John Cho and Karen Hillan in Selfie.
Ah, Christmas. A time for giving. For thinking of others. For thinking others will love your gift of selfies, showing off your latest haul from Santa.
If only Selfie, TVNZ On Demand's new sitcom, weren't so true to life. Unfortunately for humanity, this could be the most culturally accurate show
of the year. It's about an insecure, self-obsessed 20-something with few real friends or social graces, thousands of Instagram followers and an embarrassing fondness for posting images of herself. It pokes fun at - and virtually spits on - the attention-seeking behaviour that runs rampant on social media. You get the impression that many selfies were hurt in the making of this. But anyone with a Facebook account will agree, it's high time they were skewered in a TV show.
Plenty of viewers will recognise themselves in - or distance themselves from - Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan), a girl "addicted to the instant gratification of unearned adulation from a group of strangers you insist on referring to as your friends". Just in case you didn't catch the Eliza reference, this description comes from Henry (John Cho) the show's voice of reason, and the one helping Eliza transition from gauche narcissist to mildly pleasant human.
Yep, it's a contemporary version of My Fair Lady, the larger-than-life, glossy version. But deep down, it's dark and bitchy, drawing a line between regular selfie posters and their self-esteem issues. Eliza was titled "Most Butt" (butt ugly) in her high school year book. She'd escape the pain by reaching for the nearest distraction - her phone.
Years later, having styled herself as a beauty-obsessed internet star, she humiliates herself, and finally gets the hint that those outside her digital bubble find her cringe-worthy. All of this unfolded in the pilot, which lurched around with an odd rhythm, yet hit on something we all know to be true.
