Selfie // Review #12

I want to take the time today to talk about a show that I bet you’ve never heard of:

Selfie was a 2014 ABC sitcom starring Karen Gillan (yes, that Karen Gillan) and John Cho (yes, that John Cho). Selfie was a modern take on the classic musical, My Fair Lady (or Pygmalion), in which a "classy, sophisticated man" remakes a "trashy, uneducated woman"’s image. Selfie even pays homage to the classic tale of My Fair Lady by giving its two leads (Gillan and Cho) updated versions of the characters names, Eliza Dooley (for Eliza Doolittle) and Henry Higgs (for Henry Higgins). 

Despite how obnoxious the trailer makes the show seem, I remembered really liking the show when it first aired on ABC. I would follow it week to week on TV until its unfortunate cancellation, after which ABC pushed the remaining episodes to Hulu to complete what was left of their first season. 

I was always a little disappointed that this show was canceled. It never really got the attention that I felt like it deserved, and so recently I went looking to see how I could watch it once more. 

Mind you, this show has been canceled for (7+) years. Even when it was on TV, it barely put out a 13 episode season, and so it's clear that Selfie has been discarded by ABC. To even locate a watchable copy of this show, I had to do some serious digging. It’s been removed from Hulu for who knows how long, and it isn't available through any ABC affiliate streaming service. In order to watch this show, I had to delve into the shady side of the internet and hope that my computer didn’t acquire some mysterious virus from unsavory foreign websites. 

Nonetheless, I persisted, determined to watch this show for the first time in seven years.

And I have to say, this show was way ahead of its time. 

Sure, it’s corny and a little dated, often making references to things that were very “of the moment” in 2014 (like naming the show Selfie for one thing), but it’s got a lot of good heart that I would have loved to have seen more of.

The fact that this show was canceled is truly a travesty, and I’m going to breakdown why. Get ready for a full scale run-down of why I believe Selfie should have been renewed for another season, and more people should be talking about it today.

Here goes:

Category 1: Plot- B+

This show seems to nail its premise like right out of the gate.

Eliza Dooley is the 2014 equivalent of an Instagram influencer, with hundreds of thousands of social media followers who wait for her to post day to day. (Again, some of the things she posts are horribly outdated. Remember when people used to post photos of their breakfasts instead of just putting them in their stories? And no one does a #ootd anymore unless it’s an ironic throwback.) She works a day job as a pharmaceutical sales rep for a children’s pharmaceutical company, which is where she meets Henry, an employee who is known for his ability to rebrand drugs.

Eliza approaches Henry with the idea to turn her from an Instagram “ratchet” (Oh my God, remember when people used to say “ratchet” all the time?) to a well put together professional who people could respect.

Aside from the many dated references and the slang that didn’t exactly age well, this show had a solid premise. It understood the assignment and made it work for the modern day. Eliza is in her early 20s and constantly shows up to work looking like she’s about to go clubbing. Henry is in his mid-forties and so uptight and job-obsessed that he doesn’t even know what FaceBook is. (I guess in 2021 it would be the opposite, as people in their mid-forties are now FaceBook’s core audience, and most people in their 20s are more interested in TikTok.)

Overall, the premise works because the dynamic really feels like it is reaching across generations. Selfie is cute in its attempt to make fun of both social media obsessed young people and more tech averse older people. Which brings me to my next category-

Category 2: Comedy- B-

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the humor of this show still holds up even though it’s been seven years after it initially aired on ABC. In fact, there was an “ok boomer” joke in one of the earlier episodes of the show that easily could have been written last week. This show truly feels like it was ahead of its time. A lot of the themes that are discussed in the humor are still funny. 

A lot of the humor stems from the main characters and how they interact, as Eliza comes across as vapid and selfish in a relatable way, and Henry seems uptight but in a likeable way. They play off of each other well in a way that makes them both funnier characters and makes the show funnier as a whole (kind of like Captain Holt and Jake Peralta’s relationship from Brooklyn 99).

Overall, I wouldn’t rate this show as “laugh out loud funny” (or “LOL funny” as Eliza would probably say), but it’s definitely a good time to watch and it’s easy to enjoy even after nearly a decade has passed.

Categories 3 & 4: Characters & Casting- A

I’ll say this about Selfie: the casting was spot on.

For starters, choosing Karen Gillan for the role of Eliza Dooley, fresh off of her run as the Doctor’s companion on Doctor Who, was probably the best decision that ABC could have made. We may currently know Karen Gillan for her more popular projects such as starring as Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, or even playing Ruby Roundhouse in the latest Jumanji movie franchise, but to me, she will always be Eliza Dooley.

Karen Gillan as Eliza Dooley taking a selfie. (“Hey, that’s the title of the show!”)

Karen Gillan makes Eliza work as a character. I’m confident that other actors would have botched the line delivery to make Eliza look stupid or unsympathetic when she’s complaining about something trivial or trying to get more followers on Instagram. Karen makes you care about Eliza as a person and not just as a character, which is why the show works.

Casting her was a perfect decision for this show, and I applaud the casting director who chose her for the role.

The same could be said about John Cho. Mostly known for his work in the Harold and Kumar franchise back in the early thousands, John Cho has proven himself to be not only a comedic juggernaut, but also just a really cool guy. Now he’s mostly well known for his 2018 movie, Searching, which made history because it was the first mainstream thriller to star an Asian-American lead. (Not John Cho single handedly breaking down barriers in Hollywood...)

