It's Only 3 O'Clock And I'm Already Calling It A Day

Today I headed over to the IFC Center with mi madre and mi hermana to see Summer Wars, Mamoru Hosoda's follow-up to the OHMYGODAMAZING The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It was excellent. You can't see it now because today was its last showing, but I recommend you check it out when it comes on DVD/Blu-Ray. I'll keep you posted.

After the movie, we were driving through the East Village, when suddenly I cried, "OH MY GOD!" Turning to my sister, I yelped, bemused, "That was the girl from My Life as Liz!" As in, Liz from My Life as Liz. Yeah, I'm a bit odd. So, yes, I saw Liz Lee being an annoying faux-"nerd" hanging out with her "friends" and a police officer on the sidewalk. If you care, her head is large and her hair is as red as the fire I set to it in my mind. If you don't care, well, then, don't. (Note: I think the police officer was there because they were doing filming or something? I'm not sure. She wasn't TALKING to him or anything. Also, I must say she had a snazzy outfit on. Gotta hand it to the kid.)

Since tonight is the Emmys and I'm preparing by watching 30 Rock on Free-on-Demand, I'm going to just let you read this awesome (IMO) review of My Life as Liz I wrote awhile ago. ENJOY. And come back tomorrow for my post-Emmys recap. Please? PLEASE?

What is it really like to be an “outsider?” The new MTV “reality” series, My Life as Liz, tries hard to answer this question, but ultimately fails.
Liz tells the tale of painfully cool teen Liz Lee from Burleson, Texas, where all hip kids go to die. Liz and her band of fellow “outcasts” stick out like sore thumbs amongst the other kids, whom she describes as being all preppy and stupid, and thus beneath her on the Periodic Table of Awesome. The show documents Liz’s heavily-scripted travails against the pack of blondes who used to be her friends until she awakened her inner dork and now want to make her life miserable.

Liz tries to be the My So-Called Life to the Beverly Hills 90210 that makes up the rest of the MTV line-up. (Liz even has the same dyed red hair that Claire Danes had on Life.) Whereas Life reflects sincere feelings of awkwardness, Liz portrays the sarcastic cynicism of today.

While in similarly cynical works such as Juno and MTV’s own Daria the protagonists were likeable behind their snark, Liz is completely snobby and unlikable, fitting more into the pretentious hipster scene than the nerdy one she so confidently declares herself part of.

Liz is an ironic T-shirt-abusing, chronic hair-dying, thrift store-shopping “weirdo;” however, it’s exactly these kinds of people who’ve become popular and mainstream in their own right. She’s not as different as she claims to be. In fact, according to a multitude of online comments made by her classmates, Liz is indeed quite popular at her school, contrary to what’s shown.

MTV seems obsessed with painting Liz as some sort of nerdy messiah to the masses of socially inept minors it hopes to attract. Liz preaches that she knows what it’s like to be “the school mascot” or “the club president,” and with her show she hopes to give them a voice. What she’s really doing is reducing them to outdated and inaccurate stereotypes. Liz is a 21^st Century girl, but her mindset seems to be stuck in the halls of Saved by the Bell.

In the end, Liz proves herself to be just as condescending as the people she decorates her hate wall with; the blondes she battles may be elitist, but if they are, then she is, too. What she’s not is nerdy, not in any sense.

If you want to find a true look into socially awkward life, Liz isn’t the one to go to; instead, look at the misfit boys surrounding her: if anyone at their school’s a nerd, it’s them. You don’t have to think for long to get why Liz was picked as the show’s anchor as opposed to any one of her male entourage. Even on a show about outcasts, the outcasts lose.

In two words: epic fail.

Hasta manana, babies.