Popular - Table of Contents

Season One: 

The Phantom Menace
Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems
Under Siege
Windstruck
Slumber Party Massacre
Truth or Consequences
Queen B.
Tonight's the Night
Wild, Wild Mess
Fall on Your Knees
Ex, Lies and Videotape
The Trial of Emory Dick
Hope in a Jar
Caged!
Booty Camp
All About Adam
Lord of the Files
Ch-Ch-Changes
Hard on the Outside, Soft in the Middle
We Are Family
What Makes Sammy Run
Two Weddings and a Funeral

Season Two: 

Timber!
Baby, Don’t Do It!
Citizen Shame
The Sweetest Taboo
Joe Loves Mary Cherry
Style and Substance Abuse
Ur-ine trouble
Misery Loathes Company
Are You There God, It's Me, Ann-Margret
The Consequences of Falling
Fire in the Hole
The Shocking Possession of Harrison John
Mary Charity
The News of My Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
It's Greek to Me
Fag
Coup
The Brain Game
I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!
You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape...
Promblems

Popular - We are good together.

Popular: 2x21 Promblems.

Popular - Why are we fighting?

Popular: 2x20 You Don't Tug On Superman's Cape...

This is the penultimate episode of Popular, and the sad thing isn’t just that the show is ended so abruptly that the writers had no time to come up with a proper ending, it’s also that these two final episodes aren’t the strongest of the season. TV shows are peculiar that way: what other work of art suffers the constant danger of being cancelled pre-maturely, before the final page is written or halfway through a full-length film, or before the painter has time to fill out the blanks on the canvas? 

I’m also now going to make an assumption about Popular that I’ve never made this directly before: I don’t think that there was a very clear or strict outline of all the storylines and the characters for the whole season. I think a lot of it just happened as the show progressed, and the consistency (on and off consistency, occasional excellent, occasional missing consistency) comes from the actors more than the scripts, or specific writers having a better grasp of a particular character. None of this is criticism of the show, it’s a valid choice, but it leads to a pace that is sometimes peculiar: characters don’t seem to grow and change subtly with every episode, but more in leaps whenever an episode is focused on them, and then sometimes the show turns elsewhere and loses its grasp on someone, I’ve always felt. There is a certain danger in it, but on the other hand, there wouldn’t be outstanding episodes like Fall on Your Knees. 

Popular - Now everybody's heartbroken.

Popular: 2x19 I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!

So here’s the thing: I had forgotten about the Sam/Harrison thing that dominates the last couple of episodes of the show. Maybe I originally left out a couple of episodes; maybe I later watched the out of sequence, whatever it was, I did not recall this storyline the way it actually unfolded, so these last couple of reviews are me discovering something about Popular the first time rather than recapturing in hindsight and in full knowledge of what is to come. 

The other thing is that I loathed this storyline when it started, but now, at the point of escalation, I appreciate the fact that the show chose to call out Harrison John. And this is also where things get complicated, because there is a conflict here: a conflict between having a general opinion on the Nice Guytm thing and caring about Harrison John as a character who’s been close to my heart for nearly two years now. 

The idea about the NGt is that there is this guy, and it’s always a guy, let’s not kid ourselves, who has fallen in love with a girl, treated her “nicely”, which I guess means not overtly disrespectfully and like a friend, and then did not get what he considered his prize for no acting like an asshole. The thing that is so awful about the whole concept, the concept of “I did all these nice things for you and yet you would not hook up with me” is that it treats human relationships and intimacy like a trade, a turns women into token machines – you put something in and automatically receive something for your effort. This is what Harrison is doing to Sam McPherson, basically, telling her not to talk to him or approach him as long as she insists on dating George Austin instead of him, despite the fact that they’ve been friends for ages. BUT. On a more personal level, and the level it somehow works, because we are supposed to care about the characters, Harrison is just this guy who’s fallen in love with his best friend and, as is his nature, is now angry that she doesn’t feel the same way about him, even though he’s been through so much and they’ve gone through a lot of things together. I don’t think the story would work if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve seen so much of them before their great fall-out. It’s horrible to think that Harrison would be willing to throw away their friendship, even use it to blackmail Sam – but on the other hand, this is Harrison, who’s just survived cancer, who can be aggressively stubborn, and, not unlike Sam, he often needs to be called out on acting hypocritically. I Know What You Did Last Spring Break! is an extraordinary episode, because for the most part, it almost forces us to side with Harrison – we almost exclusively get his perspective on the whole thing, especially since George is absent for most of it – but then, in the last third, completely dismantles him, and calls him out on every single thing he’s done.  

The other thing that disturbs me about the NGt is that it assumes that friendships are worth less than romantic relationships. In Harrison’s eyes, the fact that Sam doesn’t feel the same way about him, or at least isn’t willing to break up with someone who’s been great for her so far, devalues their previous connection, even though they had a solid and supportive friendship before. The horrible thing about this is that whenever Sam insists that she cares about Harrison – cares about him as a friend, as someone she’s been with since they were both children – Harrison insists that it means nothing because she isn’t willing to hook up with him (“well we used to do a lot of things before you broke my heart.”) I hate nothing more than when a narrative presents this dynamic as somehow romantic, a guy falling in love with his best friend who resists and finally, through persistence, they get together, happy end. There’s nothing romantic about pressuring someone into a romantic relationship and essentially holding a friendship hostage in the process. The whole thing is particularly gross on Harrison’s part because Sam makes it pretty clear that her decision isn’t necessarily based on how she feels about him, but on the fact that her relationship with her current boyfriend is great and she won’t cheat on him, or break up with him for no real reason. 