John Cho as Henry Higgs looking disappointed and stern as his character is known to do.

I firmly believe that no one else could have played Henry Higgs as earnestly and hilariously as John Cho did. Between the two leads, he is clearly the straight man to Eliza’s childish antics, and he grounds the humor in a sense of realism that makes the show come to life. 

To put it less abstractly, John Cho is damn funny and charming on the show.

It especially helps that none of the characters on the show are one-dimensional. 

Eliza is fun and light-hearted and lacks just enough self-awareness to be charming and not unlikeable. She refuses to be slut shamed, despite having multiple relationships with guys around the office, and she has a big heart, often thinking of others (once she learns that it’s the right thing to do).

Meanwhile, Henry is uptight and serious, but not completely unwilling to come out of his shell. In fact, he’s secretly afraid to do so, despite how comfortable he seems being so stern all the time. As you can expect, this makes for great wholesome comedy.

Henry and Eliza (John Cho and Karen Gillan) having high tea.

I didn’t even mention the other characters on the show, like the front office assistant Charmonique, played by Tony winning actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph, or the boss of the pharmaceutical company, Sam Saperstein, played by David Harewood. Both of these characters are also delightful in their roles and bring a lot of life and color to the show (both literally and figuratively).

Both of these categories tie into the next thing that I wanted to highlight about this show- which is:

Category 5: Diversity- B+

Not to give a TV show credit for literally doing the bare minimum, but this is the first mainstream sitcom that features an Asian male romantic lead opposite a white lead. In fact, if you read John Cho's Wikipedia page, he is confirmed as the first Asian-American actor to be a romantic lead on network TV: "He also made history in American television as the first Asian-American actor cast as a romantic lead when he starred as Henry Higgs in the 2014 sitcom Selfie."

Eliza and Henry (Gillan and Cho) on their way to a wedding together.

This was groundbreaking, but also heartbreaking for me to discover. Without John Cho, we never would have had characters like Jason Mendoza on The Good Place, or Josh Chan on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (both of which I highly recommend, by the way). Clearly, we have a long way to go in terms of male Asian representation (and Asian representation in general), but I thought it was wild that Selfie, a show that no one remembers, was the first one to actually show an Asian male lead having a romantic relationship without treating it as a joke (like Raj from The Big Bang Theory, who was notoriously bad with women for a gag).

For 2014, though, I have to admit that this show was really forward-thinking in terms of its representation. 

For example, they gave one of the show’s main black characters an Afrocentric name, and it was never once used as a punchline (it’s only brought up as strange once in the pilot, and then never talked about again).

Selfie shows more than one interracial relationship, and it’s not afraid to show people with disabilities, as there is even an employee who is blind working at Eliza’s pharmaceutical company.

I will say that there were a few weird moments in the show regarding Asian fetishization, but overall, they were so quick that they didn’t leave a lingering bad taste in my mouth. 

Overall, the representation in the show wasn’t perfect, but they tried, and it really shows.

Mind you, this show was canceled after 13 episodes, but I can say that Selfie laid the necessary groundwork for other shows to build on and eventually be renewed.

Category 6: Brand-Awareness- C-

Despite the poor branding, this show is practically perfect.

It cannot be overstated, however, that naming the show Selfie was probably one of the worst choices that were made in pre-production. This is made painfully clear in this clip of an ABC interview with Cho and Gillan about the show:

Poor naming choices aside, I believe this show may have stumbled right out of the gate when trying to attract a new audience. Strangely enough, to the uninitiated, Selfie can present itself as a piece of anti-internet propaganda.

Upon first glance, it becomes apparent that Eliza's whole problem is that she doesn't "put down her phone" or "make eye contact with anyone anymore." This can't help but elicit a sigh out of most people because it's such a (quote, unquote) "Boomer" way to look at the overarching problem of the show. I can understand how this may initially put off some people. Hell, most of Henry's dialogue throughout the first season is "put your phone down" or "you don't need to tweet everything."

I can absolutely understand how that comes across like someone listening to their parents nag about how much screen time they're consuming.

HOWEVER, the show's not just about Eliza's problematic social media addiction and why she should just "go outside and meet people in the real world." The show also is about how isolating social media is, and how sometimes it can be an escape mechanism for those of us experiencing loneliness and tough times. Yes, they do also include the "pay attention to what's right in front of you instead of what's on your screen" moral, but it's tastefully done and not as cringey as it sounds. 

Eliza really comes to realize that she uses social media as a crutch because she used to be bullied in school, and she hides behind her followers because she's insecure about her life and who she grew up to be. Eventually she learns to make real friends at work who help her with these struggles, and her obsession with social media lessens over time.

To most of us now in 2021, this may sound foolish or incredibly cliché, but the show plays Eliza's growth earnestly, and it works. Despite how this show may seem at the offset, it doesn't aim to completely rid anyone of their social media or shame anyone of their habits, really. Instead, I believe Selfie aimed for its viewers to smile, and learn to strike a balance between social media and real life.

To reiterate my previous statement, the show is pretty much perfect.

Which begs the question, if this show’s so perfect, then why was it canceled?

The obvious answer was that people were not watching the show when it premiered on ABC. A lot of that can likely be attributed to the unfortunate name of the show (as "selfie" has since become a dated term that we seldom use in modern society, especially not after the Chainsmokers incident.). However, some of this can also be attributed to the fact that this show was not properly set up as an emerging series. Much to its detriment, Selfie premiered on Tuesday nights at 8pm, airing the same time as The Voice on NBC, one of ABC's biggest competitors (Andreeva, Deadline, 2014).

