So I was quickly losing patience with Popular, my latest revel in bad teen angst/comedy. A Sadie Hawkins episode that’s all about both the boys and girls hating their bodies (hey writers, you’ve done that already), a lame and weird sexual harassment episode (fyi, everyone takes away everyone else’s power), and “Caged” – an episode about what happens when all the girls get their periods simultaneously, are stupid enough to write down their darkest secrets in a new (mid-way through the semester?) Feminism class (I am shocked, just shocked, that Nicole stole those scraps of paper out of the class trash bin), and then get locked in the bathroom together. OK, well, “Caged” did have that great and bizarre bit about the Bio teacher’s S&M practices after dark. Still, I wasn’t floored by it. But then in just one episode Popular manages to return to true greatness in an episode about a conniving boy who fights dirty to not merely become the first guy on the cheerleading team (the Glamazons), but to become head cheerleader.
As to the plot, I think Television Without Pity described it best – “I am astonished at the Scooby-Doo logic path the show is following. Astonished, amazed, and impressed. It's like the best combination of an after-school special and Sassy magazine.” But beyond that, this episode is loaded with zingers that are at once very amusing, and completely out of place. The writers seem to have so much trouble remembering that they are not writing their own dialogue – they are apparently a bunch of gay guys in the 20’s and 30’s – they are writing dialogue for supposed high school students. It’s a very funny juxtaposition. Examples of this snappy repartee:
What in the name of Linda Evangelista?
You’re Maria, she’s Anita at best.
I dig you in a Bonnie and Clyde let’s dress-up in expensive clothes and kill people kind of way.
If I’m half as evil as that horrible vampire Adam then I should be burned at the stake. But the truth is I don’t want my friends to have to accessorize with Madonna-style crucifixes – they’re so 80’s.
Of course this episode, “All About Adam”, has other pluses too – Wonder Woman music (!), Operation Angels Part II, a high school named after Lynyrd Skynyrd, and lots and lots of Mary Cherry (who has all kinds of new talents in this episode). With episodes like this, I’m not going to give up on Popular just yet. It can be really funny.
Posted by armand at October 13, 2004 03:00 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture