Series / The Arrangement (2017)

The Arrangement is a 2017 American Dramedy that premiered from E! Entertainment. Created by Jonathan Abrahamsm, it was the network's second scripted series following The Royals.

Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista) is a young aspiring actress whose world gets turned upside down after an audition gets her the romantic attention of celebrity Hollywood actor Kyle West (Josh Henderson). But Kyle is also a high ranking member and the spokesperson of IHM (The Institute of the Higher Mind), a self-help organization led by Terence Anderson (Michael Vartan) and DeAnn Anderson (Lexa Doig), who control every part of Kyle's life and image. In order to be in a relationship with Kyle while protecting his brand, Megan is offered a strict marriage contract, and she soon finds herself struggling with the drama of Holywood life and the scheming of the Institute of the Higher Mind.

The show ran for two seasons, being canceled on August of 2018, and the story was Left Hanging.

Tropes present in The Arrangement:

• Aborted Arc
  • Early on, Annika, the actress DeAnn hired to break up Megan and her boyfriend, starts to Blackmail DeAnn and even starts to infiltrate IHM to do so. Annika actually manages to get DeAnn to read her script and like it enough to try to get a movie out of it, but Annika still wants more, yet she's Put on a Bus by near the end of season 1 and is not mentioned at all in season 2.
  • Season 1 has a brief UST between Megan and Nate, the director of the play she was part of in what seems to be a Love Triangle as her relationship with Kyle starts to deteriorate, but after she refuses one of his invitations to work with him again Nate disappears and the whole plotline doesn't go anywhere.
  • In Season 2, Terence stars coaching Wes, the son of DeAnn's lover, with the intent of turning him into an actor and making him "a new Kyle". But then Wes is suddenly Put on a Bus by getting into drugs and put into rehab and isn't mentioned again.
• Accidental Murder: It's revealed in season 1 that Megan accidentally killed her stepbrother when she confronted him about raping her when they were children, and he got so angry he attacked her and she kills him while trying to defend herself. She manages to escape the place and one of his friends gets wrongfully arrested instead of her. When Terence finds out he considers this a breach of their contract due to it possibly bringing bad attention to Kyle and he has her taken to the Facility for Brainwashing.
• Action Hero: Kyle's most famous roles are of badasses action heroes.
• Affably Evil: As expected from the leader of a self-help organization / Cult, Terence has a polite and friendly facade, despite all the horrible things he does.
• Arranged Marriage: Megan being offered a marriage contract to Kyle and how this affects their lives is on of the main themes in the series, and it's also Zig-Zagged in that it's justified due to invoked (In-Universe) Executive Meddling acting as Shipper on Deck; deconstructed in that it's a fairly political marriage, a la The White Queen and Played for Drama as well in that the question is whether Megan will have a Sanity Slippage because of it.
• Artistic License – History: Although it's a retelling of the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes drama that played out in the tabloids during the 2000s and 2010s, several quite big liberties have been taken with this in the interest of telling a better story.
• The Atoner: Kyle attempts to atone for what he did to Aaron by getting him and his sister from out of Terence's reach.
• Awful Wedded Life: Terence and DeAnn have a dispassionate marriage that they treat more like a business arrangement, which really starts to fall apart in season 2.
• Bag of Kidnapping: When Megan is taken to the facility, someone sneaks up behind her and puts a bag on her head.
• Beta Couple: Xavier and Nacine are this in season 2, but they eventually break up when Xavier falls for Megan.
• Big Bad: Terence, the manipulative leader of IHM who controls every aspect of Megan and Kyle's lives
• Black Boss Lady: Nina, the IHM member in charge of The Facility is a big mean black lady. She puts on a friendly facade when Megan cooperates, but if she doesn't Nina starts to be very ruthless.
• Brainwashed: What IHM does to people who are assigned to The Facility. They stay there until they fall in line with IHM's "narrative" for them.
• Broken Bird: Lisabeth, Kyle's ex becomes this by season 2, due to the fallout of hers and Kyle's messy breakup. Her career is put on hold due to constant emotional breakdowns and she's barely being able to hold a conversation with Megan.
• Broken Pedestal: A famous fictional actress, Charlotte Banks is idolized by Megan who's thrilled when she gets the opportunity to work with her. But she's dismayed to find out Charlotte is a cutthroat and ruthless actress who manipulates the situation to make herself look better than Megan during a scene, in an In-Universe case of Nice Character, Mean Actor.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: The Central Theme of the series. All of the celebrities we meet are either a Stepford Smiler or in the process of becoming one, which is why so many of them are members of a self-help organization.
