Initially I started this blog in order to talk about fashion in a critical way. However now it is starting to (d)evolve into a free-for-all of my thoughts on poetry or television or mass culture or whatever I happen to be fixated on at this particular moment (that is to say, staying up until 5 am reading or watching everything pertaining to this one thing; last week it was The Bling Ring and all the people behind that. I ended up watching over and over a clip of Alexis Neiers, who is played by Emma Watson in the new Sofia Coppola movie, wigging out on Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales. You can watch the morbidly
hilarious clip here).
And last night... I stayed up till five in the morning watching the TV Show Recess.
I feel it's a shared experience by everyone in late teenhood and early adulthood to turn back to childhood favorites--movies, TV shows, books--with new eyes, as we have inevitably matured and grown up and learned some things about the world since taking these things in next to the glass of milk and cookies our parents used to set out for us on the table. Actually, it would kind of be a lie to say that my mom gazed protectively over me as I watched T.J. Detweiler and the crew get into shenanigans that played out and resolved in 10 minutes time, as she rarely ever let me watch TV. I would catch up on the show during the odd early morning playings on Saturdays or Sundays when she was at work, wishing I could be as carefree and savvy and adventurous as the gang at Third Street Elementary School. Either way, it was such a pleasant surprise to find that this show I had loved so much in childhood lived up to my expectations even now.
Rife with cultural references (though not on the same level as The Simpsons, obviously), the show portrays elementary school kids as equal--if not better--than the principal adult characters. The gang-- T.J. Detweiler (clearly the leader and the one who is always scheming up a new plan; despite his mischievous behavior he nonetheless tries to be kind to his peers, well, besides the Ashleys, but we all like sticking it to the one percent), Spinelli (there are many important female characters on the show but she is the most brazen, the one who gives the least of a fuck, and in a great way), Gretchen Grundler (the other girl in the gang who plays out the role of a sweet, well-intentioned nerd/genius), Mikey Blumberg (perhaps my favorite character because he is just so obliviously sweet), Vince LaSalle (the ambitious and popular athlete), and finally Gus Griswald (tiny, dorky, confused)--set up a classic hero versus anti-hero opposition to the adults in the School, namely Principal Prickly and the recess guard Miss Muriel Finster.
While Prickly and Finster (aren't they great names?) use dictatorial techniques to keep the kids in check, assert power, or to even manipulate the workings of the school for personal gain, Detweiler and crew are always subversive and smart enough to do what's best for the elementary school as a whole.
For example, in one of the creepier episodes called "Schoolworld" --it should be noted that Third Street Elementary is a such a great microcosmic look of the power structures at play in the "real world" as you have your elites (The Ashleys), your monarch (King Bob, who has authority but generally doesn't come up in most of the episodes), your gang of "savages" who don't play (literally) by the rules (the Kindergartners--one of my favorite elements), and the guy who represents shady, backdoor dealings (Hustler Kid)--in this episode Principal Prickly buys a crazy computing system SAL 3000 so that the machine can control every aspect of the student's lives and he can (presumably) kick back, relax, and take credit for all of SAL 3000's work in order to look good to the district superintendents.
And while initially the gang is taken by Sal 3000's seemingly endless knowledge and helpfulness--it changes the water temperature at the drinking fountain to suit Mikey's taste, it lets out the kids early for recess--they start to suspect the machine's ulterior motives to take over the entire school when it starts lashing out passive aggressively on the students (Mikey can't drink any more from the water fountain because he's taken up his "allotted" amount, Swinger Girl can no longer swing higher on the swing set because it's not in line with district policy ("but I'm a professional!" she yells). So it is the gang, not Prickly or Finster, who start to see Sal for what it really is, and it is the gang who ultimately takes matters into their own hands (this compared to the naivete and powerlessness of the adults: Principal Prickly is eventually usurped and the teachers all get locked into a room when Sal uses Prickly's voice to call them into a meeting and fire them all).
Principal Prickly being fired by Sal. I like how while his profile looks menacing, the man reflected in the red glow of Sal 3000 looks confused and powerless. Yeah, I just did some visual analysis on this cartoon TV show.
Things go down after Sal 3000 insults Gretchen, the only one in the group who continued to defend the machine even after it did some shadyass things. The best part is Gretchen doesn't even get hurt that this piece of technology she adored has insulted her. She knows what's up and that Sal is wrong (she is a smart gal) and then spearheads the movement to shut Sal down.
So anyway, life came back full circle last night as I rediscovered my love for this show and stayed up till five 5 am watching a bunch of episodes and eating Oreo's (seriously not making this up, though I didn't have milk). There are so many solid episodes: the one in which Spinelli is unwittingly entered into a beauty pageant by the Ashleys but ends up proving that originality is better than conformity ("The Beauty Pageant"); one in which T.J. proves himself to be a loyal friend to both the Pale Kids in the basement as well as Menlo, the kid who rats everyone out ("Lord of the Nerds" and "Some Friend" respectively).
It's great looking back on these formative aspects of my childhood and realizing now that the show wasn't dumbed down just because the audience happened to be kids. Case in point with the character Miss Grotkey, the kind, granola teacher who seems to be one of the only capable adults in the school. She also keeps it real:
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