Every few months, a viral Twitter thread pops up asking people to list their favorite TV shows that were unceremoniously cancelled. Considering that this describes a good 70% of the shows I’ve ever loved, there’s no shortage of choices. But I don’t have to think about it. The answer comes instantaneously: my one, my only, my most dearly beloved “Selfie.”
In the age of Peak TV, recommending a show can feel like trying to get someone’s attention from across the solar system. Yes yes, I know, you already have enough television to watch until you’re 90. But I believe that everybody has a little room in their heart for this show, and I would be remiss if I didn’t spread the gospel.
“Selfie” premiered on ABC in September 2014 and aired for two months before it was cancelled for low ratings. It was basically a comet; it brightened the earth for a beautiful shining moment before it disappeared. There are only 13 episodes in total, each less than half an hour long.
The show is a rom-com adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s classic play “Pygmalion.” The two leads are also named Eliza and Henry, and they work together at a pharmaceutical marketing company. If you’re not familiar with “Pygmalion,” it’s about a stuffy professor who attempts to “improve” a woman with bad manners so she can pass as a duchess. “Selfie” hews to this premise, but no more closely than in the first episode. After being publicly humiliated on social media, Eliza asks Henry—who’s known for working marketing miracles—for help rehabilitating her image. But as it turns out, Henry is desperately uncool and needs Eliza’s help as much as she needs his.
Who plays these characters, you ask? Great question. Only the two most delightful leads who ever lived: John Cho and Karen Gillan.
It is hard to overstate how jazzed I was about John Cho getting cast as Henry. Remember, this was in 2014. No “Fresh Off the Boat”; no “Always Be My Maybe”; no “Crazy Rich Asians”; no Asians, period, unless it was me seeing my reflection in my laptop screen. Asian actors could be funny but not sexy, sexy but not funny, side pieces but never the lead—but here was John Cho, nailing all three. He got paid to dress like a GQ cover model and ride up to his co-workers on an honest-to-God white horse. ABC did the world dirty when they took this away from us.
Then there’s Karen Gillan. She’s made it big as a movie star now, but I wish more of those movies let her be funny. She is an absolute gem in “Selfie”: daffy, exuberant, and a master at physical comedy. Eliza is a tricky character to pull off because she can be quite shallow and obnoxious, but she’s a lot of fun to watch chiefly because Karen is the mayor of Charm City.
The first few episodes are focused on Henry and Eliza, but the show increasingly brings in the people they work with so that it becomes more of an office comedy. The supporting cast is wonderful. The stealth MVP is David Harewood, who was best known at the time for playing the Very Serious CIA director on “Homeland.” Here, he applies the same seriousness to the totally ridiculous role of Henry and Eliza’s boss and steals every scene. Honorable mention goes to Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the office receptionist and my role model, Charmonique.
Even as the universe of “Selfie” expanded, the heart of the show remained the romance. More than anything, I think this is what elevates it from a solid comedy to something special. “Selfie” is unswervingly confident in its voice and in the slow-burn relationship between its leads from the start. You can tell that everyone behind and in front of the camera just wants these two weirdos to be happy. The chemistry between them is killer, the writing zings with one-liners, and there are plenty of dumb jokes about being Extremely Online that, despite being seven years old at this point, still make me cackle. If you’re having a bad day, this show will cheer you up. And if you want to cry, there’s that too. One scene that has taken on a life of its own on YouTube shows a heartbroken Eliza singing Sia’s “Chandelier,” which is part of a brilliant sequence late in the season that encapsulates how deftly “Selfie” was able to balance humor and pathos.
After the show was cancelled, the entire thing—including the remaining six episodes that didn’t air—was released on Hulu. But it’s since vanished and isn’t available on any other streaming service, so if you want to watch it, you have to make an effort. (You’re welcome!) I wonder sometimes if “Selfie” would have an easier time finding an audience if it premiered now, when there seems to be a lot more room for Millennial-friendly romantic comedy to succeed. But for something that only got one season, I could not have asked for more. Watching it is like digging into a big bowl of comfort food: warming and more filling than just about anything else.