But, still following the expected dynamic, Sam and Harrison find themselves in quarantaine together, presumably for some disease Harrison picked up in Yemen during spring break, and the tension between them eventually leads to a kiss… that George Austin, on a mission to save his beloved from certain death, witnesses. George feels terrible, Sam feels terrible, Harrison is right back to being hurt and angry because he doesn’t immediately get exactly what he wants and he feels like he knows better than Sam what she is feeling.

Popular - I’m gonna be famous and if it’s the last thing I do.

Popular: 2x18 The Brain Game.

Popular - It’s hard to have, but it’s even harder to lose.

Popular: 2x17 Coup.

Popular - If I don’t laugh, I’ll scream, you know?

Popular: 2x16 Fag.

I don’t know why “It Gets Better” keeps sneaking into these reviews. When I first started these reviews, I had something different in mind from what they actually turned into: I wanted to reference Skins and compare Popular with MSCL, a show that is so radically different aesthetically and still often touches on similar issues (and even also uses magical realism in a key episode). Somehow, this part of the reviews never worked, so I stopped trying to reference other shows. But here’s a fact about MSCL: in 1994, years before Popular ever aired its first episode, MSCL had an openly gay main character. A couple of years later, Popular has one minor gay character who hasn’t appeared in months (Harrison’s mum) and needs to introduce a random new character that hasn’t been seen before (not that I’m not always glad to see someone I recognize from Jamie Babbit’s own But I’m A Cheerleader) for its homophobia-themed Fag. There are things that I genuinely love about this episode: the conclusion that completely avoids the clichéd above mentioned recently widely marketed lie and delivers are blow to everyone who expects a bittersweet moral of the story, a light at the end of the tunnel. The fact that it doesn’t hesitate to call out Lily, the character that sort of leads us through what’s happening, on her faults (assuming that someone is gay based on appearance, taking part in mocking Bobbi Glass, that ever-lasting backdrop of the show that was never before explicitly debated in terms of it being discriminating and hurtful). I think it also does a really good job of portraying different behaviours that lead to a climate of fear – it’s not just the open violence, the actual blows delivered, the bullying in the hallways, it’s also the mindless, seemingly harmless way Josh and Sugar act in front of the new kid, it’s Bobbi Glass’ unwillingness to make her class a safe space (her main argument being that there are no gay kids in her class – the ultimate achievement of institutionalized homophobia, creating a climate of fear that makes it impossible to be out and thereby erasing the possibility of anyone coming forward to claim their rights). 

But on the less bright side, there’s a scene where all of our favourite characters come together in a class that is meant to host a Gay&Straight Alliance, except that issues actual LGBT people face never come up because they are notably absence, so instead everyone speaks about other types of discrimination and ignorance they’ve encountered in their lives. Which is totally what would happen, but it’s also incredibly depressing, because as valid as an episode about different kinds of discriminating and ostracising behaviours is, there are also specific kinds of issues that only apply to gay kids, and by failing to create an environment where they’d feel safe (which is an institutional failure, but the episode presents this as some kind of insight, that everyone is faced with a different face of the same thing, when this actually just deletes all the specifics that are important to devise strategies and understand the issues) and would be able to contribute to the debate. There’s a really important difference between talking with someone and talking for them, and I’m not entirely convinced that this episode of Popular really understands that this is a problem, because the montage of problems being solved (getting racist store assistants fired, world saved!) seems kind of silly in the face of the real world (and more immediate, things happening in the episode). I’ve always felt like Popular was way less naïve (even though it’s the same kind of naivety that Lily has, the kind bred by idealism) when the episodes weren’t so focused on one specific issue facing society today – which is weird, because in many other things, the episode isn’t naïve at all. 

I guess what I’m saying is that I really appreciate the effort, and there are moments in this episode that will stick with me forever, but I can’t shake the feeling that Popular has the tools to do better, and this is also a missed opportunity. 

Popular - How long do we have to wait until everyone else grows up?

Popular: 2x15 It’s Greek To Me.

Popular - Let the grieving begin.

Popular: 2x14 The News of My Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated.

Popular - I wanted a friend.

Popular: 2x13 Mary Charity.

James Duff, the writer of the episode, was also responsible for Joe Loves Mary Cherry, but you’d probably make the connection all on your own, considering how well Mary Charity uses Leslie Grossman’s acting talents. I’ve always admired her for the ability to play Mary Cherry, who is arguably the one character of the show that has, at least a little bit, made it into the cult canon of “now”, because pulling off her over-the-top quality with such abandon and brilliance can’t be easy; but episodes like this and Joe Loves Mary Cherry also reveal that she is a great dramatic actress, someone who can ground her character in reality. There’s a moment in the episode, when Lily shows Mary Cherry the homeless people, where her face suddenly becomes so unusually serious and earnest – and it’s not just that the shock of an absurdly sheltered person (because that’s the joke that’s always on her – that she’s sheltered – while Nic is the opposite, she’s not sheltered, she’s armoured against a world that she knows incredibly well) feeling pity, it’s also Mary Cherry realizing how deep people can fall in a country without a security net, and that it could happen to her. I admire the show for being honest enough to argue that charity is often, if not always, grounded in the fear of eventually being in a similar situation, and having to rely on other people’s kindness. 

