“Everlasting” has concluded its final Elimination Ceremony. In a surprise twist fitting for the fictional “Bachelor”-esque series, all eight episodes of “UnREAL’s” fourth and final season are now streaming on Hulu. Variety broke the news.
Created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, “UnREAL” centers on the drama — staged and candid — on both sides of the camera at “Everlasting.” Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer star as “Everlasting’s” producer and showrunner, respectively.
Season 4 sees several familiar faces return as Rachel, Quinn, and the gang produce “Everlasting All Stars,” a spin-off that reunites former contestants and suitors, similar to “Bachelor in Paradise.”
“We’re so excited that people are getting it all at once because it’s always felt like that kind of show to me,” Shapiro told Variety. “And when you get to the point where you feel like you absolutely can’t stand Rachel, you know there’s another turn coming, and it’s coming right away. Bingeing feels like the truth to me right now, and I’m really happy to [tell the story] this way.”
Appleby and Zimmer have both helmed episodes of “UnREAL.” The Peabody-winning series was inspired by Shapiro’s short film “Sequin Raze.” Noxon served as showrunner during the first season, Carol Barbee the second, and Stacy Rukeyser the third and fourth.
“UnREAL” Seasons 1-3 aired on Lifetime. Hulu snagged a first-run deal for the drama — one of its most popular streaming options — earlier this year. No word on whether Season 4 will eventually play on Lifetime.
Shapiro also spoke about her feature directorial debut, a film based on women who took on ISIS, and its unexpected connections to “UnREAL.” “For me the part where there is a lot of crossover, and for me was my way into the story, is that it’s based on two women — a Kurdish woman who’s been captured and enslaved with an American woman — and it’s actually really little sarcastic and poppy and Tarantino-y,” she hinted. “It’s really heightened, actually. And the interesting thing for me about ISIS once I started researching it is it’s primarily Western people — so it’s like British rappers and stuff. The Twitter culture of ISIS became my obsession, so to me it feels like the natural next step from ‘Unreal’ because it’s sort of taking the psychosis of American reality television and extending it to the global level — the violence of video games and post-capital boredom. It actually feels like the same thing but way bigger and scarier and more complicated,” she explained.
Shapiro previously directed two episodes of “UnREAL” as well as the entirety of its spin-off web series, “UnREAL: The Faith Diaries.”
