I won’t make this review very long, because, well, each episode of Burning Love is about eight minutes. Since it’s not as long as a traditional television show—-and has a clear ending in sight even from the beginning—-it doesn’t have time to waste, and the result is an expedient, righteously dead-on parody of The Bachelor.
The parody show “Burning Love” is like a mockumentary of the reality dating genre that is so dead-on, some of the commenters on each episode don’t know it’s a joke (you’d think a pregnant contestant and an 84-year-old “cougar” would clue them in, but I digress). What makes Burning Love so damn funny is the accuracy of the gags, as it cleverly points out the way shows like The Bachelor typecast women into cozy, one-dimensional roles (there’s the closet lesbian, the psycho, the hot one, and the shallow rich one—-named Titi or “Titty” and played by the ridiculously hot Noureen Dewulf—-on this show). The most dead-on parodies so far are Kristen Bell as The Religious One (who thinks standup comedy might be a sin and makes a conflict out of anything because her beliefs seemingly contradict with everything), Natasha Leggero as The Slut (who is so obviously only there to get drunk and party that only the bachelor doesn’t get that she’s completely wrong for him), and The Perfect One, the type of kindergarten teacher, sweet-as-pie contestant clearly set up as the one he should pick, but also clearly won’t (it’s a running joke at how much of a jerk he is to her).
But the best parody of all is Ken Marino’s oblivious take on The Bachelor himself. The show is particularly savvy at exposing how completely unremarkable the guy all these women are fighting over really is, and Marino delivers a truly great performance as a stupid, bland man so blank the women can project anything they want to on him. He’s “perfect” because he never shows a defining personality, only pretending to be sincere about anything other than hooking up, and getting rid of any woman that shows a personality of any kind. [One excellent bit had them all do stand-up comedy, and, since the Bachelor has no sense of humor himself, he sent home the only girl to make the other girls laugh.]
So check out Burning Love, and never watch The Bachelor the same way again. Although, hopefully you aren’t watching it anyway.