"the girls begin to illegally manufacture and distribute a particular brand of soda called Blue Dog Soda after it’s banned by the state of California for having obscene amounts of caffiene in it"
I realize it's all in the execution, but this sounds like an entertaining premise.
Honestly? The way you describe the show in the beginning there actually makes it sound pretty awesome. A thirteen year old secretly managing a big burly MMA fighter? A Breaking Bad parody with two teenage girls? A borderline sociopath like Sam being forced into babysitting, then taping a baby's hands to a moped and letting it loose in LA traffic? That's so out there and audacious it makes me smile just thinking about it, haha. That said, I don't doubt that it's badly written and ends up as a trash fire in practice, but I also can't help think this premise could have been a lot of fun if done with enough flair and self-aware silliness.
"The two girls instantly become best friends despite having zero chemistry, both in terms of characters and the actresses playing them"
Like I touched on earlier, stuff like this makes the acting profession so fascinating to me. In theory it shouldn't be a big deal for two actors to manufacture an on-screen friendship. You could almost say that's their job. Still, real life has a way of sneaking in, and the chemistry between the real individuals does end up playing a part. There's a lot of interesting nuance there. And again, the meta premise here would probably have made for a better show: a super famous rising pop star and a bitter former child actress with mommy issues are contractually forced to star in a bad show no one even wants to exist, but somehow become friends for real. The story almost writes itself.
...so why didn't they let McCurdy direct and/or write a few episodes if that would have helped keep her happy(er), anyway? At this point she was a veteran of these shows, and from the outside she seems pretty sensible. Why not throw her that little bone? It's also interesting to see a celebrity being totally honest for once, since she didn't want that position and didn't have anything to lose. Also not hard to imagine how it must have felt to disappear into the shadow of Ariana Grande while still doing the lion's share of the work.
Definitely agreed that she abuse she was subjected to seems over the top. I know we Europeans have a bad habit of being extremely smug towards Americans*, but I'm going to have to be 'that guy' and say it anyway: Americans are really, really weird and neurotic about sex and nudity sometimes. :P Oh, and why are all these adults on the internet so obsessed about what an actress in a children's show does, anyway? I guess the internet will be the internet...
Also have to appreciate the irony of Nickelodeon finally stumbling on a huge pop star to rival Disney, only to focus 100% on her acting instead and putting her in a second-fiddle position to Victoria Justice.
In any case, always a pleasure to get a new installment, and your effort is appreciated.
*By now I've finally cut Reddit out of my life, hopefully for good, but if you check out r/Norway sometime, whenever there's a post comparing our education system, healthcare, gun culture etc to the US, you'll inevitably see a crowd of incredibly self-satisfied Norwegians going on about how enlightened we are compared to those awful barbarians across the Atlantic. We like to think of ourselves as so inclusive and broad-minded, but stuff like that shows how much prejudice is alive and well in these parts too
Honestly, if the Nickelodeon execs had any creativity, they could have made an entertaining meta-commentary style show about the situation between McCurdy and Grande, but that would have taken too much effort. Also, I imagine it would have soured their working relationship in record time. Something very similar actually happened with a proposed Drake and Josh reboot that was "too meta" for Drake's feelings. And if it sounds like I'm disparaging him, I'm not. We'll talk about it in a future article, though.
As for why they wouldn't let McCurdy direct or write any episodes, I don't think they really had any intention of ever letting her do so, but needed to keep her at least with some modicum on investment for as long as they could. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I got the feeling from reading her book that they were stringing her along the whole time, little by little, always giving just enough to keep her on the line but never enough to satisfy her.
As for Americans and sex and nudity - absolutely. On one hand, being a part of the culture, I understand it, but simultaneously I also see why Europeans feel the way they feel. I feel like one of the reasons we have the issues with we do in American society is because sex is treated so weirdly. And I won't lie, I'm a bit of a prude, too, but even I think we approach it in a deleterious way that makes it seem both infinitely bigger and paradoxically trivially small all at once, and that schizophrenic, conflicting mindset just fucks people's heads in the long run.
Oh, you're absolutely right, I don't think a show with that premise should have starred McCurdy and Grande themselves. That would have been too meta, like you said. With some other actors and a more fictionalized situation I think it could be good, though. That said, they seem to have gone out of their way to make it meta in ways that are already uncomfortable for McCurdy, like you and others have pointed out. Stuff like making a lot of jokes about her in-universe abusive mother, food gags when she had issues with that, etc. Seems almost intentionally spiteful at times, in a weird way.
