My Fair Lady is a great musical. Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle are such polar opposites from beginning to end that the romance that sparkles between them is almost impossible. The story is both heart-warming and encouraging in showing that, given the right incentive and motivation, anyone can do anything. Why am a I talking about a musical staring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison? Because tonight, on ABC, you can watch the series premier of Selfie, a show that is loosely based on My Fair Lady.
Selfie looks at the life of one Eliza Dooley, a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company, who believes that popularity on social media is the most important thing. What she soon finds out, as have many people, that the internet is a fickle mistress, she is crushed and has no one to talk to since she has no real friends, only followers. Upon seeing the amazing work that one of the marketing guys can do in spinning an old product with a bad reputation into a top seller, Eliza decides to persuade him to take her case and help to give her the social facelift that she so desperately hungers for.
I got to see the pilot for this show a few weeks ago, and I will say that there are some funny parts, but it is not one of those laugh out loud funny shows that I would expect from the preview. The writing is all right, but not spectacular, and the premise is a bit hackneyed. I think they could do some great things with this show, but I am not holding out a lot of hope for it. I would like to see it at least be allowed to finish one season and just see how the show, and the romance, pans out. I will warn you that watching the promo below will pretty much give you all the jokes and the entire plot of the first episode. So, enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqozmwlE00
sigh…
Yeah, I might have smiled a couple of times, but not a real laugh.