Truthfully, it's too late to even talk about a second season of Selfie, as the cultural zeitgeist basically ignored the initial season, and I'm sure most of the actors involved merely view this as a blip on their resume.

However, everyone and everyone's mother is into reboots these days, and so I don't see why we couldn't take the original concept and update the show for a more modern audience. Think iCarly (2021), but better.

So how do we update the show?

First thing's first, we would have to change the name of the show to something that wouldn't immediately alienate half of its audience. Preferably something with a little more staying power than Selfie.

Second thing that would have to be updated are the characters and their backstories.

In 2014, having hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram wasn't nearly as monetizable as it is now. In 2021, Instagram influencers can secure brand deals, modeling opportunities and music careers all based on their social media following. If Selfie were to be updated for a more current audience, Eliza would no longer work as a pharmaceutical sales rep, and would have fully embraced her social media fame.

As for Henry, he would still be the stodgy old guy in their relationship, but he would have to have a different career as well, in order to connect with the famous Eliza. Perhaps in the reboot he would become a talent manager who is used to managing older clientele that does not use social media. Then Eliza comes to him after a big social media scandal and begs him to change her entire image. (We already know a dynamic like this can work because of the HBO Max show, Hacks. In Hacks, an old washed-up comedienne gets paired up with a young writer in order to update her jokes and change her image. The Selfie reboot would be like a reverse Hacks.)

Promotional poster for Hacks (2021), on HBO Max

 

I would be more than willing to watch a reboot of Selfie with the changes I provided, so long as the casting and the comedy is as strong with the reboot as it was for the original. 

It was strange, though. As I was watching the original Selfie, it gave me a weird feeling of being lost in time. Most of the jokes still work in today’s society, but the actors saying them are much more famous now, and the show came out nearly a decade ago. It’s not quite ageless, but it’s definitely not from this time, either.

After all of that, I would love to say that I would recommend this show to you, but frankly it’s nearly impossible to find, and I wouldn’t want you to risk giving your computer a nasty virus to watch this show that wasn’t even picked up for a second season. 

In short, I don't believe that Selfie got the respect it deserved, and I think it's a shame that you basically have to scour the bowels of the internet to even watch it now. It seems pointless to give it a rating since it’s not a show that people can watch for themselves, but in the spirit of writing reviews that no one asked for anyway, I would give Selfie an A-.

I know I'm not the only person who remembers this show, as I discovered an old Buzzfeed article from September of last year similarly lamenting about the loss of this great piece of media about the social media age. Several of the points that were in that post were expanded upon here, but if you would like to read the original Buzzfeed article, here is the link.

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay safe out there, and continue to wear your masks. 

Top 10 Things to Watch in 2021// Hot Girl Summer

Happy Hot Girl Summer, everyone!

Now that it's officially summertime and it's so hot that the only thing you can do is sit inside to avoid the heat, I thought now would be the best time to share some of my favorite things that've come out in the past 12 months.

Since 2020 was the year of streaming and so much good content came out within the past year, I just thought I would provide everyone with some recommendations (even though I know no one asked). Here are the best things I've watched in quarantine up until now, and what I think was worth the time investment.

In no particular order, my recommendations are as follows:

10. Cruella (on Disney+)

I'll just put it out there: this movie is corny.  

And yet Cruella is still absolutely fabulous.

This movie is not at all like the 101 Dalmatians live-action remake that came out in the late 1990s, and it's not even like its sequel (102 Dalmatians) that came out in 2000. In fact, this movie is hardly a movie about Dalmatians at all.

If you haven't seen it, think of this movie as a heist version of The Devil Wears Prada, with a Disney spin on everything. Sure, this movie's about Cruella de Vil, but Emma Stone's version of the character is the same as the cartoon villain in name only. This version of Cruella is not the puppy murdering witch that her song makes her out to be. This version of Cruella is a fun anti-hero with great style.

From the jump I was expecting to like this movie, and I'm glad that the movie didn't disappoint. In fact, Cruella was even more fun than it initially let on to be, and the twist towards the end of the movie is so fun and wild that it made my experience watching it even more insane. If you can swing the hefty $30 premier access fee, I would recommend watching this movie on Disney+. If you can't, then I would recommend waiting until the film is available to stream on the platform for free.

9. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (on Netflix) 

I have a lot to say about Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and almost all of it is positive.

First of all, shoutout to Kipo for being the first animated children's show to display an openly gay black character and not have it be a big deal. (As far as I am aware, anyway. If there is another children's show with an openly gay black character, then I'd be interested to know about it.)

In fact, Kipo shines brightest in its representation, as the entire main cast of characters are people of color. The main characters of Benson and Wolf are black, and Kipo herself is biracial, with her black father and her Asian-American mom. Even Dave, Benson's bug sidekick, is played by Deon Cole, a black actor known for his roles on shows like Black-ish.

It can be a little problematic, to me, in the fact that it follows that unfortunate trope of (SPOILER) turning people of color into animals (see my review on Soul as to why this is such a common and unfortunate trope), but I think it sticks the landing for the most part.

Overall, this show SLAPS. 

The premise of Kipo is about a girl who is looking for her father after her underground bunker gets attacked and they are separated. Now she's stranded above-ground, where all of the animals on the planet have dangerously mutated, becoming "mutes."

