn, the show-within-the-show’s ruthless queen-bee puppet masters, each in for a rude awakening as the production turns into another backstage battle of the sexes, and sexists, with the return of the show’s slimmed-down, but still slimy, creator Chet (Craig Bierko).

Who’s ultimately in charge? Who cares as long as we’re treated to realer-than-real insights like Rachel’s priceless diatribe: “We aren’t camp counselors. We don’t solve problems, OK? We create them. And then we point cameras at them.” This dishy delight is a guilt-free pleasure. Dig in.