Debashine Thangevelo
WHO would have guessed that Cameron Diaz in Jake Kasdan’s comedy, Bad Teacher, would inspire a TV series? Not me!
That movie was tolerable at best – only because fans could drool over the über sexy Diaz and Justin Timberlake.
And the premise of an idle school teacher more preoccupied with getting a boob job after her fiancé dumped her, didn’t really scream “brilliant”. But teens lapped up the idiotic tale none-theless. Of course, gullibility and undiscerning taste is in their DNA.
In an era when there are pioneering – not to mention award-winning – comedies like Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and Veep saturating the market, anything on TV that is not on par is simply not worth acknowledging.
And Bad Teacher, a spinoff of the movie, falls into the latter category, which is not surprising. But the script is tweaked to give scope for the writers of the series.
In the series, Ari Graynor, who made her TV breakthrough as Caitlin Rucker on The Sopranos, plays Meredith Davis.
Divorced and penniless – thanks to her prenuptial agreement – she ends up crashing with her friend’s family. And during her stay, she finds herself inspired (mostly by Lily, her friend’s step-daughter) to apply for a job at Richard Nixon Middle School.
Of course, this is only a temporary plan until she meets and marries a rich single father.
Along the way, she ends up getting schooled in a few things.
On giving the nod to the role, Graynor told Collider.com: “I had been really hesitant about doing TV for many years.
“I said, ‘no’, outright and wasn’t even reading things. And then, last year, I was like, ‘I’m not saying I want to do TV, but I’m open to knowing what’s out there’.”
But she had misgivings about doing a TV series based on the movie.
She explained that she didn’t want to do it – especially when it meant being compared with Diaz.
She explained: “But then I read the script and it was so funny and so smart and so fresh. It was great to see a female character like this. Meredith may seem like somebody who only cares about finding a rich guy to marry, but she has a real underdog spirit.
“It’s part of her fighter nature. She’s going to stand up for things and doesn’t worry about what other people think. Seeing all of this in the script made it clear that it would be really stupid not to do this.”
As for whether she was conflicted about making her character likeable, she revealed: “Yes and no. A lot of it comes down to the writing.
“Hilary Winston, our show runner, is a really incredible writer. And she has a unique voice. I am sensitive to making sure that people understand where Meredith is coming from. It’s more about understanding her actions and more than the day-to-day minutiae.”
A highlight for her?
“The relationship between Meredith and Joel (Ryan Hansen), the coach, is a fun thread. It’s a will-they-or-won’t-they kind of relationship. They went to high school together and Meredith claims that she doesn’t remember him. But I don’t think that’s completely true,” she admits.
And so the story meanders from one disaster to another as Meredith searches for Mr Moneybags while Mr Perfect might be closer than she realised.
Bad Teacher airs on M-Net (DStv channel 101) at 6pm on Thursday.