I recommend Kipo because the music is impeccable, the animation is SO unique and colorful, and the plot is compelling throughout. The last season of the show premiered earlier this year, and so I would recommend checking out the entire series if you haven't already seen it. 

8. WandaVision (on Disney+)

I know I'm late to this one, but hear me out:

This show came out at the beginning of 2021, and it was a hard reset for this year in terms of what Disney+ had to offer, and what the fate of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be going forward. I binged the whole season recently (as I only recently began catching up on Disney+ content), and I was pleasantly surprised that this show lived up to all the hype.

This show follows Scarlet Witch (AKA Wanda Maximoff) following the events of Avengers: Endgame, in which she is now inexplicably living with her husband Vision (who we're pretty sure is dead, right?) and their children. Through some insane plot twists and turns, the show quickly becomes a show within a show, as we discover what in the world is going on with Wanda and her husband Vision.

The best aspect of the show is all of the homages that this show pays to classic TV, including shows like I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, and Malcolm in the Middle, while also including the modern elements of Marvel that we've all come to know and love. The show manages to feel fresh while also feeling nostalgic, and it made me cry towards the end, which was really uncool for them to do.

I won't spoil the show for anyone who still hasn't seen it (although the information is already out there for those who want to know), but I would highly recommend checking out this show if you haven't already.

7.  Wish Dragon (on Netflix) 

Here's a movie that came out this year that I bet you haven't heard of: Wish Dragon.

This movie got next to no promotion from Netflix, even though when it came out, it premiered in Netflix's top ten in my region. In fact, the only reason I saw it was because I had seen a few of the film's animators talking about it on Twitter. It looked cute, so I invested the time to watch it.

And it's cute!

Like- delightfully cute!

But I will say that this movie is basically just a modern Chinese version of Aladdin. 

Well... to say that this movie is a rip off of Disney's animated Aladdin may be a little strong, but its definitely not entirely inaccurate. 

For example, the main character's name is literally Din, and there is a magical teapot that functions as a sort of magic lamp within the context of this movie. It also doesn't help that John Cho, the voice of the Wish Dragon, was definitely channeling some heavy Robin Williams energy towards the beginning of the film, however- this movie is different enough that it didn't feel like a shot for shot remake.

This film is about two childhood best friends who grew up together, Din and Li Na, who are separated at a young age after Li Na's father gets a better job in a different area of China. Flash forward into their teen years, and Din just wants the opportunity to reunite with his old friend. Through some hijinks and some shenanigans, and with the help of a magical Wish Dragon, the two eventually reconnect and rebuild their friendship. (Sweet, right?!) 

Overall, this movie felt fresh enough that I wasn't mad after watching it, even though it did remind me of Aladdin (one of my favorite movies, by the way). I really liked that it did things differently and wasn't afraid to tread a different path with this familiar story.

All of that is to say, you should go watch Wish Dragon on Netflix. It's good. 

6. Never Have I Ever (on Netflix)

I love this show, and it makes me incredibly emotional every time I watch it. Season two just dropped literally last week, and I binged it all in one sitting.

Simply put, this show is about an Indian-American girl named Devi who just wants to fit in with the kids at her school and get a hot boyfriend, while also dealing with her Indian family and the recent passing of her father.

At first glance, this show seems more cliché than it actually is, which is why I think I like it so much. It's got all of the tropes we all love to hate: the nerdy girl falling for the hot guy, the enemies to lovers trope, the manufactured drama of wanting to lose your virginity, etc.

However, it's all of the fresh things that are in this show, like Devi's rough personality and the loss of her father, that make this show so entertaining and heartbreaking to watch. If you liked The Mindy Project, you'll probably love Never Have I Ever, because it was also produced by Mindy Kaling, which becomes immediately obvious once you watch it. I love it, and I live for manufactured teen drama that feels real (unlike whatever the hell it is they're doing over on Riverdale).

5. The Flight Attendant (on HBO Max)

When I started this show, I wasn't really expecting to get into it, but I got hooked by the end of episode one and so now I'm hoping I can drag more people down with me.

Kaley Cuoco stars in this international comedy-drama in which an alcoholic flight attendant (played by Cuoco) is suspected of murdering a passenger she was sleeping with while abroad in Bangkok. Due to her alcoholism and her spotty memory, she has to piece together the truth of what really happened on the night that the passenger died and hopefully clear her name.

The Flight Attendant was based on a novel of the same name by author Chris Bohjalian, and while I haven't read the book, I have to give the show props for being a solid murder mystery with a lot of character growth for Cuoco's lead. (I think one of my favorite characters in the show though is definitely Annie, her small but terrifying lawyer friend who represents the mob.)

If you're into a good who-dunnit concept, then I think you should check this show out on HBO Max. It's already been renewed for a second season.

4. The Great Pretender (on Netflix)

I'm not usually into anime, but this one is damn good.

The Great Pretender is about a series of international con men who "Robin Hood" their way around the world, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. The show primarily follows Japanese con man (or "confidence man") Makoto Edamura as he struggles to make ends meet until he is sucked into the inner circle of notorious con man, Laurent. Laurent eventually helps Makoto to pull off elaborate heists from everyone ranging from corrupt politicians to international sex traffickers with the help of his friends Abby and Cynthia.

Each heist that the group has planned takes place over multiple episodes of the show, and so season one of the show contains 3 smaller scaled heists, while the second season contains one larger scale heist.

