The Lights Comin’ Over The Hill Are A-Blinding Me
Well, at least now we know where all this Ja’mie malarky is heading. It’s not exactly a positive sign for a character when pretty much the only question – well, the only question in the non-teen-girl circles we move in – about Ja’mie: Private School Girl is “will Lilley man up and give his much-loved creation the savage kicking she so clearly deserves?”
Of course not. And with that said, let’s continue.
Tonight’s episode pretty much laid down the tracks for the back end of the series: Ja’mie’s sister was again sidelined, Ja’mie’s dad was again sidelined, we got loads more talk about Ja’mie’s tits and some crappy singing and bad dancing. Groundhog Day!
But of slight interest was the way the confrontation with The Boarders played out. In case you may have missed it / fell asleep / stopped giving a shit back at episode one, all the girls Ja’mie hates turn up at the gates of her house wanting to get into her party… presumably because they’re all idiots who actually thought Ja’mie was going to let them in? Yeah, next time your local TV writer talks about how this show is “practically a documentary”, keep in mind the way that none of the plot makes any sense whatsoever. But we digress.
The Boarders, enraged at being shut out, tell Ja’mie she’s ugly and fat and shit at dancing – all of which is, objectively, true – so she promptly chucks a hissy fit then breaks down in tears, only to have totally recovered three minutes later after making out (oh so briefly) with a boy. So she’s flighty, superficial and capricious; what else is new?
With three episodes to go and Ja’mie little more than a nightmarish bitch on wheels AND YET she also has a massive and devoted fanbase Lilley wouldn’t dare let down by allowing anything seriously yet deservedly bad to happen to her, the end of this series seems clear: Ja’mie will not achieve all her goals (thus satisfying those wanting her bitchy behaviour to be punished), yet her setback will be brief as she promptly shifts her focus to something she has achieved (thus satisfying those who for some insane reason think she’s awesome).
As for satisfying those who’d like to get a decent laugh out of this series… yeah, good luck with that.
I really enjoyed We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High but with both Angry Boys and Ja’mie I gave up after episode one.
I haven’t watched since episode 1. Do the other actors get to say anything yet?
So you’ve covered the big problem: it’s not funny and it’s repeating itself. That’s enough to give it the failing grade. Is anyone else bothered by what the fuck is going on with this documentary? Maybe it’s that at least We Can Be Heroes and to a lesser extent Summer Heights High could somewhat be accepted as documentaries. Take early Ja’mie: she’d only be outwardly, deliberately awful on camera very occasionally, while the rest of the time she’d just be vapid and with no self-awareness and the audience was trusted to get the joke. The fake documentary requires more subtext that other types of comedy because on top of the normal comedic conceit of whatever story you’re watching you have the added wrinkly of the characters themselves performing for a camera, or hiding their true selves from it.
Now she’s horrible to everyone she doesn’t like, at all times; why is she not toning it down for the camera? She plays a nice girl when, say, the principal is around, so she’s aware that she has to act as a different person at different times, but when she’s being a walking nightmare, the cameras are still filming her. Does she not know this will be aired? Does she write her own voiceover or is a producer doing it for her? If it’s the former, why would this be happening? If it’s the latter, how could someone be SO stupid not to get that it’s mocking her? If she’s been the star of two documentaries already wouldn’t she be MORE guarded, not less? Wouldn’t there be a Jezebel article about how a rich girl who has had two TV shows made about her and is in the midst of a third has a public Facebook event for a party that actually says “no Asians”?
I know it’s reading to much into it but I wasn’t laughing so I have to keep myself entertained somehow. The point is as much as Lilley gives zero fucks about any performer on screen who isn’t Lilley, he also gives zero fucks about the logic of what’s actually happening, and maybe if some thought had gone into the world of the show rather than just “hey here’s this weird thing teenage girls do!” we might – MIGHT – have something actually good here?
What a fucking frustrating show.
Also they better not give Ja’mie any sort of out or positive spin at the end as she is ACTUALLY KEEPING A SLAVE NOW.
Yeah that thing with the boarders didn’t really make sense. At first I thought maybe the boarder leader showed up just for a confrontation and manipulated the others going with her. But that level of thought and nuance isn’t really present in this series.
As you insinuated the interesting thing is not the show itself but just the reactions from the show.