I started with something that happens halfway through the episode because there are other things about Mary Charity that I don’t like quite as much, and it relates to something that feels like a fundamental problem with the show. Sometimes it feels to me that there was never a black board in the writers’ room that mapped out the characters and how they were evolving. I think everyone went into the script writing process with their own individual ideas about relationships, attractions and motivations, without any central leadership setting the course. James Duff’s version of Mary Cherry is one that I admire, I think it’s the most interesting way of thinking about her as a character, one that plays best to the actresses’ strength – but he misses the mark a bit with some other people in the episode, and the most frustrating thing is that I can’t remember the last time that someone captured Carmen well, or in any way that resembles who I thought she was built up to be in season one. But anyway, back to the beginning…

Popular - Promise that it's actually you and not someone else.

Popular: 2x12 The Shocking Possession of Harrison John.

Nicole: All the money in the world can’t buy what nature gave me. An identity such as mine can only be inherited.

This is basically Friendships!! The Episode, which is a good thing because the show is at its best when it focuses on the relationships between the characters, and The Shocking Possession of Harrison John finally deals with the fact that since this season started, many established friendships have been struggling under the weight of newly formed alliances and romances. 

It’s also an episode about identity (and a nice reminder of how the show started – with Brooke proclaiming that she was trying to be more than one thing, and the nice way Popular has always played with expectations and stereotypes), and about choice, because Nicole’s statement at the beginning of the episode will be taken apart entirely at the end of it. 

I’d also argue that it’s first and foremost about Nicole Julian, who sort of appears in the title if you really think about it. It’s not that Harrison’s storyline doesn’t eventually turn a corner and become serious and moving towards the end, but the punch to the gut is delivered elsewhere, and it’s a rare thing for a show that (self-) identifies as a comedy to end on such a dire, hopeless note, and it speaks volumes about how far Nicole has come as a character (and Tammy Lynn Michaels’ acting) how powerful and draining that particular ending is. 

But it starts with Harrison’s shocking change from Mary Cherry’s beloved Joe to someone quite quickly proclaimed as a male version of Nicole Julian. He’s styled. He’s mean. He argues that honesty is kindness and destroys Bobbi Glass and April Tuna with a focused destructiveness that hints at all the things the old version of Harrison always thought but never dared to say (because if we’re being honest, Harrison has resorted to meanness before, and it’s interesting that nobody remembers). Awesomely, the person who picks up on it the most is Mary Cherry (not that Carmen and Sam don’t notice, but Mary Cherry is the first to take the initiative). This is great in the context of this season, because in Mary Cherry’s conception of Joe, he isn’t supposed to be mean to others. She already has a friend with these qualities, and her entire world would fall apart if Joe ended up being a copy of Nicole. She doesn’t need two Nicoles.

Nicole, meanwhile, gets a present from Brooke that is the cause of everything else that happens later on: since they haven’t spent a lot of time together, Brooke decides to give her old best friend a chart reading (because “a good chart reading can lead you to the person you were born to become” – which is such a great line, considering what happens next). Nicole needs the date and place of her birth for it and approaches her mother, who immediately blocks every attempt. Nicole steals her birth certificate and finds the inevitable – she was adopted. The whole structure of the episode is fantastic because Nicole starts out projecting all her confidence about her background (money and power), except once we see her interact with her mother, it becomes clear that they have a terrible relationship, one that entirely lacks love and comfort, so finding out about being adopted is on the one hand a shock to Nicole, but there is also a very real sense of hope there. Brooke plays into it as well, sharing her own experience with reconnecting with her mother, and Nicole starts to imagine how it would be if her birth mother weren’t as cold and distant as her adoptive one is. While Harrison tries to copy Nicole because “she gets results”, we see the reason for Nicole’s unforgiving hardness. 

So the theory that Nicole’s dominant DNA infiltrated Harrison’s body is wacky and fun for a bit, but the whole thing also plays out while we, the audience, find out that Nicole was adopted, that it’s really all nurture, that it’s the relationships that shape characters, not biology. While Mary Cherry gets Sam and Carmen to perform an exorcism of Nicole’s evil spirit, Brooke decides to fully support Nicole’s attempts to find her biological mother. 

Note

I completely forgot to include this in the last review so here, have my favourite screencap of Sam and Brooke ever while I work on the next one.

Popular - It’s an ego thing.

Popular: 2x11 Fire in the Hole.

A short one this time: 

We are back to the good old topic of first times, except on slightly changed terms from Popular’s last year due to the fact that both Sam and Lily are now in a relationship, Josh is no longer with Brooke and someone failed to figure out how to fit Carmen into any of this, which is why she is sadly missing from most of what is happening. The hero of our story is one Harrison John, recently returned from “death’s doorstep” (Bobbi Glass) and despite beating cancer, still the prime candidate for the virginal main character in Bio Glass’ musical on STDs, That Burning Sensation: A Cautionary Tale (aka the greatest episode of Glee that never was). So it just happens that Sam (who Harrison supposedly wants to marry, remember?) has decided that she is ready for her first time with George, who wants to take it slowly, while Harrison just wants to lose “it” to anyone (no really, anyone – if Josh hadn’t come up with the idea of giving him a gift certificate for Candy Box – who George suggested, cue scandal – he’d have started to hand out flyers). They mainly do it out of a guilty conscience after torturing him about the fact that he “dials down the threat and travels under the radar” by befriending all the girls, and isn’t it great that being “friendzoned” (the specific concept of it being somehow terrible) is no longer pop culturally relevant twelve years later? 

