Nerdy Girls Need Love Too
February 3, 2011 12:59 PM Subscribe
Awkward Embraces: a charming, funny, female-produced series about geek girls in LA, written by Jessica Mills. Season 2 trailer on YouTube, dialogue probably NSFW
This is to nerdy what Benny & Joon was to debilitating mental illness.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 1:19 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 1:19 PM on February 3, 2011
Bleh.
Maybe it's because I drive a coupe or maybe it's because I've been on one too many bad dates but I think something about this video has killed that small part of me where I imagined people to be forgiving of trifling awkwardness instead of turning it into a spectacle of judgement and bad jokes. But maybe I just haven't watched enough daytime TV.
posted by dubusadus at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2011
Maybe it's because I drive a coupe or maybe it's because I've been on one too many bad dates but I think something about this video has killed that small part of me where I imagined people to be forgiving of trifling awkwardness instead of turning it into a spectacle of judgement and bad jokes. But maybe I just haven't watched enough daytime TV.
posted by dubusadus at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2011
Wow. I got 39 seconds in (of ep 1) and I already hate the acting, dialogue and structure! It also rings of false geek-dom. "A guy from Comic Con wrote it!" Making up a convention name would have been better since everyone including my mother has heard of Comic Con, and even saying "Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con" would have had more geek cred.
posted by CarlRossi at 1:42 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by CarlRossi at 1:42 PM on February 3, 2011
Finished it. It's like Sex and the City fan fiction.
posted by CarlRossi at 1:53 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by CarlRossi at 1:53 PM on February 3, 2011
If the reaction to side-hugs was any indication, Awkward Embraces is not something MetaFilter does well.
posted by explosion at 2:01 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by explosion at 2:01 PM on February 3, 2011
A hot girl's problems with men is almost never ever being a geek. Can't blame being socially awkward on comic books and Star Trek.
posted by sawdustbear at 2:26 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by sawdustbear at 2:26 PM on February 3, 2011
I was hoping that "bleh" meant that they were using Dracsearch. That would have been nerdy.
posted by DNye at 2:31 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by DNye at 2:31 PM on February 3, 2011
I knew -- knew -- without even looking at this that the "geek girl" would look like a model and bear no outward signs of "geekery." I'm not saying that's necessarily always unrealistic, but why is it that the archetypal Hollywood girl geek is Olivia Munn and the archetypal Hollywood dude geek is, I don't know, McLovin or one of the tools from The Big Bang Theory?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:16 PM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:16 PM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]
To be fair, Christopher Mintz-Plasse is a certified hottie.
I can't be the only one who honestly finds him attractive, can I?
posted by Nattie at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
I can't be the only one who honestly finds him attractive, can I?
posted by Nattie at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I can't picture any of these characters owning a Crown Royal bag filled with polyhedral dice, nor complaining about how uncomfortable they are LARPing in their new corset, nor having a huge artist's sketchpad filled with chibi drawings of their friends.
Where are the conversations about which Green Lantern is the most doable? Or about how drunk on mead they were at the last Crüxshadows concert?
The show is just pretty ladies talking about bad dates.
posted by Theodore Sign at 4:14 PM on February 3, 2011
Where are the conversations about which Green Lantern is the most doable? Or about how drunk on mead they were at the last Crüxshadows concert?
The show is just pretty ladies talking about bad dates.
posted by Theodore Sign at 4:14 PM on February 3, 2011
Justin Long was the notional geek in Live Free or Die Hard, and Aaron Johnson is pretty easy on the eyes as the comic-book geek in Kick-Ass... but those are also romantic leads, in a way that Jim Parsons isn't. Maybe unconventionally attractive (or conventionally unattractive, if you see what I mean) have the side roads of becoming a comic actor or a character actor, whereas female character or comic actors in Hollywood have to be conventionally attractive as well. I'm sure I've forgotten a gazillion disproofs of this...
