Having been lucky enough to grow up in the 1990s, when a message of “girl power” began to permeate pop culture, my generation of young women (and the generations who followed) have reached adulthood believing that there’s nothing wrong with being a girl, because girls can do whatever boys can. And Smart Girls At the Party is a well-intentioned celebration of this brand of 90s-era girl power. Created and hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler (who, judging by the baby bump, was probably producing these around July-August) and accompanied by best friends Meredith Walker and Amy Miles, each episode spotlights the special talents of young girls, including music, dance, and yoga.
The first episode, which premiered last Friday, focuses on Cameron K., a 10-year-old author of paranormal fiction, whom Poehler interviews about the writing process, then collaborates with (along with Walker) on an original short story. (Cameron wears a sparkly tiara when she writes. I need one of those.) It’s hard to disconnect Poehler’s interview style from her Weekend Update persona (even despite the fact that instead of satirizing the week’s news, she’s celebrating young women), but it’s clear that she connects with her subject without dominating the conversation. The star of each episode is the girl being profiled — which matches perfectly with the series’ intentions.
In the trailer and opening sequence, the show hints at making great use of exterior locations, and the more of those the better, as the show’s “studio” looks like the crew hung up a bunch of black drapes inside someone’s dining room (and forgot to remove the dining room table, which Poehler uses as a desk). Could Mattel (and distributor/producer On Networks) not spring for a studio space? The cinematography is also well below par for a project of this caliber, and the entire episode could be tightened by at least a minute — simply by cutting the seconds of dead air between shots.
Smart Girls At the Party also kicks off with a pretty intense paradox: a 30-second ad for Barbie (plus inlaid advertising throughout the episode), which is like finding a fly in one’s tasty post-feminist soup. No amount of special-edition Rocket Scientist Barbie playsets will ever be able to erase how the popular doll has symbolized for decades a celebration of “traditional women’s roles,” and it’s a little disappointing to see this brand associated with the program.
The catch with a show like this is that by carrying a strong message, Smart Girls sets for itself a high standard to live up to. Will future episodes be sure to highlight girls engaging in less stereotypically girly subjects, such as computer science or martial arts? And how are these girls “changing the world by being themselves”? There’s no doubt of this show’s appeal for young women — Smart Girls should make sure not to let them down.
See our previous coverage:
