Selfie: A Splendid, Silly Delight

Just the fact that it was called Selfie was enough to make most of America turn the TV off when this show premiered last September. I, however, stuck with it, because I was a fan of the lead actors and was keen to see where exactly they planned to go with this show. It got cancelled after seven episodes, but we live in the Internet age, and Hulu aired the remainder of the first season online, where I happily gobbled it up. If you are looking for a sweet, fun show that only requires a 13-episode commitment from your ADD-ravaged mind, I heartily encourage you to check out Selfie.

Karen Gillan (aka Amy Pond from Doctor Who) stars as Eliza Dooley, a narcissistic social media maven who has thousands of friends online but not a single one in real life. She works as a pharmaceutical sales rep alongside Henry Higgs (the impossibly charming John Cho), a straitlaced marketing rep who considers himself an etiquette expert, and is therefore appalled by Eliza's general gracelessness and obsession with her Instagram account. Circumstances conspire (as they always do in sitcoms) to throw these two together in Odd Couple-fashion. Henry becomes Eliza's social mentor, tasked with teaching her how to be polite and charm people in real life instead of on Twitter. Hilarity, naturally, ensues.

It's a slight premise, but in the hands of these two actors, it works marvelously. They have oodles of chemistry and they take this My Fair Lady concept and run with it wholeheartedly. Gillan is happy to put herself in all sorts of embarrassing and awkward situations, while Cho is weirdly likable as an uptight technophobic prig. Like all comedies, the show is slow to warm up, but I really believe it hit its stride in mid season, sadly after it had already been cancelled. If you don't thoroughly enjoy episode 10, something must be wrong with you.

I won't argue that Selfie is in the realm of other cancelled one-season shows that deserve a cult level of acclaim. This is not a televisual masterpiece like Firefly or Wonderfalls. However, Selfie is exactly what it set out to be: a silly sitcom that regularly delivered inanity and laughs and featured two stunningly talented actors that you would happily spend 22 minutes watching every week. I do hope Cho and Gillan get together for a one-off rom com because I do miss their ridiculous chemistry. However, until that happens, you can watch them do their thing for thirteen wacky episodes. If nothing else, it's a perfectly fun way to spend an evening alone because the only friends you have are on Facebook.