• Censor Shadow: Shadows are often used to cover-up nudity or sex, although these scenes are often given a Sexy Silhouette effect.
• Church of Happyology: The Institute of the Higher Mind it's a fictional self-help organization based in California and beloved by celebrities, and is deliberately meant to be a stand-in for the many self-help organizations in Hollywood. IHM's influence on Kyle's life is one of the main topics of the series, although Artistic License – History is in play here. The situation with Kyle, Megan and IHM is specifically similar to the real-life one with Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and the Church of Scientology.
• Comic-Book Time: During the two seasons, none of the characters age at all, although this is justified by the show covering a short timespan including a Time Skip.
• The Consigliere: Terence is Kyle's "personal advisor" who basically influences every part of Kyle's life, both personal and professional.
• Control Freak: Terence dislikes anything that influences Kyle or IHM that he has no control over.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Kyle is shown to be very possessive of Megan, and he fires Xavier from his movie on finds out Xavier has a crush on Megan.
• Cult: The Institute of the Higher Mind fronts as a self-help organization, but is more of a cult who will Brainwash people who do not fit their "narrative".
• Dark Secret: In season 2, Megan attempts to find out about Julie Woolth and what she knew that Terence had to make her disappear and paying her hush money. When she finally tracks down Julie she discovers Julie has a paraplegic brother named Aaron who used to take acting classes alongside Kyle, and when Aaron got a part before Kyle did he snapped and beat down Aaron so bad he got stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and Terence covered it all up to protect Kyle.
• Darker and Edgier: Despite critics claiming it to be a Soap Opera, this is actually anything but one; it's fairly dark, and tackles some fairly mature topics such as New Media Are Evil, Gilded Cage and financial issues. However, it's zig-zagged, as while it's no light and fluffy drama by any means, it's certainly no Crapsack World in tone, instead being a halfway house between that extreme and a dramedy. In both seasons it varies between really dark and an occasional Breather Episode.
• Defiant Strip: After nude photos of Megan are leaked and spread around, she decides the bold solution to the situation is to make her own naked photos, on her own terms. So Megan and Kyle end up taking selfies of themselves posing naked (with Pixellation) and spread it to the internet.
• The Dreaded: People who got on the bad side of IHM or at least are aware of the things they are capable are very scared of Terence. Megan herself becomes terrified of him after her stay in the facility.
• Driven to Suicide: Terence's IHM henchmen Connor ends up shooting himself in the head when the police find out one of the girls he was responsible to take the facility ended up dying when she fought back.
• Dull Surprise: Terence counsels Megan to keep her facial expressions neutral during publicity events, since any expression she makes can give the wrong impression to someone. He himself is a master of this and maintains a dull expression almost all the time.
• Executive Meddling: In-Universe, Megan and Kyle get screwed by his agency in the "Kill Plan" film when they replace Megan with a bigger name actress just to attract more publicity for the film.
• Fake Relationship: Kyle's publicity creates a story that he and his film co-star Amelia Briggs are having a fling, much to Megan's irritation.
• False Friend: Terence only sees Kyle his Best Friend as a golden goose.
• Filler: There were some episodes which were there to slow things down from the main Myth Arc, although these were largely also Breather Episode in tone too.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Megan is offered a marriage contract by Kyle's people after just one day of them being in a relationship, although it's mostly there to "protect his brand" and marriage isn't absolute certainty. But Kyle does end up proposing to her for feal merely a few months after they've been dating.
• Girl Friday: DeAnn serves as this for Kyle, as his producer she's the one who deals with most stuff about his career, although Terence likes to butt in a lot in her work, much to her irritation.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the second Season Finale Shaun finally picks IHM over Megan, as she thinks they still can have great potential in helping people.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: Although there's no truly evil character here, no-one is completely good or bad, and this is part of the show's Central Theme about Hollywood being "all that glitters is not gold".
• High-Heel–Face Turn: While DeAnn is a high-ranking IHM and conflict in many of Terence's plots she's usually portrayed as the A Lighter Shade of Black and gradually grows more sympathetic. In the second Season Finale she finally pulls a Heel–Face Turn on Terence.
• Horrible Hollywood: As Megan rises in fame, she comes to realize how horrible and filled with secrets the life of the Hollywood star can be.
• Hypocrite: Terence claims that the marriage contract he made for Megan is strict because he cares about Kyle and wants to protect him for having a repeat of the painful breakup that happened between him and Lisbeth. But then we find out Lisbeth and Terence were actually having an affair which was the impetus of her and Kyle breaking up.
• I Just Want to Be You: During Terence's Mushroom Samba sequence he finds himself in a fantasy where he's Kyle, showing that at some level he wants to have the fame Kyle enjoys.