If you're into any of the Oceans movies or if you care about stealing from the rich to redistribute wealth to the poor, you'll love this show. I personally recommend the first season over the second season, but I think they're both equally enjoyable for new viewers.

 

(Also, did I mention that they use the Freddy Mercury song of the same name for the end credits of every episode? Too good.) (*chef's kiss*)

3. The Mitchells vs. The Machines (on Netflix)

If you liked Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie, you're pretty much guaranteed to have a good time watching this one. Chris Lord and Phil Miller, the producers behind both of those wonderful properties, were also involved in producing The Mitchells vs. The Machines, one of the best animated movies to come out this year. 

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a story about a family of weirdos (like actual weirdos), who are travelling across the country in order to take their oldest daughter to film school. Only, while they're making their way across the USA, there is an android uprising, and the Mitchells are the only ones who can save the world.

A few things about this movie: One, the story is great, and it's cute in a way that leaves you feeling really good about your own crappy family. Two, it's got the craziest animation style. Like Spider-Verse, the animators basically created their own unique hybrid style animation that they use throughout the movie to give it its own unique feel. Three, they use the 2008 bop "Live Your Life" by T.I. ft. Rihanna in a really fun way throughout the movie.

Overall, 10/10 would recommend. Watch it with your whole family. 

2. Loki (on Disney+)

I'm not sure where to begin with Loki. Loki is one of those shows that is just... (*chef's kiss*).

If you thought that WandaVision had good writing and compelling characters, then you'll just about drop dead when I tell you that Loki has probably the best and most complex writing out of any of the recent MCU shows.

Without spoiling anything vital, I'll just say that this show follows Loki following the events at the end of Endgame (which, if you haven't seen yet, it's really too late for you), in which he escapes capture from the Avengers by using the Tesseract. Once he escapes this predicament however, he is immediately captured and brought in by a mysterious organization called the Time Variance Authority (or TVA for short), and their Time-Keepers. The TVA and its people (one of which is played by Owen Wilson), are meant to keep the universe safe and ensure that everything on the timeline happens according to plan. Loki, inevitably, gets in the way of that. 

Throughout this show, the series gets more and more complicated as it dives into theories about time, free will, and what's just. However, it balances itself out by occasionally devolving into madness in which (SPOILER) several versions of Loki across multiple timelines fight each other in purgatory.

This show is wild, and it just wrapped up its first season last week. (And it was already confirmed for a second, unsurprisingly.) I would recommend giving Loki a shot if you're all caught up on your Marvel lore, although if you're not, it could be a little confusing at times.

1. Bo Burnham: Inside (on Netflix)

Music video for "White Woman's Instagram" by Bo Burnham

So.

Bo Burnham's comedy special, Bo Burnham: Inside, definitely left me feeling... strange. In the best way, of course.

I considered doing a review of Inside on its own and not including it on this list, but after some reflecting, I think it's better that I just let you watch it on your own and come away with your own thoughts.

I will say though, that this special made me feel more seen than many of the other comedy specials that I've seen from Bo Burnham, and maybe that's because he was having a mental breakdown while trapped inside, just like the rest of us in 2020. 

The show is funny and relatable and tragic, while also being reflective and thoughtful. It felt like a fever dream sometimes and yet mostly looked like a well produced music video (see "White Woman's Instagram" above).

There were some songs that spoke to me on a more personal level, like "Shit" and "Welcome to the Internet," while others were just fun to listen to like "Comedy" and "Bezos I" and "Bezos II." Some of these songs I even have on my personal playlists (both ironically and unironically). However, the definite low point of the show was towards the end where Bo starts talking about the pandemic in "All Eyes on Me." When I watched that, I felt what he felt, and what I think a lot of us felt about the past year of our lives.

Overall, even if you can't watch the special on Netflix, I would recommend listening to the album of the show on Spotify. I think you'd like it.

I think that about does it for the list, folks. Whether you watch the shows and movies I recommend or not, or even if you just came by to check out my blog for fun, I appreciate you. Thanks for sticking with me while I write reviews that no one asked for.

Have a great summer. Stay safe out there, and make sure to wear your masks!

Soul // Review #11

(*Sigh*)

Okay, so I finally watched the Disney/Pixar movie, Soul.

And to make a long review short, I didn’t like it.

My brother originally wanted to watch this movie a long time ago because he was told by his friends that this movie was inspiring and life- changing. So, we watched it together over this past weekend. 

And… I was disappointed, to say the least. That’s not to say that I was expecting this Disney/Pixar film to utterly change my life or anything, but I was at least hoping to feel something instead of intense apathy and exhaustion by the time it was over. 

Let me explain:

You may or may not know this, but I am currently experiencing what is known to as a "quarter-life crisis," in which everything in my life seems to be frustrating and uncertain. Things like relationships and job prospects are all really hard for me to navigate right now. Knowing this information, you would think that a movie like Soul, in which the main character is trying to fulfill his dream even though he’s (literally) got one foot in the grave, would speak to me on some intimate level. You would think that someone like me, who is currently going through it (as the kids say), would relate all too well to someone like Joe for this particular reason, as he attempts to find his purpose in life. 

But au contraire! I did not!

Listen, I didn’t think Soul was a bad movie, per say, but for someone who went into this movie with moderate to high hopes, I will say that I was not exactly moved by this film. If anything, I was annoyed by it and slightly anxious for it to be over.

