It’s been a rough fall for new comedies, with A to Z and Manhattan Love Story already canceled (and Mulaney well on its way to joining them), it only felt like a matter of time before Selfie was put out to pasture, which unfortunately happened earlier this week. And it couldn’t come at a worse time: combined with the last two episodes, it feels like “Landline” was finally starting to get a grip on its formula, finding a more consistent comedic rhythm and beginning to dig into characters beyond the superficiality baked into their personalities from the show’s premise, even if the story it told (girl gets jealous, but conveniently remains unsure of her feelings) wasn’t all that original.
Maybe it’s really a good thing Selfie got canceled: of everything the show attempted to do, nudging Henry and Eliza closer and closer to romantic entanglement is something the show didn’t need in its first season, and often suffers from. Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing “Landline” latches onto with a tight grip in its final act, which unnecessarily pushes an interesting episode – centered around Eliza’s need for Henry, both as a friend and mentor – towards the predictable, with Henry’s new girlfriend Dr. J an obvious case of “Too Much Like the Other” to be a serious romantic roadblock for Eliza. And while I appreciate that the episode doesn’t get explicitly sappy about their budding romance – instead reminding us that Eliza is a narcissistic mess without Henry’s help – it can only camouflage things so much, and like previous episodes, leads us into scenes where it’s clear Eliza is feeling things she isn’t expressing out loud (though her comment about Henry being a friend because they “spend lots of time together” but don’t sleep with each other is the one time she actually lets on how she’s beginning to feel about him).
When it comes to the actual plot of the episode, this is really the first that wasn’t focused on Eliza’s image rehabilitation: by nature, it’s designed to focus on Henry’s new relationship, and show us that Eliza still needs him more than she’s been letting on. Sure, she’s made a little progress, but this is still a woman who leaves petty reviews on a doctor’s website, potentially affecting her career – she’s got a long way to go, and “Landline” points out that Henry still has an important role to play in that. Outside the romantic context, it’s pretty much an unnecessary story (seven episodes in, we all know that Eliza still needs Henry’s help; the opening monologue about “friends” says it all): however, it actually works in strengthening the bond between the two characters in the end, allowing the two to comfortably slide back into their newly-found roles as master and grasshopper, albeit with the new tensions existing between Eliza and Julia, something I’m sure the show would build on in the next few episodes.
With two episodes left on the schedule (for now, at least) and another half-dozen still in production, it seems we’re not totally done with Selfie yet (though who knows when it will actually air) – and I’m glad, regardless of the show’s growing pains in the last few episodes (not to mention the possibility of finally Getting John Cho Laid On-Screen, a cause taken up by Salon’s Sonya Saraiya in a fascinating article about race on television). Selfie had a lot of potential to bring real poignancy to the narcissistic Facebook generation we’re living in, written behind the idea that nobody can find love until they’ve learned to love themselves (and not just how many fake friends and followers they have online) – and that in fact, modern life makes us lonelier and harder to connect to than it used to be, when people used rotary phones and referred to colleagues as “their contemporaries.” It’s disappointing we’ll probably never get to see Selfie reach its potential – even if the final few episodes (which I’ll be reviewing, whenever and wherever they eventually appear) continue the show’s gradual improvements, Selfie is yet another entry on the shelf in the What Might Have Been category. R.I.P. Selfie – we hardly knew ye.
Photo via ABC
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