Unreal, Lifetime Network‘s new fictional reality show based on The Bachelor, has it all wrong. Their aim is to offer a behind-the-scenes scoop on how reality shows really work, heaping blame on soulless producers and production assistants who feast on guileless participants. And I’m not buying any of it.

Not only is Unreal‘s narrative dull, actually triter than the real thing, but it is founded on the inane premise that there is a star chamber in Reality TV.While the show purports to be yet another phase in the modern world’s self-deconstruction, it is merely a naive sidetrack.

The point of The Bachelor isn’t making a deal with the devil but rather sharing in everyone’s common stupidity. The contestants actually do want to find love and are willing to expose themselves, and all their frailties, in blind faith to “the process” espoused on the show. That’s the beauty of this train wreck…and our pathetic desire to watch.