However, that's not to say that the film doesn't have its merits. (SPOILERS FOR SOUL, BY THE WAY)

Let’s start with the things I liked. 

Category 1: Diversity- B-

First of all, I liked that this movie was black. Unapologetically black, actually, which I appreciated. There was something delightfully real about Joe and his family in this movie, and it was in everything from the occasional side-eye from Dorothea to Joe having to kiss his auntie every time he sees her as a sign of respect. I fully got the impression that the creators of this movie understood how to depict black culture. Even getting notable actors like Jamie Foxx and Phylicia Rashad to play Joe and his mama was a solid casting choice. I really appreciated the human elements of the movie in which we as the audience got to see Joe’s neighborhood and how he interacts with those around him. Seeing his barber for example, was a nice touch, and elaborating on how he and his mom don’t see eye to eye was cool.

I even liked the scenes with Joe teaching his music class at the beginning, especially because it felt real and it was a real opportunity for the movie to show us who Joe was exactly and what he was all about.

That was good stuff. That was one of the strongest aspects of the movie.

That being said, it cannot be overlooked that this is the first Pixar film starring a black lead, and yet most of the film had the voice actor for this black lead voicing a blue blob or a cat instead. 

Which leads me into one of my main complaints about the film-

Category 2: Body Swap Horror- F (for “Fully Unnecessary,” again)

Midway through this movie, the main character, Joe, and an emerging soul known as 22 end up back on earth after seeing the Great Before. Somehow, through some shenanigans and some tomfoolery, this results in Joe, a black man, ending up in the body of a cat, while 22 (played by the white Tina Fey) ends up inside of Joe, the aforementioned black man's body.

By this point in the film I was tired.

Not only was I disappointed and a little annoyed that Pixar had the nerve to put another person of color into a situation where they're transformed into an animal so they learn their lesson (because it's a whole problematic trope in animation, especially with Disney films. I made a list on Letterboxd if you were curious.), but I was also just... unimpressed with the plot device as a whole because it seemed unnecessary.

Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen as frogs (left) and again as humans (right) from The Princess and the Frog (2009).

At least in The Princess and the Frog, the whole, "turning the main character into an animal" aspect of the movie was plot relevant because of the existence of voodoo in the universe. It was plausible and fun to watch because it implied that there was magic in this world, no matter how nefarious it may seem.

The Princess and the Frog also didn't throw me because  the original source material of the The Frog Princess already had a person transforming from a frog into a prince, and so it wasn't so outlandish and annoying when it happened in the movie (although it's still a little suspicious that they made the only black princess the one that transforms into an animal, but still).

Soul was different, though. They didn't just transform the human character into an animal- they fully swapped the human character with the non-human character for laughs, leaving the human character, who happens to be black, sidelined, trapped in the body of a cat.

In all fairness, I will say that there is a slight similarity between this aspect of Soul and an aspect of The Princess and the Frog. The closest thing that relates to this element of body swap horror in The Princess and the Frog are the scenes in which (SPOILER for The Princess and the Frog) Lawrence, the prince's lowly servant, pretends to be the prince by essentially donning blackface and putting on a charade. However, I will still argue that this is not as egregious or even as problematic as the Soul body swap was. 

Joe Gardner inside of Mr. Mittens the cat and 22 inside of Joe Gardner (played by Jaime Foxx and Tina Fey respectively)

For one thing, the frogs in The Princess and the Frog were not hanging around Lawrence attempting to coach him on how to be a prince as he impersonates Prince Naveen. In that movie, it was funny to watch Lawrence because he was a bumbling idiot who didn't know what he was doing, and he was very clearly the bad guy. Meanwhile, in Soul, Joe essentially had to coach 22 on how to be black throughout their daily interactions, and since they were both the heroes of the story, Pixar wasn't trying to be problematic in order to make their heroes look bad. Yet somehow, they were. 

It didn't matter that the people in the movie could only hear Joe's voice when 22 spoke- we as the audience knew it was Tina Fey, and so it essentially felt like Jamie Foxx giving Tina Fey a lesson on "how to be black" and I wasn't here for it.

The whole thing felt yucky to me, and it left me waiting for this portion of the movie to be over (even though it went on for a solid 20-30 minutes). 

I think the thing that bothered me the most about this aspect of Soul was that the person learning the lesson during this sequence was not Joe, but 22 in Joe's body. During this sequence, 22 was walking around admiring everything in the body of this man that she had no claim or right to. We spend most of our time on her arc throughout the film, which was annoying to me.

Joe may have reflected a little bit during his time as a cat, like he did when 22 spoke with the barber and when he spoke with his mother through 22, but the movie really wants you to worry about what 22 learned during her time on Earth. And I just couldn't get behind it.

I felt like Tina Fey had essentially hijacked this black man's body and character development, meanwhile the actual main character was relegated to a silly side gag.

If they really wanted to keep this stupid idea in the movie, they should have at least made Joe another person. The whole mix up that arises with Joe ending up in the body of another person is due to a kind old lady leaving her therapy cat on Joe's lap as he's in the hospital. In my rewrite, we would nix the old lady and her cat and put Joe into the body of another human person who had just vacated their body after they recently passed (a la Drop Dead Diva). (By the way, if you haven't heard of Drop Dead Diva, you should check out my other review that includes body-swapping horror, Wonder Woman 1984, where I go on about it for way too long.)

