But this show is nailing it!
In episode 1 of 'Girlboss', we are introduced to Sophia. She's not necessarily likable. She definitely beats to her own drum, but that particular drum isn't one that the audience will necessarily appreciate for its rhythm and timbre. She is rude to her boss, demanding to her not-one-night-stand, and obstinate to her father who is reasonably worried about her future. Regardless, the show makes the audience care for Sophia because we get a look at her when she thinks no one is watching. After she angrily 'quits' her job at a shoe store and she is on the phone with a friend, she tells her friend to hold on because an ambulance is raging by, when in fact she uses the break to allow a tear to escape. She knows she's an asshole. She knows she's impossible. The audience will know the struggle, because we were all impossible assholes in some measure at some point in our lives.
The show's brilliance lies not, however, in the troubled young adult that is our lead. We've seen troubled young adults in many a show and movie, they are an old and bored trope. No, the show thrives when it shows us the moments in which Sophia is letting her true self speak. In fact, when Sophia says 'I know I don't know anything. And I know I am supposed to, so I'm going to figure it out, I will.', I personally felt relieved. Finally a young adult who admits to not knowing anything at the beginning of a narrative, as opposed to one acting like they know everything only to find out that they don't know crap the hard way, 2/3 into the story-line. As she stands in front of a vintage shop's mirror, checking out a top and considering whether to take it, the reflection in the mirror shows us she is imagining an over the top, wonderfully fashionable and dramatic look, fur coat and all. It is casually edited into the shot, and no special attention is paid to it, because this is just how Sophia's brain works. I, personally, can't wait where else Sophia's brain is going to take the show when the story allows it to come out more often.
The show is not perfect. Running out of gas at the top of a hill with no one coming to help is not realistic, and stealing a rug with the shopkeeper's comment as 'oh, okay' being the only objection even less so. They try a little too hard to claim the 'own drum' characteristic that shapes our protagonist, and take away from the empathy that is needed for the audience to really want Sophia to succeed.
But I do still want Sophia to succeed. The mirror-image trick is repeated at the end of the first episode, when an idea strikes Sophia and she makes her first move to become a 'girlboss'. (Much as I like the first episode of this show, I hate the 'cutesy' title.). Her mirror image is bathed in golden lighting, but not until the camera turns do we see it is not just her imagination this time. She has seen the light, and darn it if that doesn't spur her to immediately take action in an attempt to get her act together. Now let's just wait and see if the rest of the season answers our want to see Sophia succeed and actually get that act together.