There are two really great things that happen in the episode. One is a conversation between Brooke and Sam that perfectly showcased how far they’ve come as friends – and how much Brooke has grown over the past months. Sam sneakily sneaks up to Brooke to talk to her about sex because she is concerned that George wants to wait. 

Brooke: Maybe he just wants to wait? Look, Sam, I wish I had. I mean once you give it away, you can’t ever get it back.
Sam: I know that.
Brooke: Then why are you in such a hurry to lose it. Usually you’re so careful…
Sam: So prim? That is just the thing. I am tired of that rep. I just wanna be sexy.
Brooke: No. You just want him to think you’re sexy. It’s an ego thing.

So I don’t really agree with the first part here, because the whole concept of virginity being something that you lose is stupid (and biologically, it’s also bullshit), but Brooke calls Sam out (the whole superficiality thing that has come up in the past) in the nicest way possible, and one that is actually effective, and they come to the conclusion that they would prefer sex ed that teaches them about how sex works, and not just about STDs and “if you have sex you will get pregnant and die”. Brooke finds an alternative… in the garage… and they spend an evening watching one of Mike’s porn films together, as you do as quasi sisters, and it’s an awkward giggly mess, but very endearing. 

The other great thing is sort of revenge for last episode’s tragic disaster, and it’s the worst moment Harrison’s had in a long time. Sort-of freaked out by the prospect of actually accepting the “gift horse” Sugar and Josh have bought him, Harrison approaches Nic – who just saved his life with her bone marrow, overcoming her own fear of surgery, generally being the greatest – and asks her fairly bluntly for sex – which happens in the midst of Nicole trying to express how transformative the whole experience was for her and how they maybe have a genuine connection now. It’s kind of horrible to watch, a train wreck, because there is a moment after she realizes what he is asking her and right before she laughs in his face where she looks so absolutely heartbroken that despite everything, she is still in that category for Harrison, that he wouldn’t even have the respect for her to have one honest conversation in which they talk to each other like friends would. And of course it keeps getting worse because he starts giving her some actually nice reason and then just trails off into complete awfulness.

Nicole: Are you actually asking me to break you out of the… the friends of the hand club?
Harrison: Yeah, that’s what I am asking.
Nicole: Well, I have to say that I appreciate your honesty, but answer me this. Why choose moi for the special honor?
Harrison: Well, because you’re beautiful, and sexy. I’ve already mentioned the thing about the bone marrow so in a way we’ve already exchanged bodily fluids.
Nicole: That’s sweet. Go on. You know if this is your version of foreplay, it’s working.
Harrison: Plus, it’s not like you’re so discriminating, and I’ve heard you do it with a lot of guys. That came out wrong
Nicole: You know, Harrison, I’d love to help you out.
Harrison: You would?
Nicole: Yeah, but you know I’m booked for weeks. I don’t even have the 2.5 seconds that it would take you when you do it for the first time and it’s a pity really because I’d love to be there when that first time lucky lady gets a load of your underprivileged ?? and then laughs right in your red-cheeked little face.

Nicole Out. 

Later Lily, shocked that Harrison would go to a prostitute, feeling weirdly responsible for his dilemma because she didn’t go through with their little project last year (the whole thing was really uncomfortable to watch, I don’t know) offers herself up, but Harrison tells her that “This is so not about you. I’m tired of hearing, I don’t think of you that way, or, you’re too nice. This is my decision. And I’ve decided that I need this experience.” and goes off to meet Cherry Box, who is amazing and reads him like an open book, and they just end up eating pie and Chinese food and playing games. 

Sam finds out in a rather unpleasant way that George has never been with anyone he was in love with, but once woke up beside a complete stranger after a drunken night out, and so Josh and George get tested for STDs while their significant others wait for the results and Sam specifically considers if George’s “linguistic backflips” have ruined their relationship. It gets worse when Sam finds out that George was the one who knew Cherry Box, so she awkwardly stumbles into Harrison’s session with her (he makes it into the closet in time) to inquire under false pretences whether George slept with her, except Cherry also sees right through her and ends up sending both of them home, and again, remember last week’s horror? This feels like Ari Posner making up for someone else’s fuck-ups. 

Finally, Harrison comes to his senses and makes a grand speech during the musical. And also Sammy decides she wants to wait, and George stumbles into his first “I love you”. 

Harrison: I used to be all about the act, and how it would like instantly make me into a man, but going to a joy therapist taught me that sex isn’t something to hurry up and get through, it’s something to cherish and celebrate. With extreme caution, of course. The point is not to wait just for the sake of waiting, but waiting for the right person. What I learned this week is that when it comes to sex, honesty is everything. You gotta be honest with yourself, and with others. The biggest epidemic out there is dishonesty. This moment, this rite of passage, and passion, is one of the greatest gift we’re given. Save it for someone you honestly love.

Random notes: 

I enjoyed the episode for the most part but sometimes it’s hard to not make fun of Harrison, recent escapee of the Grim Reaper or not (guys I do like him and he is probably the character most like me in the show so it’s okay). 

Mary Cherry gets really invested in her character, studying actual crab “for movement” (which you can’t get from unprotected sex, “unless you have some weird pirate fetish” – oh Nic). 

