Karen Gillan is in a new social-media based TV programme that might have actually jumped the shark before it even airs. Selfie – yep, that's what it's called – is about a young woman, Eliza Dooley (based on Eliza Doolittle the character in My Fair Lady, not the singer) who is really selfie-obsessed and mean.
The trailer for the ABC pilot tells the story of how, when her very embarrassing break-up goes viral, the Insta-famous office worker Eliza decides that she wants out of the social media obsessed society she was once so happily part of. So she seeks advice from Henry Higgins, an executive at her office (we think she works in pharmaceuticals or PR) who’s managed to make a ‘product that causes satanic hallucinations and made it cool again.’
The detestable Eliza then gets lessons on how to be less awful, with Henry telling her: ‘I can transform this vapid social media obsessed narcissist into a woman of stature.’
How does he do this? Etiquette lessons, a make-under and encouraging Eliza to have less big hair. Because, contrary to what Dolly Parton said about ‘the bigger the hair, the closer to God’, according to this trailer, giving a shit about your appearance is meant to be bad for you. Just like Snog, Marry, Avoid, we guess.
The story of Pygmalion has been made many times – My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman and She’s All That are all based on the bad-girl-turned-good-by-stiff-upper-lipped-bloke narrative. But besides the hilarious one-liners that we felt really guilty for laughing at, from the look of the trailer for Selfie, we’re not sure we really need this remake.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.