Breaking the reality mold

The first thing you need to know about Mark Wahlberg’s new reality show Breaking Boston is that it will in no way resemble Wicked Single, another Boston-based reality show that aired last year. In other words, if you’re tuning in to watch young women get drunk, sleep with each other’s boyfriends and throw punches, you should switch the channel.

“We wanted to tell a story that’s never been told before,” says executive producer Stephanie Drachkovitch. “We’ve seen the fighting, we’ve seen people saying ‘eff you’ across the dinner table to their family. What we really tried to do is capture some of the nuance and some of the reality we’re not used to seeing.”

The reality is that of four working class women struggling to overcome some big obstacles, including addiction, legal issues and lack of education. It’s a different formula from the “reality” we’re used to seeing on TV. (Think the McMansions and McDrama of the Real Housewives set.) That’s due largely to Wahlberg’s commitment to the integrity of the project, Drachkovitch says.

“Mark really wanted to capture the essence and the spirit of second chances, because he feels like that’s what he got,” she says. “He really wanted to capture that theme today, especially in a group of girls because, as he says in our opener, ‘show me one tough guy from Boston and I’ll show you 10 tough girls’.”

The show draws inspiration from the tough (very tough!) women who played Wahlberg’s onscreen sisters in his 2010 film The Fighter. None of these girls, however, come from Central Casting.

All four girls knew each other before filming, meaning the relationships are actually, well, real. Moreover, none of these girls are out to score their 15 minutes of fame.

“Mark is still friends with everyone from the neighborhood and he introduced me to a few people, pointed me in the right direction,” says executive producer Bill Thompson. “And in some cases, the girls didn’t want to do the show. That’s exactly opposite of what you [usually] see. One of the cast members, she had an amazing story but… she didn’t want to put it all on television. But Mark convinced her that we were going to do it right, that we weren’t going to embarrass her and it’s going to be worth it in the end. She called me yesterday, saying she’s happy she did it.”

Breaking Boston premieres on March 13 at 10 pm on A&E. 

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