Bobbi: If you wanna play it with conviction, you must become the affliction.

Lily, about Josh: Honesty is sexy and I think that getting sexy is the most noble and respectful thing that a guy with a chequered past full of cheap irresponsible mistakes and casual negligence can make.  

There’s an understated moment between Lily and Josh after she finds out that he bought Harrison a night with a sex worker – and it’s the first time that I totally sided with Josh in an argument, because Lily pulled the “poor misguided soul” card that is gross and arrogant and also one of my few issues with Parks and Recreation. 

Lily: Can’t you see how degrading that is?
Josh: It’s not my place to tell any woman what she can and can’t do with her body? That’s a Republican’s job!

Third best thing about the episode: The Chicago-style musical including much appreciated costumes, actual singing from Carly Pope (I think? I haven’t researched this but I’m pretty sure they were dubbed in the last musical, but this sounds like it’s actually her). 

No wait Carmen totally has a storyline she’s yellow discharge. 

The whole show is the greatest thing because it’s supposed to be for a kindergarten, except of course there’s only three kids there and a group (a school? A pride?) of nuns, randomly.  

Popular - You are one cynical, never-born teen.

Popular: 2x10 The Consequences of Falling. 

Harrison: You’re born, you search for meaning, and you end up understanding nothing, yet feeling lots of pain. That’s it, that’s what life is, and in the end all what’s left of you is a box, a box of meaningless mementos somebody else has to clean up, get out of the way for next meaningless life they’re rolling in.

Remember when I used to get really angry about episodes of Popular and the reviews would just be lists of things that I disliked? WELL. Ryan Murphy’s The Consequences of Falling is sort of like that, which is weird, because it continues the tradition of magical Christmas episodes and I absolutely loved the last one (it might be my favourite episode of this show, period), except that I really liked the frame for the magical part, and the frame fit last year’s episode really well. Someone really amazing and thoughtful recently linked me to the audio commentary for an episode I had a rage blackout about – and I think the problem is me, really. The problem is that I’m not willing to just let it all go and enjoy the humour, the absurdity of it all, because what I love about Popular is when it creates meaningful moments and shows how much the characters grow and how they bring out the worst and the best in each other. And I guess the point is that with any show created by this guy, it’s important to remember that there are occasional episodes where it’s mostly about people having fun – the cast having fun with the scenes, the writers just going wild because there are no artificial limitations on what they can do in terms of absurdity. 

This was also a difficult episode to write about because I got it all wrong before. Harrison didn’t realize that the ending of the last week episode was a moment of grace, a gift to celebrate Clarence’s life, to make his passing easier. To be fair, I think there’s a sense of disconnect here (mostly because there’s no follow-up to Brooke being there – was the final scene a shared hallucination? Was it just Harrison, imagining Clarence being alright? Was it actually Clarence, gathering his strength for a final goodbye?). Clarence died. Harrison falls into a depression because he is getting worse and now needs a bone marrow transplant, and while his friends feverishly set up a website to find a donor, he starts to feel like he’s already fading the same way Clarence is, a forgotten friend in a thoughtful birthday present (when Brooke and Sam give him a habitrail of hamsters named after his friends, but omit Clarence). He walks up to the roof of the hospital and considers jumping, when Clarence appears, claiming to be his sort-of guardian angel, or rather, the newbie who’s trying to earn his wings by keeping Harrison from committing suicide. Harrison utters his final wish – to never have been born – because the thing he suffers from most is the emotional and financial hardship he thinks he’s causing his friends and family – and Clarence becomes the ghost of Christmas alternative!future, mapping out a terrible 2012 (what are the odds?) version of Kennedy High. 

Popular – Buckle up ladies, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Popular: 2x09 Are You There God, It's Me, Ann-Margret

Man, this episode. This took a while for me to write because I’d completely forgotten about it – not the thing that happens at the end of the episode, I remembered that quite clearly, but Harrison’s encounter with god, the way he struggles with trying to comprehend what is happening to him and what the reasons could be. I’m not sure if it’s harder for someone who believes in god because it’s more difficult to understand why a kind and loving god would allow kids to die of cancer, or for someone who doesn’t believe in god and doesn’t have anything to appeal to in an absurd and random universe. Then there’s the narrative question of what the show is actually doing by allowing god to appear, by giving Harrison no reason to doubt the existence of god because she’s right there in front of him, yet elusive because she answers questions with more questions. Is it important if Harrison is hallucinating (he’s not, since it’s a shared hallucination with Brooke), or if the show is making a statement about the universe it is set in? I struggled with the same thing in My So-Called Life. It didn’t really seem as striking in the Christmas episode, because that was playful (serious, but still very much in keeping with the general tone of Popular).

Popular - Behind this smile is this desperate person who doesn’t think she deserves any happiness.

Popular: 2x08 Misery Loathes Company.

Popular - It’s time to fight back.

Popular: 2x07 Ur-ine Trouble.

Popular - I did not sign up to be Cinderella.

Popular: 2x06 Style and Substance Abuse. 

Popular doesn’t need witchcraft or artefacts for characters to switch roles. Brooke, in a post-break-up crisis, decided not to take part in the homecoming race and instead run for student president. Sam, currently dating Kennedy High’s star quarterback George Austin, finds herself nominated for the race, and decides to take it seriously when George communicates his enthusiasm about it. And that’s when the problems start, because both candidates have to make decisions about who they want to be in the context of their respective races, since none of this comes naturally to them. Brooke needs a platform on which to run, Sam (at least feels like she has to) a different identity altogether, one more in line with her perception of the nature of “the shallow ritual” of homecoming races. 

