I am a huge fan of the web series Very Mary Kate by Elaine Carroll and Sam Reich. I watch it just about every week when it's in season and I re-watch it sometimes when it's not.
I also love Mary Kate Olsen. I grew up watching her and Ashley on Full House and they have always been an interesting pair. The girls are never really caught in wild scandals and they are always involved in something worth checking out. They are not the typical Hollywood child stars that grew up to become alcoholics, drug addicts or porn stars like so many others. They have also had much more success. I always like Mary Kate a bit more because she is the quirkier one and, well, she won me when she went brunette. She is more public then Ashley. Ashely is the shy private one, much like myself. I also enjoy Mary Kate for her public flaws. Flawed people are always more interesting to me.
One of the things I like about Very Mary Kate is that I can tell Elaine has a fondness for her as well. She isn't picking Mary Kate apart like I expected when I first watched the series but elaborating on the loveable qualities we all know Mary Kate for and adding a little extra. She turns Mary Kate into a loveable child like character who is in college studying ponies with a minor in butterflies, crashes blimps, has a gorgeous body guard that does crazy things for her, has her cats cloned and all named after comet, thinks a purple dragon is trying to kill her, she recently was arrested for bribing an officer and I have yet to watch the second half of that clip. It's a fun show and Elaine uses what we know Mary Kate as and takes everyone's imaginations of who she might be and extends it to a point where you want to be sitting next to this girl all the time and not only giggle at her ridiculousness but help her out a little. The Mary Kate character has become something separate from the actual Mary Kate. You will have to watch it to really understand. My favorite is the driving lesson.
Zooey Deschanel was recently on Saturday Night Live and she did a skit where she portrayed Mary Kate. I don't watch Saturday Night Live. I do like the show, but like so many other shows I don't pay attention to when it airs so I forget to watch it. I know... SATURDAYS, but often I remember it's on after the fact. So I was not watching when the "Bein' Quirkey with Zooey Deschanel" aired. I was on facebook just after airing and saw Very Mary Kate's fan page get flooded with comments about Zooey ripping off of Very Mary Kate and Elaine herself posting about how Mary Kate Olsen and Very Mary Kate were trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons and breaking her heart.
Having not watched SNL that night I did not know which way Elaine meant this. Was she agreeing that Zooey and SNL ripped off her web series or saying the opposite? Initially I thought she was agreeing with the fans, but after watching the skit I don't think so. I also have to give her credit for not elaborating any further.
I just now finally got to watch it on NBC.com... more like I finally remembered and while I see why fans of the web series would be very upset about Zooey's portrayal the reality is Zooey and SNL did not pull anything unique to the Very Mary Kate Series. The only similarity I noticed was Mary Kate's look which is Mary Kate Olsen's actual look. A blanket, large sunglasses, a trenta size Starbucks, and free flowing hair. Personally, I think Elaine pulls it off much better.
However, I did not like the skit. I thought the garbage comment was not cool. Elaine has Mary Kate wearing expensive blankets and designer labels not one's pulled from a dumpster and it's also referring to Mary Kate as trashy which she certainly is not. The actress who portrayed Zooey was wonderful at pointing out all the traits about Zooey that I find irritating. I used to really enjoy her but in the last year I think I got Zooey Deschanel overkill. The actor that played Michael Cera was great and Bijork was wonderful as well.
I was ready to watch this SNL skit and be completely appalled by comedic theft, but I am not. You be the judge.
Side note: to get most of the humor in the web series I think it's best to start watching from the beginning. The shows are only a few minutes long. Although I wish they were much longer.
