Privileged, 1x02, “All About Honesty”

Episode Title: All About Honesty
Writer: Rina Mimoun
Director: Michael Engler
Originally Aired: 08/16/2008
Grade: B+

Although the continuation of the party made this episode feel a bit disjointed and confusing, like it was a two-hour pilot that didn’t get aired as such, this was still another fun hour of television.

My level of respect for the show went up about five notches after Megan’s monologue about the “ball buster” label and powerful women. On the one hand, it was blunt and preachy, but at the same time, I really liked that the writer just had Megan come out and state such a feminist perspective very clearly. The preachy bluntness was important because this show is clearly aimed at younger girls. I know some very smart high school girls, but I also know that my teenage self would not have understood something like that if it was done in the more embedded, subtle way that shows like Battlestar Galactica or Mad Men use to tackle thematic issues.

I have to say that I agree with Marco’s assessment that Megan should “stop poking the lion” when it comes to Sage, because that’s exactly how it comes off, as if she’s trying to provoke Sage. The two of them are constantly snitting off to each other, and while I understand Megan’s annoyance, fighting fire with fire is not going to be particularly effective.

Megan being clueless about Charlie asking if she likes Will actually works—as far as she knows, he’s just her best friend who hung out at his computer to keep her company in video chat while she was away in New York. She has no reason to think he’d be asking that question for any other reason than being a good friend. Poor Charlie is so doomed. She seems to have him shoved so far into the "just friends" corner that it’s going to take all kinds of convoluted shenanigans before Megan actually realizes what she might be missing out on... How she can be oblivious to her best friend being that cute is beyond me, but she certainly seems to be.

I noticed that in the pilot episode, Megan asked Charlie to keep her presence in Palm Beach from her family, and in this episode, she wanted him to get Lily to leave the party. To his credit, he at least tried to tell her he didn’t want to be mixed up in her family business, but she’s asked a favor of him in both episodes so far.

The fact that Will is dating Lily when it’s obvious that he’s interested in Megan is just plain skeevy no matter how you look at it. The only saving graces are that a) Lily appears to have pursued him rather than the other way around, and b) in the kind of circles he moves in, he probably doesn’t even realize it’s a big deal. That still doesn’t make it okay, and it doesn’t change the fact that it’s not something that’s going to seem normal to Megan, especially given her history with Lily. It should be a matter of common sense that dating the sister of something you’re interested in has the potential to be hurtful and become complicated. I don’t think the “different social values” card gets him out of this one, it’s just an excuse.

And sadly, Kristina Apgar and Joanna Garcia don’t quite work as sisters. Lily on her own is fine—I think Apgar is a perfectly good actress and makes Lily feel very much like a real person. The problem is that Garcia plays Megan in a much more quirky, stylized way, and when you get the two of them together, it just doesn’t work. Maybe their styles will mesh a bit given some time, but the difference is almost distractingly glaring at the moment because the characters have such a complex, heated relationship. It also doesn't help that they look nothing alike.