Sam’s position seems more problematic to me. The Sam secretly constantly struggling with her desire for popularity (the reason why the first season managed to pit her against Brooke – you’d expect someone like Sam and Brooke to barely ever cross lines and be mostly ignorant of each other) has meanwhile evolved, has consciously confronted the things that led her right into her struggle with Brooke. On the other hand, she is now in a new situation, dating someone from the popular crowd, and painfully aware of all the expectation connected to that position (and again, Sam would like to be someone who does not care, but she does). The episode also successfully isolates her from Lily, Carmen and Harrison (who is struggling with his own – as will be revealed, much more serious – issues), and left to her own devices, she goes overboard. I think I would have preferred for any of them to call her out on her transformation, since there is something inherently problematic in George trying to police her choices, even though he has the best intentions. 

The story of the student who has recently died of a cough syrup overdose is always in the background of the episode, even though Harrison seems to be the only one personally affected by the death, everybody else seems to be unable to recall who the guy was. Harrison overhears principal Krupps plans to establish involuntary drug tests and, for reasons the episode does not explain yet, panics. He brings the issue to Brooke, offering it as a platform she could run on (framed as an individual rights issue), but when Brooke sees Lily and Josh, currently in the early tender stages of dating, take cough syrup together, she goes in the opposite direction.

Popular - Can’t make someone love you.

Popular: 2x05 Joe Loves Mary Cherry.

Nicole: I think it’s obvious that relationships are about free will. We base our attractions on what gives us power, status and control.

This is one of my favourite episodes of the show so far. It came as a surprise to me too, because I didn’t even remember ever having seen it before (maybe I didn’t – TV schedules used to be a bit sketchy in the olden days). Let’s start with the title, because why not. So Joe Loves Mary Cherry is an episode in which Brooke and Josh finally break up, the foundations for some of the relationships in the future are laid, Brooke proves how much she has grown over the past year when she supports Sam… and yet, the title refers to something else. Considering that this entire show is built around Sam and Brooke’s relationship, and this episode changes their dynamic, in a way, or rather, portrays how much they have change since the first episode, it’s rather marvellous that the title would draw our attention to what appears to be merely the comical subplot of the episode. In order to get back at Mary Cherry (for existing, essentially), Nicole blackmails Harrison not only to break up Brooke and Josh and ensure that Brooke will start dating George, the “more popular” option, but he also asks him to pretend that he has feelings for Mary Cherry. Harrison complies, since Nicole is holding his most embarrassing diary entries hostage (the ever-lasting fear of those unhappily in love with their best friend.) He does so, and ends up with terrifying nightmares… except when he is in the back of a limousine, on the way to a fundraiser (to raise money for the separation of Siamese twins – may Ryan Murphy never ever again attempt to tackle disabilities…), Mary Cherry reveals that she is well-aware of the fact that all of this is merely a façade, a game, that his affections are not true. More than that, she admits that she assumed that they would never stand a chance, so she created a fictional version of him in her head, because it is all that she could do to be with him. 

Mary Cherry: I guess what I’m trying to say is that I know your name isn’t Joe.
Harrison: Then why do you call me that?
Mary Cherry: I don’t know. You just seem to be special. Not fake like the other boys. And I guess I thought the only way I could get at least a little piece of you was to make you up completely. Thus Joe. So, thank you. Harrison.

I love this. It’s one of my favourite things ever happening on the show, and it ranks pretty highly compared to other shows. This is an episode dedicated to the question of why people are attracted to each other: power, mutual interests, a shared social circle, the differences that keep them on their feet. But Mary Cherry recognizes a different aspect of love: turning someone into a fictional character in your head, into someone else, more affectionate, more fitting, to overcome insurmountable differences. I think this happens more often than people realize, and the fact that Mary Cherry is conscious of it; that she is well-aware of it, and ready to explain it to Harrison, perfectly showcases how complex her character is. She could not reveal any of this to Nicole, because while she suffers from how others perceive her, this is also the only way she will ever be popular (and popularity, after all, is the most important thing). In the private setting of the limousine, with nobody but Harrison as her audience, she can afford to reveal that she is well-aware of her public persona and how it differs from who she really is. There’s an interesting parallel to Nicole, at the end of the episode, when Brooke calls her out on always pretending, always faking, always playing games, because Nicole would never let her guard down to anyone, not even her best friends. Nobody will ever witness her taking off her make-up, crying to herself. Harrison recognizes Mary Cherry’s bravery, and he understands her position, because he is desperately and hopelessly in love with Sam, but he also knows that affection and attraction can’t be forced: they are either there, or they are not, so all that he will ever have is her friendship (and he realizes how important that is at the very same time, it’s a bittersweet moment when she kisses him on the head and trusts him to guard her insecurities). 

