The new ABC sitcom Selfie premiered tonight! Read our recap of the first episode, and tell us what you thought.
Selfie stars Karen Gillan and John Cho, and is based on My Fair Lady. It was created by Emily Kapnek, former Suburgatory writer and showrunner.
In the first episode, we meet Eliza Dooley, and watch as a social media scandal drives her to seek the help of marketing genius Henry. He accepts the challenge of “re-branding” her, and ultimately the pair realises that they enjoy each other’s company more than they’d care to admit.
Let’s take a closer look at the events of the pilot episode.
From #Butt to #Instafamous: That’s the dream
Meet Eliza, a self-obsessed young sales rep whose social media presence has completely consumed her life. She lives and breathes for retweets and favourites, and the only thing that matters to her is her online popularity.
The show opens with the (very in your face) song “Let Me Take a Selfie” by The Chainsmokers. While it’s obviously the perfect song to introduce the show, we really hope it’s not going to appear in every episode!
“The funny thing is, people used to call me butt-ugly,” Eliza says in her first voice-over monologue of the episode (will that be a recurring thing? The pilot relies a little too much on re-telling for our taste).
In the first scene, we see Eliza on a plane with her work colleagues, dressed to the max and taking the world by storm.
She walks past a flabbergasted Henry (John Cho), who can’t believe that Eliza is actually the company’s top sales rep.
“Social media is this giant fingernail scratching this woman’s itch for constant attention,” Henry remarks, making his purpose in the series perfectly clear: he is the head-shaking adult, perplexedly watching his teenage daughter’s selfie freakout in the back of his car.
‘He was married! And I just needed to GIF my way through that.’
We soon learn that Eliza has unknowingly been sleeping with a married man — and when Eliza herself finds this out, she gets violently sick — and proceeds to get her own vomit all over her dress.
With 263,000 “friends,” Eliza truly believes that her online popularity translates to real life, and is therefore traumatized when none of her colleagues come to her aid after her “epic fail.”
On her way home, we meet Eliza’s neighbour Bryn (Allyn Rachel), a Zooey Deschanel clone with a book club. This reminds Eliza that she has no actual real-life friends to hang out with… except, you know, Siri.
‘Being friended is not the same thing as having friends.’
The next day, Henry’s friend takes him to task on not having a girlfriend. Henry reveals he has a problem making a true connection in this cold and digital world.
We also meet the show’s ray of sunshine, the company secretary Charmonique (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose mission is to pleasantly greet every single employer in the morning.
In a company meeting, boss Sam Saperstein (David Harewood) praises Henry for salvaging the reputation of their nasal spray. “This man did the impossible,” he says. “He took a product whose reputation had been badly tarnished, and re-branded it as a product that consumers could once again love and trust.”
This gives Eliza a brilliant idea: make Henry give her a personality makeover. Henry agrees, seeing it as a challenge, and assures her there is no romantic interest on his part (hah, right).
‘Look, I know you don’t like me. But if you don’t like me… just change me.’
Henry invites Eliza to Saperstein’s daughter’s wedding, and she enlists Bryn to give her a “makeunder.” After a rather painful session with the book club girls, Eliza begins to realise what it’s like to have (really weird, Lady Gaga jamming… seriously, what’s that about?!) friends.
Eliza emerges, stunning Henry with her natural beauty. “Today is about focusing on a beauty other than your own,” he tells her, and she smirks. He just called her beautiful. (We ship it already.)
‘I’m not used to having to pay attention to super boring long stuff.’
Eliza is moved at the wedding ceremony… so moved that she uses her phone to escape the unwanted onslaught of emotions. Unfortunately, she forgot to turn it on silent, and manages to embarrass herself again.
Henry is obviously upset and they have a falling out, and Eliza decides to give up on the whole “socialising” thing. But when she leaves work the next night and finds Charmonique’s son waiting at the reception, she actually stops and talks to him. Progress!
‘Hold on, did we just have a friendly exchange that had nothing to do with you?!’
After a friendly moment with Charmonique, Eliza realises that what Henry was doing with her was working, and she goes to his house to win him back.
She apologises, and they notice the “medium rainfall on roof with gentle overspill from gutters” sound she enjoys so much. When she tries to capture it on her phone, Henry tells her not to — because by trying to immortalise the moment, “you are, in fact, missing it.”
‘Something told me it had been a while since anyone gave Henry a push.’
The episode ends with Henry and Eliza in the rain, both a little surprised by their newfound friendship.
And clearly, this will be the cornerstone of the series. Social media gags aside, the true heart of Selfie lies in Henry and Eliza’s connection. Gillan and Cho’s chemistry is palpable, and their exchanges were the best thing about the sometimes cringe-worthy pilot.
We think Selfie has a lot of potential. The cast is fantastic, with Da’Vine Joy Randolph and David Harewood shining in their supporting roles. Hopefully episode 2 will delve deeper into the connections between the characters.
Now it’s your turn! Tell us what you thought of the Selfie pilot, and if you’re planning to watch the second episode.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.