• The Immodest Orgasm: During the filming of "The Kill Plan", a boom operator asks Amelia Briggs to make some orgasm noises so he can test sound levels and she treats the crew to a ridiculously loud Fake Orgasm.
• The Jeeves: Zach is Kyle's personal assistant and butler. While he's loyal to Kyle, in season 2 is revealed he lost his mother to IHM and has a score to settle against them and becomes Megan's conspirator in trying to bring them down.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Hope's constant distrust and badmouths both IHM and Kyle, which is portrayed as her being envious of Megan, but a lot of the things she said turn out to be correct.
• Le Film Artistique: Megan butt heads with Nate, the headstrong director of the play she's starring because she thinks the play is too angsty and relies too much on metaphors. Surprisingly he actually listens to her and reworks the script to something more digestible.
• Love at First Sight: Kyle and Megan end up falling in love during the very first time they meet at an audition.
• Love Forgives All but Lust: Kyle never turns on Megan despite her often putting him into conflict with his loyalty to Terence and IHM... until he finds out she had a one night stand with Xavier at the second Season Finale after they fought and the season ends with them on hostile terms.
• Love Triangle:
  • Season 1 had a brief on between Kyle, Megan and Nate but it doesn't go anywhere and Nate is quickly Put on a Bus.
  • Season 2 has one between Kyle, Megan and Xavier which ends with Megan and Xavier having Sex for Solace after they both end up fighting with Kyle.
• Intrepid Reporter: When Megan first meets Nina in an IHM's introductory workshop, Nina is pretending to be a journalist that is investigating IHM while pretending to be a member. When she asks for Megan's help, who refuses and snitches Nina to IHM. But in reality, Nina is actually an IHM and the whole thing was a Secret Test of Character that Terence pulled on Megan.
• Modesty Bedsheet:
  • Megan wakes up under one the first time she and Kyle sleep together.
  • Kyle and Amelia Briggs use one In-Universe for their sex scene for a film, and they're actually wearing nude underwear during it.
  • DeAnn and Mason both lounge in bed while each with their own bedsheet wrapped around them as they have a post-coital discussion.
• Ms. Fanservice: Megan is a Head-Turning Beauty as well as the characters that most often exposes her skin in the series.
• Mushroom Samba: After his fight with Kyle in season 1 regarding Terence pimping him to a detective, Terence deals with by going on a trip with shroom pills and an isolation tank. The sequence involves him living Kyle's life as a beloved movie star, has Megan as a Rich Bitch wife and has mannequins as the other members of IHM.
• Naked First Impression: Megan accidentally gives one to Kyle's butler when she enters the bedroom in only a Modesty Towel fresh from the shower and drops it seductively for Kyle while thinking they're alone, not noticing the butler standing right beside her. She tries to play it cool for a moment but fails and quickly breaks down in a Naked Freak-Out and runs back to the bathroom while Kyle laughs.
• Near-Death Experience: In an episode of season 2, Terence is almost killed during a common robbery and the experience causes him to become more unhinged.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Megan Morrison is Katie Holmes, but not a 1:1 Captain Ersatz. Kyle is based on Tom Cruise.
• No Stunt Double: In-Universe, Kyle enjoys doing his own stunts.
• Not Me This Time: Kyle constantly puts Terence and the Institute ahead of Megan or anyone else, so when Jill and Aaron end up disappearing at the end of season 2, Megan is sure Kyle gave away their location to Terence, despite Kyle saying otherwise. In the end, it turns out It was Shaun who moved them away and Kyle really had nothing to do with it.
• Nudity Equals Honesty: In one of Terence's seminars, he has the members disrobe in front of an audience while revealing their secrets, since he thinks "physical truth leads to emotional truth". Nacine, being an actress has no problem being seen without clothes but starts to break down when Terence starts digging on her secrets as does Shaun when it's her turn. A combination of Scenery Censor, Shoulders-Up Nudity and Toplessness from the Back is used to conceal any actual nudity.
• Period Piece: A rare example of a drama set in the 2000s / The New '10s that is a period piece, although it's recent history.
• Plot-Inciting Infidelity: Megan's story starts with her finding out her boyfriend cheated on her and got another girl pregnant. This actually turns out to be a lie, as DeAnn hired Annika to pretend to be a girl that got pregnant in order to break them up and make Megan available to Kyle.
• Polyamory: Terence and DeAnn have an open relationship and constantly sleep with other people on the side.
• Post-Coital Collapse: The first time we see DeAnn and Mason in bed, the scene begins with both collapsing on the bed, panting but still carefully covered by a Modesty Bedsheet.
• Pretend to Be Brainwashed: To get out of the Facility, Megan pretends to have been Brainwashed and become a devout member of IHM. In truth, she's just biding her time to find something she can use to expose them.
• Rape and Revenge: Megan ended up accidentally killing her stepbrother in self-defense when he ends up attacking her in rage when she confronts him about raping her while they were children.
• Rape Discretion Shot: When Kyle is forced by Terence to sleep with Detective Gaffey so she will drop a case against IHM, we only see him go inside the hotel room, greet her and then the door closes behind him ominously and the scene fades.
• Romance on the Set: Given the show is about Hollywood drama, there are a few In-Universe examples:
  • Kyle and Megan end up in Love at First Sight after their first audition together.
  • Kyle and Amelia Briggs's producing crew create rumors that they're having a fling while they're filming the "Kill Plan" purely for the publicity.
  • Nate ends up falling for Megan while they both work together for the script of a play.
  • In season 2, Xavier ends up having as crush for his co-star Megan while filming "Technicolor Highway", which ends up getting him kicked out of the movie when both Kyle and Nacine get jealous over it.
• Runaway Fiancé: Kyle's ex Lisbeth ended up abandoning him right before their wedding. Megan ends up almost doing the same thing in season 2, but DeAnn convinces her to go through with it.
• Scam Religion: Terence himself doesn't believe anything he preaches has any value, he just uses him to acquire money and connections.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Neither Terence or DeAnn particularly care about what Kyle wants, they constantly manipulate his professional life for maximum profit.
• Sex God
  • Megan tells her friends Kyle is one, having apparently given her four orgasms just in their first night together. In a more Squick example, Detective Gaffey also compliments his prowess in bed after she coerces him into sleeping with her.
  • DeAnn also regards Annika as a Sex Goddess after Annika uses her dominatrix techniques on her, DeAnn can barely muster the energy to leave the bed.
• Sexiled: One night, DeAnn finds a tie on her bedroom's door, indicating her husband has company. And while they're in an open relationship she's indignant at the idea of being exiled from her own bedroom so she barges in anyway, which his mortified Terence's paramour and the event ends up creating a grudge between the two.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: When Megan and Kyle sleep together in the first episode, we see then kissing at the beach while the screen fades to black and we cut to Megan waking up in bed the morning after under a Modesty Bedsheet.
• Shower Scene:
  • Megan takes a shower in Kyle's luxurious bedroom in the second episode, with Censor Steam covering her up.
  • Kyle and Megan have a Shower of Love in the same bathroom in "Surface Tension".
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In the first two episodes Kyle's personal assistant is a man called Ben. From episode three forward and Ben vanishes from the show without explanation and he's replaced by another similar character named Zach.
• Symbolic Serene Submersion: After breaking up with her boyfriend in the pilot, Megan is seen submerging under the pool while angsting.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Subverted with detective Gaffey. She's introduced as a detective investigating IHM who is immune to Terence's bribes or connections. But when she does get something concrete on them, instead of exposing them she uses it as Blackmail to get Kyle to sleep with her.
• A Threesome Is Hot: Terence occasionally arranges threesomes with him, DeAnn and other IHM members.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Terence is Kyle's Best Friend, but is a terrible influence on his life, as Terence only sees Kyle as his golden goose.
• Troubled, but Cute: Kyle is a troubled man with a Hair-Trigger Temper, a Dark and Troubled Past and is surrounded by people who want to use him. But Megan loves him enough to stay with him despite all the issues.
• Unholy Matrimony: Terence and DeAnn is the antagonist married couple of the story, which makes scenes of them discussing their plans natural exposition for their plans. Although DeAnn grows increasingly less antagonist as the series goes on, and does a Heel–Face Turn at the season 2 finale.
• Unfocused During Intimacy: "Trips" starts with Megan and Kyle having unfocused, unsatisfying sex due to both having their minds preoccupied: Kyle due to having been pimped by Terence and Megan due to having kissed Nate.
• Vehicular Kidnapping: IHM uses vans to transport people in and out of the facility, which often involves kidnapping them.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The show centers around the Hollywood actor and actress's relationship, and is an "'amalgam' of stories inside Hollywood about arranged relationships against the backdrop of self-help programs". It's also obviously inspired by Scientology and the relationship between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
• Webcomic Time: The progression of In-Universe time is not explained that well, but it progresses very slowly as compared to real-time.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Yes, it's meant to be a Darker and Edgier take on Hollywood, but there are more Jerkass characters than anyone extremely evil and psychotic; at best.

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