Date of airing: February 2, 2001 (Disney Channel)
Back when I watched this episode for the first time, I didn’t need to wait for the writing credit to know that this was the intended pilot of LIZZIE McGUIRE. The cold open was too much of an introductory scene to be part of a random episode almost midway through the season, and the general sense throughout the half hour was TV Pilot Writing 101. Setting up the show through its family relations, Lizzie’s efforts to step into the circle of adolescence, and the episode focusing on family and best friends made these 25-ish minutes the best possible introduction the show should have deserved, but for some reason the Disney Channel wasn’t thinking that way and decided to air it a few weeks into the show’s original run, begging the question why this episode wasn’t aired first.
And then Disney+ had to follow the broadcast order of the show and name it the fourth episode of the series. Granted, I am doing the same as you can see up top, but only because I pretty much follow what everyone else is doing, even if I watched this episode first for the purpose of this review blog. The thing is, this was a great pilot and therefore a great fourth episode, which I am thankful for because as it will turn out, the following three episodes, as aired before this episode, have been kind of silly and annoying at times, and therein might lie the reason for Disney Channel to have aired this episode in fourth place – sometimes, you just need to air all the “mediocre” episodes out of the way before the show can get better for the audience. It makes me hope that the Disney Channel decided to air the next three half-hours first, because even the network executives believed those episodes were of a lower quality, and from here on the show turns out to deliver actual goodness. That’s the only excuse I would give the show for placing the pilot episode fourth into the show, but if most of the next few episodes are equally as “not good” as the first three episodes, then the network pretty much messed up.
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| The popular girl at school is nice enough to give you a puppy face. |
Because really, the way the characters were introduced, how their relationships with one another were established, and the way the episode became a story about friendship and a complex mother/daughter tie, make this episode look a whole lot more different from the first batch of LIZZIE McGUIRE episodes. The first three episodes were childish fun for the seven- to ten-year-old crowd (of which I am clearly not a member), but this episode even had something for the adults here, when Lizzie’s parents were battle planning to figure out how to get her to speak to them again and how to lead her out of her parents-hating funk – an issue so many parents have to deal with sooner or later. It was a lesson about parenting and how to connect to your rebellious child and all I could do was agree with everything that has been said and done in this episode. Naturally, I’m trying to remember all of it, just in case I have a rebellious t(w)eenager of my own one day (the chances for that ever happening are zero, as my anxiety and intimacy issues stop me from ever having a functioning and long-running relationship). This episode was not just about middle school teenage fun and adventures, but also about parenting, which should have expanded the show’s premise if upcoming episodes wouldn’t have lost and buried that idea. It turns out parenting may have been part of the initial series premise, and yet, for some reason, that premise got lost when the show was ordered to series.
There is also something grounded about Lizzie’s complex relationships with the people around her. Her conflict with her mother was real – understandably, you can’t go step into adolescence because you are forced to be a kid in front of grandma, and, reasonably, Lizzie would fear losing her best friend to a former best friend because all middle school is about is friendship (it's the currency of middle school life, and nothing else is of importance). Even Miranda was a real and honest character in this episode, equally having to face the issue of friendship, although Miranda happened to be a secondary character in this episode, almost serving as a plot device for Lizzie’s development and not at all looking like she is a central part of the show’s DNA. But that made her arrival in the McGuire backyard even greater, because the episode resolved the friendship conflict, created a happy ending for Lizzie and Miranda, and told the audience that the show is also about harmony and not just middle school teenage fun or parenting. Which is boring fun for most of the audience, as middle school teenage fun is probably no fun for anyone who has already gone through middle school. GIRL MEETS WORLD at least had episodic “morale of the week” that came out of the middle school lesson plan. It’s something I won’t expect from LIZZIE McGUIRE, but I can have hopes, right?
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| Mom is feeling feelings watching this unfold. |
I wish that the entire show, or at least the next three episodes (which
happen to be the previous three episodes aired), would be like the pilot
episode. Although I could do without the constant and annoying camera
zooms and the sound effects, which remind me that LIZZIE McGUIRE was
still a television show for kids, so they need the audiovisual treatment
to be expected from a hyperactive kids’ show. Someone among the
producers must have concluded that the visual aspect of the show should
be about camera zooms and Looney Tunes-y sound effects only, turning LIZZIE McGUIRE into a super kid-friendly series adventure, forgetting
that adults were also watching the show, and they most likely would want
to shut their ears after having to listen to those screeching sound
effects off and on for 20 minutes. I felt like that, reminding me once
more that I am not a member of the targeted seven- to ten-year-old
crowd. But here I am, just wanting to pick up some parenting skills, in
case those are being asked of me one day.
