Date of airing: April 20, 2001 (Disney Channel)
I saw Sarah Paxton in this episode and I didn’t even need the closing credits to verify it was actually her, although I did use the credits to verify that I wasn’t blind. It’s funny though how she decided to turn up on a Disney Channel show I watch the day after I decided to grab all HALLOWEENTOWN movies for a future watch, and Sarah Paxton is known for replacing the main star in the fourth movie, making her essentially a live-action Disney Channel princess, although she never broke out like all the other teen idols of the network, of which Hilary Duff is one. Maybe that is what she wanted? Or was she too old already for the Mouse House to be considered the lead of a new family sitcom?
This was a pretty good episode. If I were to make lists of particular episodes of a particular genre, ready to be aired on a particular holiday, this episode would make it on the election-themed list of episodes, aired to be every first Thursday of November every two years, and it’s not the first time the Disney Channel managed to pull off an election episode, at least for me. While GIRL MEETS WORLD had a bigger election-themed episode with its depiction of a debate between two Senate hopefuls (which in hindsight is an even better episode than I must have given it credit for, since I still remember the show for that great arc, even if my watching that show was many, many years ago), it’s awesome to see that the network decided to make politics an issue in their shows for at least an episode, just to give the target audience of kids and t(w)eenagers a glance into this world and make them remember that this will be all they are supposed to care about when they come of age and are finally allowed to vote and drive a car.
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| She is going to have to make friends with the much more serious drama club, so see ya later! |
And yes, that episode might have just been about the election to become class president, but it’s an equally important story, and in a way, the writers managed to pull some real-life political strings into the episode by having Lizzie turn into a political monster halfway through, and by having Gordo act like a campaign manager I would assume exists for real. In fact, Gordo somewhat reminded me of how Steve Schmidt talked about the 2008 presidential campaign, and how it went to crap as soon as everyone realized Sarah Palin wasn’t up to the pressure (or the knowledge of stuff). And this is a friendly reminder to listen to Steve Schmidt talk about it when he talks about it, because damn, that’s an interesting listen, even if Schmidt is kind of a horrible person in general. One of the first “Words Matter” podcast episodes he co-hosted with Elise Jordan in 2018 went into that, and it would have been a great listen to catch up with if it weren’t for Schmidt’s short fuse and temper one day that broke the podcast’s back. But that is a topic for a different blog.
What a shame that this episode wasn’t particularly about the campaign itself, because thinking about Steve Schmidt throughout this episode, I would have loved it if this half hour had been about Gordo most of the time, and how it was him who slowly but surely derailed the election for Lizzie. But because of the show’s title, it was all about Lizzie losing it because she wasn’t herself any longer and just became the typical monster of a long, tiresome, and tedious election campaign. Besides that, it would have been a great moment for any other character other than Lizzie to shine in the spotlight for most of the episode, so I was glad that Lizzie was out there doing her thing horribly wrong, while Gordo and Miranda were standing on the sidelines for a bit and admiring the chaos they have created. Sometimes it’s not just Lizzie alone who is doing stuff badly. She has best friends who assist her in that regard.
What I did appreciate though is that the writers put color into the friction caused by the election. Lizzie and Miranda were starting to move away from each other and it looked extremely believable as a story, and yes, while Lizzie was a little dumb when she couldn’t realize she was alienating her best friend (especially since her animated inner voice knew what was happening and screamed for help), in the sense of politics, that was some realistic behavior that could easily be shown to a classroom full of students who currently go through elections and political campaigns in their lesson plan. Do you want to get votes from all the people? Well, you have to turn into all of those people, which means you’re going to lose the sense of the friendships you curate. But it’s such a waste that LIZZIE McGUIRE is only a proceduralized show that resets the status quo at the end of each episode. I would have loved to see that friction between Lizzie and her friends for longer than just a few minutes.
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| To sneak or not to sneak on your youngest child... |
Meanwhile, Matt went through his own little thing and it was forgettable. Mostly, at least. When it was revealed he was just pranking his parents to get free stuff he can play with, even I was a little stunned and surprised by his sneakiness, and all I was waiting for was Matt’s parents to exact their revenge on him for playing his parents this way. The punishment of scrubbing an imaginary monkey you know doesn’t exist is mean(ly funny) though, but I was still amused, as it was a great way to torment your child without humiliating him too much. I need to remember that whenever I’m going to have kids. Humiliate your kid, and get a laugh out of it for yourself. Parenting win!
