Ben Smith
"this is so unfair to me" hahahahaFrom the people who made children's hospital and NTSF:SD:SUV, comes a spoof on the bachelor / bachelorette reality format that i can only imagine takes place in the same fake TV universe. They nail the ridiculousness of the entire process to a T, with scores of terrible women competing for one terrible man in the first season, and then in the second season scores of terrible men competing for one terrible woman. They make fun of not just the dating process and the entire fakeness of reality television, but they manage to add a whole cast of over the top eccentric characters from big name actors who i'm surprised to see in something so under the radar. I only heard about this show because it was mentioned offhand in an interview about children's hospital but i'm glad i checked it out. Its one of those things that they didn't bother to advertise properly but its such a well done show that if they did, burning love would have a lot of loyal fans.I think the funniest part is despite being a parody, most of its satire comes in pointing out how ridiculous the shows it parodies are already. And it uses each of its cast to perfection, from Jennifer aniston who refuses to leave her panda costume, to Natasha leggero as the slutty wild child who refuses to wear pants or underwear because she's just so "empowered". And then there's just a randomly placed old woman named Esther who somehow always makes it into the next round despite having pretty serious dementia, or Rob Huebel who is competing as an actual real life prince. Or Abagail Spencers character Annie who's ridiculous hotness is always played up as a way to steal June Diane Raphaels self absorbed temper tantrum throwing thunder. Hell, they even managed to make Ben Stiller funny, and i haven't liked much of his stuff since zoolander.I think the one part about this show that was unpleasant for me was all the cringe worthy "blaze" moments, because i've actually known WAYYYYY too many women who only chased the one man who didn't actually want them. I can't tell you how many women i've dated who thought they were too good for me until i was repulsed by them in which they became obsessive whiny emotional horny freaks. Which is even more repulsive. So that hits a bit close to home. But its also pretty accurate.
duffer-john
kraegm objects to BL because "the genre itself is too close to a parody of itself so that this series doesn't have to reach very far beyond the original source material to actually parody it." On the contrary, I think this speaks to the genius of the project. A parody could have gone way over the top, but the fact that BL stays close to the source material (in tone if not in detail) drives the point home on how ridiculous the original show is.The way the actual show tries to pass off the charade of having one man sample and choose from a bunch of women as any sort of romantic or noble way of finding love is stupid, and the parody pokes great fun at this. A few examples are: when the bachelor at times admits he just wants some action, at the end when he begins fishing for someone to propose to, and when someone calls Haley a (derogatory term for a woman) and another girl makes the great observation that they are all like that simply because they are part of the contest.
deb-j-draper
Before I saw "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" shows that this series parodies, I thought "Burning Love" was just funny. Having finally subjected myself to one of those nauseating source-material seasons, I can fully appreciate BL's humor, and can say that it is spot-on hilarious.And to the reviewer kraegm, who was forced to watch the first season in a movie format instead of a TV series format: that's just weird. I wouldn't like it either, if a bunch of distinct 15-minute dramatizations were smashed together in a continuum. Check out seasons 2 and 3 on non-Canadian sources, and see if you like them better.
aottewill
Finally, someone has made a comprehensive, hilarious, spot-on send up of the ridiculous nature of The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I watched episode 1 twice in a row and laughed harder the second time. My only question...how many harrowing episodes of The Bachelor did the writer have to watch to get everything so perfect in Burning Love? Though it must have been painful, it was worth it. As for the cast, the celebrity cameos are delightful. Ken Marino has never been better (maybe that guest spot on Whitney?), and Michael Ian Black couldn't be more (in)sincere. I do hope we see more Ballerina...can she scale the wall of the mansion to get back in the game?