Yay! Selfie Isn't About Selfies!

You have no idea how annoying it was for me when my phone didn't try to correct the word "selfie". I'm a bit of an old woman mentally and often physically as well so the idea of watching a comedy called Selfie made me feel slightly sick. I've only just got into Instagram and twitterverse under much duress from friends *cough* Lana *cough* and although some people are fine on the site others just seem very obnoxious. Just because you have the mouthpiece to broadcast every part of your life doesn't mean you have to use it, I guarantee that most people that see it don't even care that much. They only follow you because you followed back or they liked one thing that you posted a couple of years ago and were hoping for more like it but you were preoccupied with your ever inflating ego. If you hadn't guessed I'm not exactly social media savvy (I also lack follows which is probably one of the reasons I find it so annoying). If it wasn't for John Cho being one of the leads in the show there is no way I would've ever paid attention to a comedy called Selfie.

I'll step away from the name of the show for a bit and actually discuss the content because you can't really judge a book by its cover. If you judged Spockfull by its cover then you'd think that we were just a Star Trek fan page, and possibly dabbled in slash fiction, which of course we don't. Selfie is a modern day adaptation of Pygmalion or My Fair Lady for musical fans, though I doubt anyone that partakes in the taking of selfies has ever actually heard of them so I'll give you a brief summary. Pygmalion/My Fair Lady centre on a low class flower girl named Eliza Doolittle and the efforts made by high class professor Henry Higgins as he tries to class her up via her speech and dress (probably many other things as well that I don't remember) and make her presentable to his peers. In Selfie we have the character of Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) who is self obsessed and her sense of importance is inflated by her followers on twitter, instagram, facebook, tumblr and flickr (ok, I pulled the last couple out of my ass by she probably has them too). After getting sick she realises that none of these followers are actually her friends, she doesn't really have anyone to turn to so she attempts to better herself with the help of Henry Higgs (John Cho).



In all honesty I thought I would hate the show because of Eliza Dooley. I can't stand it when people are constantly instagramming their whole lives because it just makes them seem self centred without a care for whats going on around them. I figured Eliza would encapsulate that but I didn't find myself hating her, I actually quite liked her. She's not a bad person and she doesn't understand how unaware she is of others which is evidenced by her exchange with her receptionist whose name she didn't know. She shows that she wants to change and grow as a person and integrate herself within society as well as twitter. She even fraternises with her neighbour whom she despises and sees as lesser than her at the beginning of the show but they were doing make-unders by the end of it. If she could show that much growth with one episode imagine what we could see her evolve into in twenty two episodes. John Cho's Henry Higgs seems to be her perfect counter part as he is quite uptight and integrated into his society by always doing and saying whats expected of him. I'm assuming Eliza will eventually make him open up and be more who he wants to be and let his hair down rather than do what other people expect of him. I think their developing relationship could be enjoyable to watch which is another thing that should keep me watching.

I didn't really see how an update of Pygmalion could work, I mean theres not really any cockney flower girls around (there are other kinds of flower girls but I don't want to be deemed as racist by stereotyping). After watching the pilot I can see that it actually does play out, albeit loosely. She may not be a low class girl that needs poshing up but she was brought up in a social media heavy world which is extremely different from the real world. She may be literate in the selfie but that doesn't mean she's fit for the real world, she needs to learn how to integrate into society and learn how to be around real people rather than her followers if she's going to better her personal life and career. For a comedy it is a comment on modern day society, and I think more people should watch it and take the show on board. You're lives aren't supposed to be live on your computers and phones, they're supposed to be lived outside!

I'm almost done but I have to go back to the name, Selfie, because it's bloody awful. I said before that I was close to not watching because of the name and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only boring old fart that has felt that way. The name Selfie sounds like it should be and MTV television show or something, I get that the network are trying to attract a younger demographic but because of the name you're probably losing a huge chunk of your older ones. The ones that have money to buy stuff from the people that are paying for advertising time during the show. The show itself is good but I'm afraid that because of the name it may be cancelled, recently there have been a few decent shows that were cancelled because of their terrible names like Happy Endings and Cougar Town. Sure, Happy Endings lasted three seasons but that was a mid season show and Cougar Town was picked up by another network but that rarely ever happens.

Sure, it's not the greatest show in the world but it's not the worst either. The story isn't complex so I can dip in and out when I please and it features a likeable cast and for a show could Selfie there wasn't as much social media in it as I thought there would be. The television year hasn't been all that great for me so far so I need something on my roster to keep me occupied so this might just be it.

Live Long and Blog!

Related Posts

A to Z: 2014s Answer To How I Met Your Mother? Or 500 Days Of Summer?
Marry Me: Sitcom Of The Year