On preview: Kyle Rayner, surely?
posted by DNye at 4:17 PM on February 3, 2011
On preview: Kyle Rayner, surely?
posted by DNye at 4:17 PM on February 3, 2011
A whole generation of hot girls is learning that you can augment limited talents by disingenuously pretending to be awkward and not as hot as you actually are.
What hath Tina Fey wrought? Blarg.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:07 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
What hath Tina Fey wrought? Blarg.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:07 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
I knew -- knew -- without even looking at this that the "geek girl" would look like a model and bear no outward signs of "geekery."
I'm not ready to go to bat for Awkward Embraces on the strength of that trailer, but I think I can safely say that Jessica Mills looks nothing like any model I can think of. In fact, she looks more like a regular person--and let me add that this is in no way meant as a slight--than most TV actresses her age.
Honestly, what are the outward signs of geekery these days anyway? Would the show be more convincing if she were unattractive or something?
posted by millions at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
I'm not ready to go to bat for Awkward Embraces on the strength of that trailer, but I think I can safely say that Jessica Mills looks nothing like any model I can think of. In fact, she looks more like a regular person--and let me add that this is in no way meant as a slight--than most TV actresses her age.
Honestly, what are the outward signs of geekery these days anyway? Would the show be more convincing if she were unattractive or something?
posted by millions at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2011 [4 favorites]
A whole generation of hot girls is learning that you can augment limited talents by disingenuously pretending to be awkward and not as hot as you actually are.
Yes, exactly (though I don't think that is Fey's fault). I realize that nerds come in many flavors but this show just doesn't seem to have any of 'em. If nerds are custard, this is a show about McFlurries. Close, but no cigar.
As for outward signs, it's not a must, but if you're billing yourself as a "geek" on a web show thing, you should probably at least try to look the part. The viewers aren't able to personally become acquainted with you, it is reasonable to give a shortcut and show your geekiness somehow.
posted by troika at 7:29 PM on February 3, 2011
Yes, exactly (though I don't think that is Fey's fault). I realize that nerds come in many flavors but this show just doesn't seem to have any of 'em. If nerds are custard, this is a show about McFlurries. Close, but no cigar.
As for outward signs, it's not a must, but if you're billing yourself as a "geek" on a web show thing, you should probably at least try to look the part. The viewers aren't able to personally become acquainted with you, it is reasonable to give a shortcut and show your geekiness somehow.
posted by troika at 7:29 PM on February 3, 2011
While not necessarily the best of cinema, I thought this was cute. What, does a geeky woman have to wear some sort of uniform to qualify to truly be in the geeky elite? What would that be?
(This is coming from an extremely awkward, nerdy/geeky woman, who does not look like a geek. But I swear, I am! Shoot, I'm hanging out at the San Jose airport, just coming from a conference on "big data". There were some pretty hot nerdy guys there. But could I talk to them? No. Sigh....)
posted by medeine at 7:37 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
(This is coming from an extremely awkward, nerdy/geeky woman, who does not look like a geek. But I swear, I am! Shoot, I'm hanging out at the San Jose airport, just coming from a conference on "big data". There were some pretty hot nerdy guys there. But could I talk to them? No. Sigh....)
posted by medeine at 7:37 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
Even though I'm a guy, I'm glad I'm not hot so nobody thinks I am one of those fake geeks like DHH or Kevin Rose. Arvid Engen all the way!
posted by Ad hominem at 8:33 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by Ad hominem at 8:33 PM on February 3, 2011
WTF DHHwhat's with the faux hawk and blue steel, we know you didn't code a line of Rails, you got some poor nerds locked in a basement somewhere don't you.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:38 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by Ad hominem at 8:38 PM on February 3, 2011
Gigantic Teeth.
posted by humboldt32 at 6:41 AM on February 4, 2011
posted by humboldt32 at 6:41 AM on February 4, 2011
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posted by xtine at 1:13 PM on February 3, 2011