Selfie- Pilot Episode Review

Selfie's main cast can be seen right now on Hulu

On September 30^th, ABC will premiere it’s new comedy, Selfie.  It stars Karen Gilligan (Amy in Doctor Who, Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy) as Eliza Doolie, a social media obsessed young woman who is obsessed over her online fame and attention.  After an embarrassing viral stint, she enlists her coworker Henry Higgs, a talented marketing expert played by John Cho (Hikaru Sulu in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films, Harold in the Harold and Kumar films) to help her clean up her act.  

Literally.

The whole first act of the pilot has Eliza set up as an incorrigible, annoying, promiscuous person who, upon learning that her new love interest was married the whole time, proceeds to throw up in the plane she was flying in with the rest of her coworkers.  The whole thing is kind of crude, and the dialouge all feels very forced and kind of pretentious, not honest at all.  Both of our main characters are pretty unlikable as we see them meet and try to form an unlikely partnership.

Then something really good happened.

Henry notices that every morning that Eliza is greeted by the nice lady at the lobby of their pharmaceutical company, and their conversations basically consist of Eliza ranting incoherently about her own interests, and then storming off.  Henry then takes the lady’s nameplate and turns it around.

“Do you even know her name?”  he asks.

 

And in that moment I finally made a connection with the show.  I can honestly say that I can relate with the fact that I’m so absent minded sometimes I don’t even remember the names of the people I see every day.  Throughout the rest of the episode the pair proceeds to take part in various exercises that help Eliza deal with her lack of true social skills.  While the overall plot is very predictable and the ending extremely obvious and corny, the actual moments of cool stuff come when the show pauses for a moment to point out that things are never quite as they seem.  

Eliza’s sexy appearance depends heavily on extra padding around her curves.  Her supposedly holier-than-thou bookworm of a neighbor is actually quite the fashion expert herself.  And having casual conversations can be meaningful and rewarding once you forget about yourself.  

But the biggest impact the episode had on me was how, at least in Eliza’s eyes, healthy, normal social conventions were foreign and uncomfortable throughout the show.  And this is a trend that I notice in myself and some of the people around me.  Simple details and social cues can be genuine and loving, without having an ulterior motive or sexual connotations.  And I think it’s very important that we don’t forget that.

While the series itself will probably never be anything spectacular, the fact that it even exists and that it covers such a specific range of themes really puts things in perspective for me.  While most people out there still probably know how to talk to each other like they are people, there is a significant number of us who have to re-learn the basic rules human interaction.  And I can definitely attest that “the struggle” is quite real.