The events are set into motion by a class assignment: Bobbi Glass argues that attraction is fuelled by chemistry, that it can be reduced to a simple formula, predicted by data. She asks her students to pair up and figure out how they relate to each other, and Nicole, with an agenda to break up Josh and Brooke (and I love how her intentions are always two-sided: on the one hand, it’s all about popularity, on the other, she probably knows that they are mostly staying together for convenience, and sowing discontent also comes to her naturally), messes up the pairings, which creates interesting outcomes. George and Brooke realize that they have a lot in common, which freaks out Sam, forever the secretly least self-secure character. Josh and Lily find that they have things in common when Josh is the first to truly listen to Lily and take her seriously, and ends up liberating a monkey with her. 

Josh’s development in the episode is really interesting. I think that his arc in the show as a whole is about breaking out of a stereotype: he’s the jock, the star, but once his social position becomes precarious, apart from having to cope he also realizes that there are different things, and people, in the world that interest him, that relate to him. He is truly interested in Lily’s causes, and fascinated by her passion, which none of her friends have ever been (I’m kind of sad that her friendship with Carmen isn’t explicitly mentioned, but, oh well). I like that Popular shows these characters who have, in a way, cornered (or have been cornered) themselves into one specific stereotype, trying to break out of the confines, realizing that they have new interests, new issues, new people to relate to. It’s not just Josh in the episode: Sam has to figure out what it means to be attracted to someone who is completely different to her, who doesn’t exactly share her interests. She is intrigued by George’s confidence, fascinated by his ability to call her out when she screws up, but it still requires her to reposition herself and figure out what it means that she wants to be with him. 

Brooke and Sam’s relationship is the core of the show. There is no way to deny this, regardless of how much I love all the other characters and enjoy their development. Brooke has grown incredibly over the past few months, and this is the first episode to truly recognize her development. Sam feel insecure; George obviously has more things in common with Brooke, Brooke has always been the potential antagonist, so Sam feels threatened: but Brooke comes in when Sam is at her worst, and reassures her that she has no interest in George, is in a happy relationship with Josh (that is currently, quietly, falling apart). 

Brooke: I stopped worrying about whether or not we’re compatible or not, just accepted that we click. You need to do the same thing, Sam. Accept the fact that you have something to offer.
Sam: I usually do. Just, he intimates me.
Brooke: Sam. You’re the most intelligent girl I know, and you look great, especially when you take the time to brush your hair. Just use the confidence you already have.

They have this conversation while Brooke reapplies Sam’s make-up, trying to restore her confidence. Only a couple of scenes later, she’ll break up with Josh, admitting to him and herself that their relationship was broken up in actuality a long time ago, and still she never saw the actually break-up coming. George offers to cheer her up and she needs someone in her life to do this for her, with friends like Nicole, but still, her first thought is how Sam would perceive this if she knew. 

So, by the end of the episode, we have all, along with Harrison, realized the depth Mary Cherry possesses, seen Josh realize that there is more to him than he ever suspected (“We’re better together than alone”), and Brooke calls out Nicole… not on her scheming, not on her manipulating, but on her instinct to always hide who she truly is because she fears what people would think of her if she was ever honest. “If you only tried Nic, You might find a way to like yourself, and then maybe other people would like you too.” Nicole Julian, the free radical, entirely alone, removes her make-up an cries to herself in the mirror, while everybody else’s life moves on. 

A dated reference: 

“A Tom Cruise smile”. 

Yes, there once was a time when that did not imply what it means now. 

Josh tries to look like Lenny Kravitz; buys leather pants. 

Dangerous Liasons. Maybe I’m alone in this but I’ve only seen Cruel Intentions (which was, presumably, the movie more likely on the minds of the writer). Nicole as Kathryn is pretty fucking perfect though (while Harrison isn’t exactly Sebastian material). 

Remember Ace of Base? 

Random notes: 

It’s been quite a long time since the last review but I really enjoyed the episode; it’s a good example of why I enjoy this show, and would insist that it’s still relevant today. 

Why do Leslie Grossman and Tammy Lynn Michaels not have a brilliant career. Forever a mystery.

Bobbi: While simultaneously grading your exams and laughing about your college prospects, a light bulb appeared above my head.

Sam: He’s quick, he calls me on my stuff. 

If I weren’t so invested in Brooke/Sam, that line alone would make me an ardent George/Sam shipper. 

Harrison: I realized what a sweet and generous person you really are. You are neither callow, nor retarded. And I’d like to know if you’ll have this first couples’ dance with me. 

Sam and George kiss. 

Sam’s mum, lovely as ever, tells Mike that they are expecting a baby. 

Popular - Judging people on any superficial level is still bigotry where I come from.

Popular: 2x04 The Sweetest Taboo. 

Short!cap….

Josh’s mum is currently unemployed and conversing with psychics about her future, not exactly to Josh’s delight who finds it hard to be “the leader at school” and then to come home and being in charge as well, plus being the bread-earner of the family, “which frankly is not a role I thought I’d have at seventeen”. Josh’s coach offers to help him out and gets his mum a job as the guidance counselor – because how could nepotism possibly be wrong if it is all about “helping a friend”? 

George Austin turns up in school a month after the new year started and immediately starts to compete with Josh for the top spot on the football team – and additionally, he questions Sam’s prejudices against athletes, successfully, because she ends up asking him out instead of writing an article revealing how he was recruited. On the one hand, this is an unsuccessful return to a storyline that didn’t work very well in season one (where Sam writes about an issue for an article and is complete right about everything except the show wants us to think that she isn’t, that she is only using the idea of objectivity to pursue some self-righteous agenda – and what perfect timing, because really, jock culture IS and issue in American high schools and colleges). 

