Despite finding “Miranda” unwatchably awful, I stuck with it. Why? Because I don’t have Netflix. Because I did have Moderna, the booster, and it knocked me out for a couple days. It seemed unchallenging and deeply sitcommy, so I just kept allowing the next ep to play during baby-naps. And… it’s not terrible? The first season yes, but it gets better—sillier, and more specific. Less literally about the project of getting Miranda a boyfriend and more just improv-type comedy tied together with only the faintest pretext of a plot.
“Miranda” dwells within a universe of dorky-girl comedy, with Miranda-the-character sharing a standpoint of sorts with Liz Lemon of “30 Rock,” Rebecca Bunch of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Rhoda Morgenstern of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Geraldine “Vicar of Dibley” Grainger, Jane Edwards of “Waiting for God,” and Taylor Swift’s persona in songs from a few years ago. (But am reluctant to add actual teen characters to the mix; if one did, Angela Chase, “My So-Called Life,” and the brunette from “Freaks and Geeks.”) A good girl, an innocent. Not like those other girls. A kind of quasi-incel, lady variety, whose sexual (or in Rebecca’s, Geraldine’s, and Rhoda’s case, romantic) inexperience results from a mix of plainness (can’t) and prudishness (won’t).
The reason I exclude young characters is that frumpiness is key. This isn’t a woman who has yet to age into wildness or, conversely, settling down. She’s one who already passed the life stage when that might be expected. She has no mysterious past, no baggage. The opposite of a bimbo, she’s simultaneously too naive, too feminist, and too clever for feminine wiles. But therein lies her charm. She’s one of the guys, not batting her eyelashes. She is, in other words, a Cool Girl, precisely because of her being too dorky, too eternally preadolescent, to do things like go to the mall.
(This reminds me: I need to order another bottle of the good conditioner from Sephora.)
She’s on one level desperate for a man, but on another, that desperation comes across as (heh) performative. If her actions themselves are to be believed, she’s ambivalent about coupledom, if not altogether happiest single. (Aloof!) But she has to Get A Man in the end, because anything else would suggest defeat. Lots of wedding finales. (Jane and Harvey; the vicar and some dude, and while I have not yet finished “Miranda” apparently it is thus for her as well.) A good-looking one, which explains the appeal of this trope. Sometimes, to mix a metaphor, the ugly duckling gets the swan.
Is it a British thing, letting a plain-looking woman pair off with a handsome man? Its own related question, unanswerable here.
There’s something about “Miranda” and “The Vicar of Dibley” that causes me to wince, and it’s the way both shows are so devoted to the goodness of their protagonists. Star vehicles, I get it, I get it, but! Must a show be about the main character being a wonderful human being? Am I weird for finding this irritating, or does the popularity of “Seinfeld”/“Curb Your Enthusiasm” suggest not?
And with that, I guess back to “Miranda.”
Tried watching a few episodes of Miranda some time ago and couldn't get into it. The relentless in-your-face-type humour was too much for me, I prefer dryer British humour. If I'm going to watch something ridiculous then it's got to be as sharp as Curb.
Also totally agree "bad" protagonists are so much more fun! Love living vicariously through Larry et al.