UnREAL EP Marti Noxon: Don't Blame Me for That Disappointing Season 2 

 after co-writing the Season 2 premiere when I interviewed her Sunday evening on the Emmys red carpet. I had read the reports of creative friction between her and fellow co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, but I assumed — mistakenly so, it turns out — that she had maintained at least a tangential involvement in the series.

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That misunderstanding led to a somewhat awkward moment toward the end of our brief Q&A, wherein I lightly grilled Noxon about the polarizing reception the drama’s second season received (including from TVLine’s Kim Roots). And she very politely informed me that, well, it was not her fault.

Press PLAY on the video above and then promptly hop in a shower to wash off all the secondary ickiness.

As they mention in the interview: 400+ hours of scripted TV. It’s a lot to keep track of.

the weird thing is gertrude said that Noxon up and left mid season 1 to take care of divorce guide season 1 (the rich female white women with problems show) and she was surprised she rejoined for the promos of s1 of UnReal

While it’s definitely a show about rich women with problems, two of the four women (Jo and Delia) are decidedly not white.

I read the headline and I was like “You’ve got to be kidding me?!” But I’m was presently surprised.

It must be hard to see a series you put a lot of time and effort into creating take a turn (in my personal opinion cliche and offensive trash) and then being wrongfully blamed for it.

Now the haters know EXACTLY where to direct their hate mail. If I was Noxon I’d have put my hands up waaaayyyy before now!

everything by heart, and sometimes little things like this slip one’s mind. And on Red Carpet events such as this, one never really knows who will be available for a (normally very short) interview, and you have to be spontaneous with your questions. And he was candid about his mistake in the very first line of his article.

Mistakes happen, to everyone. He was candid about it, so no reason to be mean about it…

That was meant to be a reply to the first comment, but maybe I made a mistake. ;)

They turned the one season where a black male is a focus into a horrible cliché. The racialized jokes were appalling. They were so bad my ears bled.

I would have sent out press releases to everyone to let them know I didn’t have anything to do with season two if I was her. Not sure the show is recoverable.

What was icky? She handled the question very well.

To be fair, that could’ve been way more awkward. It was actually a very well-handled misunderstanding, which is the mark of a good interviewer I think!

It was reported elsewhere over the summer that a major reason for season 2 being so bad was because Noxon wasn’t involved. This isn’t exactly a secret.

Ahhhhhhh… That explains why season 2 was so underwhelming. I have been a huge fan of Noxon ever since her days on Buffy. It makes me sad for UnREAL that she’s no longer involved, but happy that it wasn’t her fault!

Also, I though her extremely subtle “shade” was super classy. Love Marti!

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