Sam: I was referring to you as an athlete, not as a person of colour.
George: Is that right? Well I wouldn’t go bragging about it, Sam, judging people on any superficial level is still bigotry where I come from.
[…]
Sam: I feel terrible about how I acted yesterday, sorry. I know there aren’t many African Americans at this school and I should have thought about my language and realized how alienated you must feel here. Don’t hate me because I acted like a moron.

George has a point when he calls Sam out on approaching him with her mind already set, but on the other hand, Sam is right too: Coach getting Josh’s mum a job isn’t right, neither is George being recruited, regardless of how good a guy he is. This sort of puts a damper on Sam’s big insight: 

George: Don’t you think a lot of people could wind up getting hurt from that article? Josh is going through a tough enough time as it is.

Sam: How can you so blindly defend someone who tried to stab you in the back? Look, I don’t want to hurt Josh or his mother but –I’m a reporter and I have an obligation to the truth. 

George: If it’s the truth you want so badly, how about this: I was recruited. 

Sam: So what you told me in the cafeteria was a lie? 

George: Not a lie, but not the complete truth. The exchange was an opportunity to excel at a better school. Better high school lead to better scholarships at better colleges. Put that in your story. I mean, if you wanna ignore all the human circumstances and do what journalistically righteous then take the Fords and the Krupps down, but take me right down with them.

[…]

Sam: I was named editor of the paper when I was a sophomore. Some people may think that I got it too young or as a result of favouritism but I always told myself it was what I did with the position that mattered, not how I got it. For almost two years now I’ve used this paper to rail against divisiveness at this school. If I run the article I’ll undo all the good I was trying to accomplish so I killed the story. 

George: Good for you, Sam. 

Sam: And also I realized if I ran an article about all the taboo breaking around here I’d be a big fat hypocrite since I’m about to break one myself. 

George: I’m confused, what taboo are you about to break? 

Sam: The one that says ‘reporters don’t date their sources’.

I mean, I get the point of all this, humanizing Sam by making her choose George over her journalistic ethics (and George seems like a genuinely good guy, too) – but on the other hand, it’s not like Sam is wrong, and it rubs me the wrong way that this is presented as a moment of character development since she chooses George over her ideals – when in fact, she is completely right in accusing the establishment. 

In order to get back on the squad, Nicole decides to collect potentially incriminating material on Vice Principal Krupps (“Gunther”), and enrols Sugar’s whole bathroom-infiltrating awesomeness as well as the power of video editing. Things go wrong, and she ends up being benched for the rest of the year. 

Josh: So what’s your crime?
Nicole: Doing anything and everything to wear a cheerleading uniform, so I won’t feel like the formally fat loser who always got annihilated during dodge ball. Mary Cherry was right: in high school, the biggest taboo of all is being unpopular. God, we’re such losers.
Josh: Hey, speak for yourself.
Nicole: You’ll do fine, Josh. People like you. I’m not liked, I’m feared and without that Glamazon armour I’m nothing.
Josh: I think if people saw you like I see you right now, completely real like I’m seeing you for the first time, you’d be surprised at  how people won’t call you a bitch to your face.
Nicole: You think?
Josh: I guarantee it. Until we figure out how to reinvent ourselves, do you wanna grab a slice at Greeto’s, we can eat for cheap.
Nicole: Yeah.
Josh: Cool.

This episode is about taboos: Sam is tries to figure out if breaking the taboo of talking about how football culture is quietly destroying Kennedy High is more important than caring about the individuals she might affect. Josh is trying to navigate his various precarious positions – getting his mum a job, accepting that she is dating his coach, providing for his family and attending practice – and Nicole is ALWAYS struggling with popularity, because being popular is her shield, it protects her from actually having to reveal anything personal about herself. Her protections is stripped from her involuntarily, and the question is: who is Nicole if she can’t hide behind her social status? The interesting thing about her development in this episode is that the storylines starts out as the typical B-plot of any given Popular episode, the thing that makes light of whatever serious issue the episode is trying to tackle – but in the end, Nicole gets the serious moment of insight. 

Random notes: 

I kind of feel bad for making George’s episode a short!cap because he is possibly one of my favourite characters – but then, he is easily likeable since he lacks all the wacky attitudes most of the other characters have (he almost seems like he secretly belongs into a different show altogether). 

“What have you done to yourself, Frankenteen?”

Mary Cherry: Nic, did you know that 14 percent of all plastic surgery is done on teenage girls? I’m part of yet another socially repulsive trend!

“And to think I found you attractive enough to blackmail!”

“This has the foul stench of an Esposito resurrection.”

Sugar: I guess my shower scheme was more clumsy than convincingly homo-erotic.

Nicole: Josh… Thank you. Also, when I told you earlier that you could tell everyone I was crying I was kidding. Spill and there will be blood on the floor. 

Obscure pop cultural references: 

Bobbi Glass: Wake up from your Napster-induced delirium and let’s put it together for Mister George Austin.

Anthony Montgomery aka New Guy was on Enterprise, the doomed final Star Trek series. 

Mister Jenny Schecter plays the football trainer. I don’t know what it is about Eric Mabius that makes people want to cast him as coaches. 

George: You’ve got a nice smile, Lois Lane. It’s toothy.

The glorious generation-defining Presidential elections of 2000 were all over the episode. Oh man. Sometimes I wonder where we’d be now if things hadn’t turned out the way they eventually did.