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Oct 18, 2021

"Misfits": Teasing that It's Science Fiction, with Gender-Atypical Characters, to Lure in Viewers

 


A group of teenagers is forced to enter a "Transformation Station," which calculates their male and female percentages. One is 55/45; another, 83/17.   They emerge wearing sky-blue school uniforms. 

Is the Dutch tv series Misfits, on Netflix, science fiction? The plot synopses seem perfectly naturalistic: "Julie, Jason, and their friends prepare to submit their school project ideas"; "Julia is tempted by dreams of fame while Nick struggles to be honest."  

Are there any LGBTQ or gender-atypical characters?  Maybe Nick struggling to be honest, coming to terms with being gay or transgender or asexual?

The only thing to do is watch an episode.  I chose "BFF," the one where Nick struggles to be honest. 

I can't find this series on Wikipedia or IMDB, just the British Misfits series (2009-2013).  So I will copy the actors' names from the closing credits.  Unfortunately, their subtitle names are different, and a review gives completely different actors' and characters' names (probably the cast of the British series), so it will take some guesswork.

Scene 1:  Backstage at the rehearsal for the big school musical.  Julia is conflicted over an upcoming audition with the Music Academy in New York  (dull generic name).   Her friends trot out the costumes for the big school musical: slinky gold lamé numbers created by Rich Girl's famous fashion designer bud.

Scene 2: Headmistress's Office.  Glass walls and minimalistic decor. Julia refuses the audition: "I belong here."  Headmistress argues.  After Julia leaves, she makes a phone call: "The next phase is to begin immediately.  We must end this musical!"  Why does she care so much about a school musical?  Is it key to her plans of world domination?


Scene 3: Quad. 
Glass, bean-bag furniture, and random plants.  Giggly Girl gets a note in her locker asking her to meet at the rehearsal room.  She gushes with romantic ecstasy.  

Meanwhile, Nick (Niek Roozen, top photo) is advised by his friend, Chance (Vincent Visser, left, or Elyha Alteena), to "be honest." So he approaches Julia with eye-bulging, jaw-dropping, absurdly cartoonish hetero-longing.  He doesn't really need to "be honest," does he? Anybody could tell that Julia is the Girl of His Dreams from a mile away.

It's just a fantasy.  In real life, Nick is going to sing her a song that he wrote.  As he practices, Chance records him.  

Scene 4: Glass hallway.  Giggly Girl heads toward her rendezvous. Nope, it was just a fantasy.  She's too scared to approach the Boy of Her Dreams.  So far I don't see anything but cisgender heterosexual boys and girls mooning over each other.

Scene 5:  A masked vandal snips all of the fancy musical costumes to shreds.



Scene 6:
Julia, Giggly Girl, and Rich Girl suspect  their rival Jason (Noah de Noolj), "Mr. Perfect," and Giggly Girl's crush!  They track him, looking for evidence: he helps a boy on crutches go down the stairs (no elevator in futuristic glass world?), has an impromptu beat-box session, helps a girl open her locker, brings lunch to a boy who forgot his, and runs lines for the rival musical.

They decide to search his room for clues.  Wait -- if this is a residential school, how could a kid have forgotten his lunch?  Meals are covered.  But first they need his room key, which he wears around his neck.  And Giggly Girl is too overcome by absurdly cartoonish teen-dream lust to approach him.  So send Julia.  

Giggly Girl approaches as if she's a teenager in 1965 and he's one of the Beatles, and convinces him to let her hold his...um, key.  Then she does a switch.

Meanwhile, Nick gives up on Julia.  No matter how much he stares and drools, she won't be interested in him.  But his friend -- Chance -- has recorded his song and sent it to someone.  To help him, or to destroy him?

Scene 7: Mr. Perfect's Room.  Huge, fancy artwork on the walls.  If all of the students had rooms this big, there'd be no space left at the school for fancy glass classrooms.  

While Julia snoops, Giggly Girl distracts Mr. Perfect by stammering a math question.  He asks her out for a smoothie -- and kisses her cheek -- and she dissolves into a pool of lust.  "His actual mouth was on my cheek!"

Scene 8: Mr. Perfect's Room.  Julia finds a can of spray paint and some tiny cameras, proof that he's the saboteur.  He comes in.  She confronts him, but he's actually using the paint on a picture of his crush, Giggly Girl. And the cameras are her birthday present.  He's into her?  But she treats him like he's the Second Coming of Christ.  Obsessive lust is creepy, not endearing.

Scene 9: Smoothie Shop.  Smoothie Boy complains that the headmistress has locked the shop's menu until he can solve a complicated math problem. So Pigtail Girl solves it for him.  She is summoned to the headmistress's office.  Headmistress asks her to score 3,000 points at the inauguration ceremony so the school will be the best. I don't know what any of that means, but no doubt it's part of Headmistress's evil scheme to cancel the musical.  

Pigtail Girl refuses.  "Curses! Foiled again!"  

Out in the hallway, Pigtail Girl runs into Nick, the one with the crush on Julia.  They see the video that Nick's friend posted about him declaring his love.  Nick is horrified!  

Julia confronts him.  He explains that she is his universe, his only reason for living, and by the way, want to grab a smoothie sometime?  Come on, nobody's eyes bulge that wide, girl-of-his-dreams or not. 

Scene 10: Julia's Room.  She feels guilty because she only likes Nick as a friend, and he thinks of her as the Answer to Every Question, His Soul Mate for Time and Eternity.  She and Pigtail Girl discuss the problems they've had with the musical, with Headmistress constantly trying to sabotage it.  Why bother?  Because it's the only thing that can keep her from taking over the world?

Beefcake:  Some cute guys.

LGBTQ+ Characters:  Everyone seems absurdly, eye-bulgingly hetero-horny with the exception of Chance and Julia, but they probably didn't have time in this episode.  

Gender Atypical Characters: They're all gender polarized.

Science Fiction Plotlines:  I didn't see any.

Plot Arc: Two rival cliques with "How could you be interested in HIM????" West Side Story-type romances.  The Headmistress's Cartoon Villain scheme to take down the high school musical...and thereby destroy the universe?  

Teases:  Teasing gender-atypical characters, teasing science fiction.  The series is one big rip-off.

1 comment:

  1. This is apparently a tv series spin-off of three Dutch movies, all entitled "Misfit" (no "s"). They are available on Netflix. So is the British "Misfits" series, so be careful.

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