Date of airing: May 11, 2001 (Disney Channel)
It is time for special guest stars in this television series. Because LIZZIE McGUIRE happened to be a successful show for the cable network, the big names in the business were ready to throw their hat into the show for a guest spot, because you never know if the kids’ audience at home has seen any of their television dramas from the 1970s and would appreciate this famous face in their weekend afternoon Disney series. Kids got their fun with the karate movements and Matt’s efforts to become Jet Li’s next sidekick, and the parents in the room were allowed to flash back to older TV times when they were still young and careless, and witnessed David Carradine be the lone hero to many fictional Americans.
This episode is proof that LIZZIE McGUIRE was produced with two
target demographics in mind: kids and their parents – suddenly I
understand why parents were finding a liking to the show as well. Not
only did they get some interesting lessons about t(w)eenage behavior and
how to conquer that, but the writers knew the parents would watch, and
they needed some elements to keep them interested in the narrative of
the show. Anyway, this was partially David Carradine’s half hour, and
while I was a little confused that Matt and Sam would team up with Gordo
(who had some time on his hands after the girls decided to go bra
shopping), it was one of the better stories involving Matt, since he
didn’t behave like an idiot and he was playing off of other cast
members. Plus, he was involved with other cast members a lot, and that
makes this annoying little character a bit more bearable. And Robert Carradine gets an opportunity to act alongside his brother on television – does this mean that this episode is a case of nepotism?
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| The trauma of seeing someone you know during bra shopping... |
Lizzie’s story was pretty good, and it was something parents had to watch out for, because at one point, mothers of t(w)eenage girls have to go through the motion of helping their girls grow up to be mature personalities, and bras are definitely needed for that. I can only sense how important it must be for an adolescent girl to buy her first bra, and as a man, I have to ask: Is the purchase of a bra as exciting and groundbreaking for girls as the beginning of hair growth on boys’ faces or chests? I have to say, I was intrigued when chest hair started growing on me, which signaled not only puberty, but also growing up. I can only imagine how much of a problem it can turn out to be when things go awry, and how mothers need to figure out how to be more of a friend figure than a mom figure, and maybe how to join those two and become a wholly new person to their daughters. It makes me wonder if there is the same kind of pressure to perform as a father if you go with your son to purchase boxer shorts or swim trunks, or if it’s seen as something normal, which makes the girls’ purchase of bras something in the realm of hypocrisy. Or maybe it’s just that girls see the changes in their bodies as something more substantial, because the changes are indeed noticeable, compared to body development of boys.
I would have wished for Lizzie’s relationship with her mother to be a bit more defined, however. Here the two are, confronting each other over how to perform the act of buying a bra, and neither did Lizzie learn that sometimes having a mother is the best thing that could have happened in such a situation, nor did Jo realize that she was humiliating her daughter and not giving her enough space to make the bra discovery by herself. By the way, Jo told Lizzie that she always knew not to be too pushy when buying her daughter’s first bra, but here she was, being a complete pusher (another lesson learned for the real-life parents watching the show?), which was kind of hilarious. The writers failed just a little to make this a proper lesson for Jo though, which I blame on the short running time of the show. But yeah, with a little more mother/daughter sentiments during the second act, this could have been a much better and more emotional story, as the focus could have been redistributed towards the fact that Lizzie wants to be mature and grown-up, yet still needs her mom like the kid she is, while Jo comes to the conclusion that she has to be there for her daughter when said daughter asks her to, but to also keep her distance when needed.
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| Only American kung fu masters are allowed to appear in this TV series. |
As a mother/daughter story, the episode worked solidly enough, even if some elements were cut short and I wanted to see much more at the end. Still, the series is slowly getting into the adolescent kind of storytelling, which I approve of and find a liking towards. The show has become pretty great over the past couple of episodes, as the writers were finding the tone with how to build the narrative and where to put the morale of the story. And in the meantime, it always stays close to the ground when it comes to the comedy, instead of lifting off into the stratosphere to deliver sketch-like, brute humor.