Re. directing, I guess what I don't understand is why string her along to begin with? She seems like a reasonably talented and thoughtful person, so what could be the harm in just letting her direct an episode? If they cared enough about her to keep her on board, it seems like a baffling to choice to pretend instead of actually giving her something, especially when it would have cost them so little. Besides, it's not like what we ended up with turned out to be high cinematic art anyway, so surely they could have risked one ep. :P
The meta-narrative surrounding McCurdy and her character of Sam does seem awful spiteful. It's hard not to read it in any other way. If I remember correctly, she writes in her book that she had molars fall out after they weathered extensive damage from stomach acid that came from daily bulimic purges, often multiple times a day. It's pretty brutal stuff. I'm not sure why the writing staff would pick on her so particularly and callously, but, at the same time, if you read McCurdy's book... well, I'll say this - it's kind of amazing how every time you think she's at the lowest point in her life, or the worst thing that could happen has happened, something worse comes up. I commend her personal strength because she went through things in her personal life that would have crushed someone with less resolve.
As for why they wouldn't let her direct anything, I can't say. Internal politics, maybe? I wouldn't find it hard to believe that her at time contentious personality didn't endear her to the higher-ups. There were several times she refused to do certain things and I think that someone, somewhere, must have developed a particular disdain for her. I'm not even sure it was Schneider so much as someone above him. It's hard to say since she doesn't name names in her book. Personally, I suspect they were looking to milk as much out of her while giving her as little as they could. She was popular and well-liked by the audience, so they couldn't just toss her out, but at the same time, they were going to do her no favors. Ultimately, I think she was just harder to control than most of the child stars on set and that just made her enemies in high places. But that's all speculation on my part.
Thanks Joseph. I hate to keep you waiting, but A) there's still more than one article remaining and B) unfortunately, it won't get wrapped up until July, since I'm leaving the country for a bit this week and haven't had the time and won't have the time to give this series the finale it deserves until when I return. I'll have some other stuff until then, but unfortunately this tale is going on a brief hiatus ;)
"the girls begin to illegally manufacture and distribute a particular brand of soda called Blue Dog Soda after it’s banned by the state of California for having obscene amounts of caffiene in it"
I realize it's all in the execution, but this sounds like an entertaining premise.
Honestly? The way you describe the show in the beginning there actually makes it sound pretty awesome. A thirteen year old secretly managing a big burly MMA fighter? A Breaking Bad parody with two teenage girls? A borderline sociopath like Sam being forced into babysitting, then taping a baby's hands to a moped and letting it loose in LA traffic? That's so out there and audacious it makes me smile just thinking about it, haha. That said, I don't doubt that it's badly written and ends up as a trash fire in practice, but I also can't help think this premise could have been a lot of fun if done with enough flair and self-aware silliness.
"The two girls instantly become best friends despite having zero chemistry, both in terms of characters and the actresses playing them"
Like I touched on earlier, stuff like this makes the acting profession so fascinating to me. In theory it shouldn't be a big deal for two actors to manufacture an on-screen friendship. You could almost say that's their job. Still, real life has a way of sneaking in, and the chemistry between the real individuals does end up playing a part. There's a lot of interesting nuance there. And again, the meta premise here would probably have made for a better show: a super famous rising pop star and a bitter former child actress with mommy issues are contractually forced to star in a bad show no one even wants to exist, but somehow become friends for real. The story almost writes itself.
...so why didn't they let McCurdy direct and/or write a few episodes if that would have helped keep her happy(er), anyway? At this point she was a veteran of these shows, and from the outside she seems pretty sensible. Why not throw her that little bone? It's also interesting to see a celebrity being totally honest for once, since she didn't want that position and didn't have anything to lose. Also not hard to imagine how it must have felt to disappear into the shadow of Ariana Grande while still doing the lion's share of the work.
Definitely agreed that she abuse she was subjected to seems over the top. I know we Europeans have a bad habit of being extremely smug towards Americans*, but I'm going to have to be 'that guy' and say it anyway: Americans are really, really weird and neurotic about sex and nudity sometimes. :P Oh, and why are all these adults on the internet so obsessed about what an actress in a children's show does, anyway? I guess the internet will be the internet...
Also have to appreciate the irony of Nickelodeon finally stumbling on a huge pop star to rival Disney, only to focus 100% on her acting instead and putting her in a second-fiddle position to Victoria Justice.
