Let me start be saying that this is going to be somewhat of a rant. Read at your own risk.
***
A few weeks ago I wrote here about a new show I’ve been watching called My Life as Liz. At the time I noted that there was a sort of “disingenuous feel about the whole thing” because the “nerdy” Liz was not actually a nerd, she is actually kind of cool and stylish. But at the time I was somewhat able to look past this in the name of entertainment.
Since I wrote all that, I have learned some more things about the show that make me less inclined to “look past” this discrepency. I have learned recently that apparently this show is supposed to be a “mockumentary” and that to some degree we are supposed to believe that what we are seeing is REAL.
When I first heard this, I sort of laughed, because I can’t actually imagine anyone seriously believing that anything that happens on this show could possibly be real. Yes, it’s filmed in a sort of semi-documentary style…but so what? Lots of things are filmed that way these days. I thought the show was stylized this way to give it more of an “immediate” feel. But now I’m hearing that viewers are expected to believe that what’s happening is ACTUALLY real. At least to some degree.
I’m flabbergasted that anyone could possibly believe any of this is real. Before I go any further, though, a disclaimer: I realize, of course, that I am NOT the intended audience for this show. This is obviously a show geared towards teenagers and pre-teens. So, without sounding condescending, I’ve got to say that I think it’s totally within the realm of possibility to say that MTV does not expect the intended audience for this show to be quite so…shall we say…DISCERNING? I’m not saying that MTV thinks they can “pull the wool” over the eyes of their intended audience…well, wait. Maybe that is exactly what I’m trying to say.
But apparently not everybody is buying in. There seems to be a big internet debate on whether or not the show is “real,” so I’ve done some research the last couple of days, trying to get to the bottom of all this, and here is the best I’ve been able to come up with (and even then, this may not be the truth at all):
Apparently MTV searched high and low and found this girl, Liz Lee, and decided to make a show about how she is such a non-conformist nerd in the super-conservative hick town of Burleson, Texas. Supposedly all the events that happen in the show actually happened in her life. The show is shot with actual people from the actual town of Burleson, Texas, and what we are seeing is a re-enactment by the actual people that were involved. That’s my understanding, anyway.
Having said all this, Liz does warn us, at the beginning of each episode, that the “events and people are real…at least the way I see it.” So it’s supposed to be real…but reality as seen through HER eyes.
Are you with me so far?
Now, here’s where I start to have a REAL problem with this show. If you read enough online comments from what appears to be actual people who live in Burleson, Texas, the show and everything about it is almost entirely incorrect, fake and fabricated. Mostly, the people making these comments take exception to Liz’s portrayal of Burleson as “po-dunk backwards one-horse town.” Of course, to this I reply that we have to remember that the portrayal of the town is through Liz’s eyes. And as a disenchanted teenager, she is disenchanted with her town.
I can live with that.
However, I can’t live with some of the other comments about Liz herself. Of course, first of all, we have to keep in mind that anybody can say anything online and that doesn’t necessarily make it true. One girl says Liz was pregnant. A guy claims Liz would perform sexual acts on him in the boys’ bathroom between classes. I repeat: just because someone says something, especially behind the cloak of anonymity conveniently offered by the internet, does necessarily make it true.
But…
On the other hand, there are enough comments by enough different people saying “I’m from Burleson, and I know Liz, and she is nothing at all like the character on the show.” People online are saying that she is NOT a nerd, she’s actually one of the “cool kids.” She is actually friends with the people on the show who are portrayed as her enemies. And the people on the show who are portrayed as being her very closest friends…well, in real life she hardly ever spoke to them at all.
So basically, the whole thing is fake.
And “fake” is okay, as long as there is the understanding that what you are watching is a fiction created for the purpose of entertainment. But when MTV comes in and claims that this is a “mockumentary” and that what you are seeing has some basis in truth, when (if) in fact there is NO truth in it whatsoever…well, I’m just…OFFENDED.
I mean, if you feed me a fiction where you tell me that the trendy “hipster” is actually a nerd, I just kind of roll my eyes and say “Hollywood is at it again.” I mean, the whole idea of the “cute nerd” has recently become such a staple in entertainment that we tend to accept it, despite the extreme unlikelihood. But to call this show “MY LIFE as Liz,” and call it a “mockumentary,” and then create a “life” for this character that is a COMPLETE FABRICATION is just plain…WRONG.
It’s wrong. That’s all I have to say.
It’s also wrong on another level. Let’s forget for a moment that the whole thing is probably a lie. The SPIRIT of the show, as I originally understood it, is that Liz is supposed to be a nerd, an outcast. She is supposed to be a free spirit that doesn’t “run with the herd.” She hears the beat of a different drummer. No one appreciates or understands her…except her few other friends, who are also nerds.
So then…why is it that in last night’s episode, Liz wants to go to Prom? It’s all about prom! If she really was a nerd, she wouldn’t even be thinking about prom! She would barely even know that prom was happening! But here she is, asking a boy to prom. If she really was the social outcast the show originally portrayed her to be, she would disdain the whole idea of prom, AND she would in no way have enough self-confidence to ask the boy she likes to go out on any kind of date with her, let alone to the PROM.
If Liz really was a nerd, she wouldn’t wear red lipstick and perfectly applied eye makeup, and she wouldn’t listen to such cool music, and she wouldn’t know or care a single whit about Prom. She would be unattractive and/or fat and/or have braces and/or acne, and she would read Lord of the Rings and/or play video games and/or study excessively.
Because Liz is none of those things, and does none of those things, and in fact, she is interested in going to Prom, and has now been befriended by one of the “cool” kids, the message that MTV is sending is contradictory to the message they CLAIM to be sending. They CLAIM to be saying “It’s cool to be yourself, to be an individual, to march to the beat of a different drummer.” That’s the lip service. But what they’re actually saying to their young impressionable audience is “It’s okay to ‘be a nerd,’ as long as you are a cool/cute nerd and go to Prom.”
Of course the problem here is that if anyone ever really DID make a show about a real nerd, nobody would ever want to watch it. So we end up with this odd mixture of the socially acceptable and socially unacceptable. And we end up with something entirely FALSE and disingenuous.
That’s my problem with the show.
