Web Video / Burning Love

Burning Love is a web series parody of reality dating shows like The Bachelor and Rock of Love. Starring Ken Marino and Michael Ian Black, firefighter Mark must follow his heart to select one woman from fifteen to propose to. Many actors from The State and Party Down make an appearance. Despite that, Rob Thomas has nothing to do with the series.

Hosted here on Hulu.

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This Web Series provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Mark continuously fumbles up on the pronunciation of Titi's name. No points for guessing what it is.
• Affectionate Parody: Of a variety of reality dating shows, most obviously The Bachelor.
  • Season 3 (Burning Love: Burning Down The House) takes aim at Bachelor Pad.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • In the second season, Julie falls for Blaze repeatedly even though he's a jerk who just wants to yank her chain. He manages to break her heart three times before she takes the hint.
  • Subverted in the third season, where only Lexie wants Blaze as a bad boy. Julie has learned her lesson about him, and Annie only gets together with him when he Takes A Level In Kindness. And even then, Annie reveals she was never attracted to him and dumps him for money and subsequently reveals her feelings for the host Bill, leaving him alone and heartbroken.
• Ascended Fanboy: Hathwell in season 3.
• Attention Whore: Haley. What else can explain a woman who walks around without any pants or underwear.
  • Julie also displays this behavior, as part of her Desperately Craves Affection personality, she even gets mad when another contestant goes into labor and pulls away attention from her "catharsis."
  • Mark as well.
• Berserk Button: Do not insult puppet shows in front of Julie. Unless you're Blaze.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Annie, as revealed in the Grand Finale.
• Butch Lesbian: In addition to being a lesbian, Carly is very physically fit and has a tough attitude.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: That being said, she's also very pretty and is shown in makeup and dresses throughout most of the show.
• Butt-Monkey: Hathwell, the Burning Love superfan who gets to compete in season 3, is openly loathed by everyone else, but he's so thrilled to be on the show he doesn't care.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Lexie becomes obsessed with Mark, to the point where she intrudes on his every conversation with a female contestant.
  • Exaggerated in season 3, where Lexie becomes so obsessed with Blaze that she tries to poison Annie when they start dating, but Mark ends up drinking it by accident.
• Comically Missing the Point: Despite her Transparent Closet, Mark absolutely cannot figure out that Carly is a lesbian and keeps picking her.
• Confession Cam: Where the characters can discuss how they won, lost, or are totally not gay.
• Covert Pervert: In season 2 Alex, the strait-laced, emotional single dad is revealed to be a hardcore BDSM enthusiast.
• The Ditz:
  • Mark is this in spades.
  • Julie as well, but that's mostly because she's too wrapped up in herself to understand anything.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: The medics who treat Mark in season 3 aren't familiar with ipecac and think it's some sort of voodoo cure.
• Extreme Libido: In the second season, Paul Rudd guest-stars as Annie's fiance, who tells her moments after she accepts his proposal that, by the way, he's a sex addict who has had literally thousands of partners. Not surprisingly, the engagement doesn't last long.
  • Haley as well.
• The Faceless: Dana arrives wearing a face-concealing panda suit so she'll be judged by her personality rather than her looks. After Mark sends her home, she's revealed to be extremely attractive and laments that she should have just gone with her looks.
• Foreshadowing A subtle case:
  Titi: Mark always looks for the best in people, which is why we're perfect for each other because I always look for the worst in people.
  • It's Titi trying to tell Mark she suspects that Carly isn't in the show for the right reasons that leads to Mark deciding to eliminate Titi in favor of Carly and Annie.
• Gender-Blender Name: Allison in season 2 is a guy.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the season one reunion finale, Haley can be seen looking upset when Titi reveals that she's been hired as a playboy model.
• Happy Ending Override: Mark's marriage at the end of the first season is broken up partway through the second, and season 2's couple drifts apart over the course of the third season. It's also implied that Annie's marriage from her (nonexistent) season didn't work out.
• Hidden Depths: Host Bill Tundle also writes poetry.
• Ironic Nickname: The neurotic Jolly Wally in season 2 (with the irony increased by having Michael Cera play the role).
• Limited Lyrics Song: The song constantly sung by Country Music wannabe singer Teddy in season 2
  Ain't got time for love
  Ain't got time for you
• Manipulative Bastard: Annie turns out to be this. Considering most of the others tend to be self absorbed and inconsiderate, they might count as a Guile Hero instead.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bill Tundle is such an exact parody of The Bachelor host Chris Harrison that for a while the Burning Love Wikipedia page actually listed Michael Ian Black as playing Harrison.
• Only Sane Man: Annie and, when her love interests aren't involved, Carly.
  • Titi is also arguably this, as she's the only one to realize Carly is a lesbian and that Ballerina is a transexual.
• Really Gets Around: Haley.
• Rich Bitch: Titi is very wealthy and very bitchy. Her worst fear is homeless people.
• Third-Option Love Interest:
  • Mark ends up rejecting both finalists of his season in favour of another woman who was sent home earlier. This woman, Ballerina, is turned down as well when he learns she's transexual, and Mark ends up getting together with fourth option Tamara G instead.
  • In Julie's season, she also turns down both finalists in favor of a third man. Said third man, Blaze, ditches her immediately, leaving her to take a fourth option as well by marrying Mark.
• Third-Person Person: Blaze tends toward this.
  Just Blaze bein' Blaze
• Time Skip: The finale of the first season includes a trailer for the next season to be titled "Burning Love: Hot For Teacher," starring Annie as the new bachelorette choosing between prospective bachelors. The actual second season is the fourth in-universe and often refers back to the events of "Hot For Teacher," which was never actually produced.
• Transparent Closet: Janet Varney's character is clearly interested in the ladies, and is doing an absolutely terrible job of hiding it.
• Un-Installment:
  • The in-universe "first season" doesn't actually exist. Aside from cameo appearances by its loving couple, little is revealed about it.
  • "Hot For Teacher", the season between Mark's and Julie's in-universe, is also fictitious. Its events are often referenced in later seasons, but the season itself was never produced.
• Upper-Class Twit: Allison in season 2.
• Virgin-Shaming: Basically the raison d'etre for Noah in season 3.
• Yandere Lexie.