This would alleviate any of the previous concerns about turning him into an animal for a gag, and then the movie becomes a Freaky Friday mashup in which Joe and 22 have to get Joe back into his body or he'll be stuck inside this other person forever (It could even be another black person!). It would have even been better, to me, if Joe got to see the world through someone else's eyes in this case while 22 tagged along. Have this person's family come up to him and tell him how happy they are they he's alive. Have Joe get swept up and go to this person's job. At least then I would've felt like Joe had learned something about life and purpose and all that other crap he was so hung up on.

Anyway, I guess my main point here is that body-swap horror is problematic as hell unless you're referring to Freaky Friday (2003) or Drop Dead Diva.

Category 3: Plot- C

I was so worked up about the unnecessary body swapping element of the story that I got ahead of myself and failed to mention what the plot of this movie even is. Let's rewind.

Soul is the story of a middle aged man named Joe Gardner who is currently a middle school music teacher, but his dream is to become one of the greatest musicians jazz has ever heard of. Just as he's about to get his big break, however, he dies.

After Joe dies, he is transported (through shenanigans) to the Great Before instead of the Great Beyond. There, he is confused with someone who lived a worthy life (a la season one of The Good Place) and is tasked with mentoring a young soul before they reach Earth. In comes 22, a rambunctious soul who has no interest in becoming a person or even being on Earth. They need each other, though, because... plot?

Overall the plot was somehow too complicated and metaphysical for me to care about it, while also being outlandishly dumb (like, you mean to tell me that they couldn't figure out that Joe wasn't this renowned child psychologist that they immediately mistook him for, despite looking nothing like him even in the afterlife? Also, you mean to tell me that Joe is the first person ever to want off of the conveyor belt to the Great Beyond? Really?).

Aside from the problems that I had with the whole body-swapping plot device, I also couldn't really get into the plot as a whole. Perhaps it's just because I'm not a big jazz fan, or maybe it's because I wasn't super invested in Joe as a character, but there was never a point where I was sucked into this movie. I was just... sitting through it.

It probably didn't help that this movie didn't end in a satisfying way for me. We never resolve the whole conflict that Joe had at the beginning of the film with disliking his job, and we never see 22 ever again after she’s out on earth. I know that statistically it’s unlikely for Joe to run into 22, but I think that it would be a nice little nod to the audience if the two of them got to meet up again. 

For example, what if there was a baby born in a hospital where Joe was doing some sort of charity concert with his school, or what if years later Joe ran into a child that reminded him of 22, and he smiled?

OR! 

Even better, what if Joe wound up teaching 22 in his middle school class even further on and then they did an internal reveal to show that it was 22 inside of this twelve year old kid the whole time? That ending would have made me feel something as opposed to the apathy I felt at the corny “you get a second chance at life, so you better go live it” thing.

The ending may have seemed good on paper, but even an epilogue where we see what the rest of Joe’s life was like after he came back to earth would have felt sweeter and more earned, to me.

Category 4: Animation- A

Talk about an easy A. 

As always, the animation is where this movie really shines for me. I especially liked the Picasso-esque beings of Terry and the Jerrys. I really appreciated how they moved despite having no arms or legs (especially Terry when she moved throughout the real world.) I also feel like this movie played with space in an interesting way- both literally and figuratively.

That said, because a lot of the "real world" animation is grounded in ordinary New York City, the colors can seem a little flat at times. The animation is clearly well done, but in a photo-realistic way that's not immediately eye catching because of the setting where the film takes place. Of course the animation was lovely, but it wasn't as exciting or different to look at like some of the other Disney/Pixar films, like Ratatouille or Coco.

Despite my criticisms of the movie as a whole though, Soul managed to win a Best Animated Feature Oscar earlier this year, so the Disney/Pixar animation department has to be doing something right. They even beat themselves out for the other animated movie that they released in 2020, Onward.

Category 5: Themes- D

For me, the themes are where this movie really fell apart.

The theme of Soul isn’t exactly the clearest thing in the world, and again that has to do with the fact that the ending sucks. Like, I can see what they were trying to get the theme of the movie to be, but without a solid story structure, the theme doesn’t quite work as well.

Let's see if we can figure out where exactly the thread of this movie gets lost.

Joe was unhappy with his job at the start of the movie and threatening to not accept a good job offer because his dreams were more important than making decent money. His mother essentially tells him, "BOY, I thought I told you to accept that job" (paraphrasing, obviously). He ignores her and goes to an audition to become a jazz musician with a local band. He passes the audition, and on his way home- he dies.

Okay. Simple so far, right?

Here's where things take a turn.

As soon as Joe dies, things get muddy. This movie's no longer about following your dreams no matter how impractical they are, or even working hard to support yourself so that eventually you can follow your dreams.

As soon as Joe reaches the Great Before, the movie becomes about what your "Spark" is, and how your "Spark" is different from your (capital P) "Purpose." Joe thinks these two things are synonymous, and he believes that he was put on God's green earth to play jazz.

Which is... already too deep for me, dawg.

Like- your mama told you to stick with the stable teaching position, and I'm going to have to agree with her. Like, damn.

They could have went so many different ways with the messaging for this movie, but the way that they went in the end was weak and unsatisfying.

The theme of this movie started out being very anti-capitalist in its messaging, essentially saying: “I don’t dream of labor, and having a full time job isn't as important to me as doing the things that I want to do with my life, and following my passions." However, in the end, the moral that this movie comes to is that you don't need a "Purpose" in life, other than to just "live it," which is not only some hippy dippy bullshit, but it's not a theme so much as it is a lack of theme. 