In any case, always a pleasure to get a new installment, and your effort is appreciated.
*By now I've finally cut Reddit out of my life, hopefully for good, but if you check out r/Norway sometime, whenever there's a post comparing our education system, healthcare, gun culture etc to the US, you'll inevitably see a crowd of incredibly self-satisfied Norwegians going on about how enlightened we are compared to those awful barbarians across the Atlantic. We like to think of ourselves as so inclusive and broad-minded, but stuff like that shows how much prejudice is alive and well in these parts too
Honestly, if the Nickelodeon execs had any creativity, they could have made an entertaining meta-commentary style show about the situation between McCurdy and Grande, but that would have taken too much effort. Also, I imagine it would have soured their working relationship in record time. Something very similar actually happened with a proposed Drake and Josh reboot that was "too meta" for Drake's feelings. And if it sounds like I'm disparaging him, I'm not. We'll talk about it in a future article, though.
As for why they wouldn't let McCurdy direct or write any episodes, I don't think they really had any intention of ever letting her do so, but needed to keep her at least with some modicum on investment for as long as they could. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I got the feeling from reading her book that they were stringing her along the whole time, little by little, always giving just enough to keep her on the line but never enough to satisfy her.
As for Americans and sex and nudity - absolutely. On one hand, being a part of the culture, I understand it, but simultaneously I also see why Europeans feel the way they feel. I feel like one of the reasons we have the issues with we do in American society is because sex is treated so weirdly. And I won't lie, I'm a bit of a prude, too, but even I think we approach it in a deleterious way that makes it seem both infinitely bigger and paradoxically trivially small all at once, and that schizophrenic, conflicting mindset just fucks people's heads in the long run.
Oh, you're absolutely right, I don't think a show with that premise should have starred McCurdy and Grande themselves. That would have been too meta, like you said. With some other actors and a more fictionalized situation I think it could be good, though. That said, they seem to have gone out of their way to make it meta in ways that are already uncomfortable for McCurdy, like you and others have pointed out. Stuff like making a lot of jokes about her in-universe abusive mother, food gags when she had issues with that, etc. Seems almost intentionally spiteful at times, in a weird way.
Re. directing, I guess what I don't understand is why string her along to begin with? She seems like a reasonably talented and thoughtful person, so what could be the harm in just letting her direct an episode? If they cared enough about her to keep her on board, it seems like a baffling to choice to pretend instead of actually giving her something, especially when it would have cost them so little. Besides, it's not like what we ended up with turned out to be high cinematic art anyway, so surely they could have risked one ep. :P
The meta-narrative surrounding McCurdy and her character of Sam does seem awful spiteful. It's hard not to read it in any other way. If I remember correctly, she writes in her book that she had molars fall out after they weathered extensive damage from stomach acid that came from daily bulimic purges, often multiple times a day. It's pretty brutal stuff. I'm not sure why the writing staff would pick on her so particularly and callously, but, at the same time, if you read McCurdy's book... well, I'll say this - it's kind of amazing how every time you think she's at the lowest point in her life, or the worst thing that could happen has happened, something worse comes up. I commend her personal strength because she went through things in her personal life that would have crushed someone with less resolve.
As for why they wouldn't let her direct anything, I can't say. Internal politics, maybe? I wouldn't find it hard to believe that her at time contentious personality didn't endear her to the higher-ups. There were several times she refused to do certain things and I think that someone, somewhere, must have developed a particular disdain for her. I'm not even sure it was Schneider so much as someone above him. It's hard to say since she doesn't name names in her book. Personally, I suspect they were looking to milk as much out of her while giving her as little as they could. She was popular and well-liked by the audience, so they couldn't just toss her out, but at the same time, they were going to do her no favors. Ultimately, I think she was just harder to control than most of the child stars on set and that just made her enemies in high places. But that's all speculation on my part.
Eagerly awaiting the final installment.
Thanks Joseph. I hate to keep you waiting, but A) there's still more than one article remaining and B) unfortunately, it won't get wrapped up until July, since I'm leaving the country for a bit this week and haven't had the time and won't have the time to give this series the finale it deserves until when I return. I'll have some other stuff until then, but unfortunately this tale is going on a brief hiatus ;)
Crazy. 😲. I know nothing of any of this, but I will say that it seems children’s programming has not improved….
Outside of Bluey I know nothing about the state of Children's Entertainment and frankly I'm not sure I want to know either.
😬. Probably a good plan!
What’s his name again?