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Being from Burleson, Tx and having graduated from BHS one year earlier than Liz Lee, I have a different opinion on this show than some other viewers.
It's very hard for me to separate the "show" from the "reality", because the two are so different. I admit I can't watch this show objectively although I have tried. In theory I like the idea of the plot (I was not an outsider in HS, but not popular, and often considered myself a wallflower) because it's different and promotes individuality. But I can't get through a single episode without going screaming mad over the misrepresentation of my hometown.
So to set the record straight: Yes Burleson is a fairly small town, with a population of over 30,000. Yes we have a lot of churches, but not everyone is religious. And yes we love barbecue.
That's not really disputable. What Liz does not mention is that we are just south of one of the largest metroplex in the area- Fort Worth. Burleson is growing exponentially. Residents from nearby towns (Cleburne, Alvarado) come to Burleson to shop. We really don't have much need to leave our town because here we have basically any clothing store, movie theater, shopping center, that we could need. So although we are "small" in comparison to larger cities, we are not THAT small.
Having gone to BHS, I'm aware that there are cliques. But one of the things that I enjoyed about BHS was that the "popular" kids weren't really that popular if you know what I mean. Sure we were all different and into different things but people really intermingled. There wasn't a lot of bullying or harassing or conflict between groups. I was a little surprised to learn we had some blond Barbie bitches in the grade below me because I never noticed. Actually being Indy (what I would stereotype Liz as) is COOL in Burleson. The choppy hair, vintage clothing, and sarcastic persona are really in. Being that way doesn't make you an outcast at all. I never considered Liz (who I just knew of, not personally knew) as an outcast or someone not popular. She always had a lot of friends and was very pretty.
As for reality VS scripted, I think it's obvious. And that really does not bother me. So what if MTV did not really start filming until May, after valentines day, so they had to fabricate that episode? And yeah it was not all filmed at BHS. I could point out the scenes where it is obviously a different school, but think I've rambled enough. They did film scenes after school that were portrayed to be during school. Too many scenes are filmed in Old Town Burleson, which is an extremely small part of out town made to look old. No, Meryls Hamburgers or whatever it is is in Rendon, not Burleson. I just don't want people believing it's so real when it's so scripted.
score 3/10
Wallflower2008 10 February 2010
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2205526/ |
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25-10-2020 13:47:02