I think the theme should have been more defined, and one way to do that is to take the whole "Fuck capitalism" route that they proposed at the beginning by having Joe argue with his mom about his full time job and run with it more. 

However, that's a big red flag for Pixar because Disney's clearly not going to dismantle the system that pays them billions every year. The theme has to be something else.

Then, instead of anti-capitalist propaganda, it seems like the theme could have been something along the lines of "Be happy with what you have" in terms of making a difference in children's lives and helping them to go along their path. This is briefly explored at the school in the beginning, and even referenced with the happy barber who ended up doing something completely different with his life than the thing he wanted to do. The theme in this scenario could have been something like "You never know what will truly make you happy until you're content with where you're at." (Similar to a Wreck it Ralph kind of theme, where you know who you are and accept your circumstances because that's just where you're at.)

Either way, the movie definitely didn't lean far enough into the whole "Fuck capitalism," thing that the Zoomers have going for them right now, and it also didn't lean the other way into the whole "Be happy with what you have" moral, either. Instead it came up with a clumsy third moral about "Sparks" and "Purposes" that fits literally nowhere into the story other than to serve as the plot device that gets 22 to come to Earth.

If they really wanted to make the "Spark" and "Purpose" theme work, though, they should have hit the whole “teacher” thing, harder. They should have reinforced Joe’s relationship with his students. He should have reflected at least once that he liked working with his kids and he enjoyed nurturing their musical talent. This never happens, and so the whole plot of the movie feels like a waste with an empty theme.

For example, there is a wasted scene with a music student in the middle of the movie where this opportunity is given to 22 in Joe's body, but I believe that Joe should have helped this child believe in herself and her musical abilities in order to reinforce his "Purpose" even though his "Spark" was music.

Overall, I just think that this theme of "Purpose" and "Spark" is lofty as hell, and difficult for children (if not most people) to grasp. Thinking about what brings you joy versus what you should be doing with your life is the kind of thing that you ponder at 3am when you're having a mental crisis, and usually those thoughts are about as scatterbrained as they appeared in this movie. 

I just think there was a lot of missed opportunity to pin down exactly what the broader idea of this movie was, and it could have been executed so much better if this movie had just been rewritten maybe two more times.

Category 6: Kid-Friendliness- D

I was not and am not convinced that this movie was made for kids. In fact, the whole time I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps I was the target demographic for this movie, as I fall into the bracket of sad millennials who don't know what to do with their life (although I am on the cusp of Gen Z, for the record). 

However, I didn't cry at the end of this movie, which I think is a bad sign. I'm a big sucker for Disney films with a lot of heart, and I'm especially a sucker for animated movies where characters die before they can do the thing they want to do (a la Mufasa in The Lion King, and Tadashi in Big Hero 6), but this time I felt mostly tired after watching Soul. 

I think this is because the whole concept of the film felt way too deep for me, and I couldn't get past why this animated movie was tackling death in such a literal way. The Great Beyond is no longer a metaphorical, theoretical idea- it's a real thing, a real place. Literally. You can go to it and see what happened to all those that have come before you.

Joe looking up into "The Great Beyond."

Something about that just sat with me the wrong way. And while I know this movie made a painstaking effort to avoid religious discussion and to be as lighthearted about death as possible, it somehow still made the entire concept seem... dark?

I'm definitely not saying that this movie had to have religious overtones in order to be a better film (and I'm definitely not promoting one religious belief over another), especially not since this is technically a film for general audiences, (and parents would riot if their children were exposed to unsanctioned religious commentary) but... something about animating death in a way that depicts it this bluntly and absolutely is really bleak and unsettling for me.

Take Coco for example: In Coco, the main character, Miguel, is sent into the Land of the Dead in order to find his long lost relative so they can convince his family to allow him to play music. Even though most of the cast in this movie is long dead, the entire setting of the Land of the Dead is colorful and lively, implicating the notion of life after death. And while I understand that this is a cultural belief and there are clearly plot and thematic differences between Coco and Soul, somehow Coco still feels like it was made with children in mind. 

Nothing about Soul screamed: "Hey take your kids to see this!" 

The music was old (jazz), the main character was in his mid-forties, and the entire concept was about death and discovering what you're going to do with your life. As people in the biz would say, there is no "child-entry point" (Yes, I am referencing the whole Infinity Train controversy).

Soul had no singing and dancing, no princesses, and no superheroes. If I were a child, I would've been bored throughout most of this movie. And while I'm definitely not arguing that animation can only be made for children or with children in mind, I can't help but think that this is part of the reason why I didn't like Soul. 

The fact of the matter is, I was bored watching this movie.

And when I wasn't bored, I was unimpressed with what the movie had to say.

I was... annoyed, I think, with this movie as a whole. I guess I knew deep down I wasn't going to like it, but I went into it with an open mind, hoping I would be proved wrong. 

After watching it, though, I'm not sure how to feel other than disappointed in the choices that were made for this movie as a whole. Some of them worked for me, like the inclusion of more black culture and the theme of being happy with the life that you have instead of chasing a dream, but the execution was poor, leaving me feeling indifferent to most of this movie and everything it had to offer.

 

Overall, I'd give Soul a D. If you wanna watch a Disney movie where the black protagonist turns into an animal in order to learn the lesson they're meant to learn- watch The Princess and the Frog instead. It's a better movie.