MTV’s My Life is Liz is almost like a documentary, but the production is so polished and seamless that we can safely assume that this is not a candid “reality” show in the same way MTV’s 16 & Pregnant and Bravo’s Real Housewives are, but parts of it may be a “real” recounting of how Liz Lee experienced her senior year in high school. (This has been confirmed by people with brains, and an MTV executive producer who said “”We don’t look at it as just a reality show — that doesn’t capture it. We weren’t going to call it a sitcom, because it’s not.”)
The many camera angles, plethora of perfect shots, artsy effects, and the rare bit of stilted acting give it away, but MTV is playing it still playing it coy. They’ve failed to offer the widespread public any real explanation about how real or “fake” this new series is (though an MTV VP Dave Sirulnick told the L.A. Times they never meant to confuse anyone), and they recently put up a video featuring the show’s star Liz Lee addressing the “haters.” Liz chooses her words very carefully in the refutation that the show is a “fake,” but she never says: “This is definitely a documentary recording my life as it happens.” What she does say? “Those relationships are real, those friendships are real. Those events are real. They really happened, and that’s our real reaction to those events.”
Liz is sort of adorable, but she’s a little too cool and socially poised to be the poor little dork girl, and that’s not necessarily a good thing; we need a little more awkward for this genre to really work. At the start of the show she explains that she used to hang with a different crowd, but got shunned, so she dyed her hair red and clung to an indie hipster “alternative” lifestyle with hints of Star Wars fascination. She rules her “nerd herd” of overweight boys who have been into comic books all their lives (and didn’t just pick it up for social manipulation) who are probably holding out foolish hopes that she’ll someday fall in love with them instead of the popular boy she has her sights on. Her personality also offers up no valid alternative to the outrage she expresses about everyone and everything around her. That’s a very teenage situation, but there usually is a little more depth to teenage angst than is explored on this show.
We need true teenage angst queens like Angela Chase and Lindsay Weir. In case you miss Angela and Lindsay, here’s some videos that will remind you how wonderful they were:
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