Y'know how sometimes a movie gets absorbed into your life? You quote from it, you think about it, you occasionally have real-life experiences that jog your memory of a particular scene. For a lot of people, this movie is "Casablanca," or perhaps "When Harry Met Sally." For me it's "Serial."
In 1980 I was 15 years old and going to High School in Marin County, California, the same time and place as "Serial." My formative-to-rebellious years were spent at ground zero of the birth of the new age and PC movements (some might argue that this was actually Boulder, Colorado or Sedona, Arizona, but let's not split hairs).
Natch, I grew up hating these attitudes. Like the protagonist Harvey Holroyd, I would listen to the pablum puke coming out of peoples' mouths and (figuratively) weep for the future.
It's only gotten worse.
"Serial" is a hilarious and sharply observed comedy which can easily strike the casual viewer as dated and arcane, but listen, really *listen* to the minor characters in this movie: - The bearded hippie who wants to help Kate carry things up the stairs but demurs because, "like, that would be sexist." In 2002, is not chivalry truly dead? - The flighty and annoying trend-hopper Carol, who by the end of the film has decided she's gay, even though according to Kate she's "still a c***." Ever know a LUG (Lesbian Until Graduation)? - The young checkout girl with whom Harvey has a fling, who from the get-go stands Nazi-like over Harvey's eating habits, rigidly attempting to control what Harvey puts in his "one and only body." Ever know someone who deals with the chaos and vagaries of life through their eating disorder?
So, is "Serial" merely a dated light comedy? To me, it's much more: it's an open-handed slap to the face of the now-prevalent ideas that started in this time and place. Two years after this film came out, I became an angry young punk rocker, and left this film for a few years, but it never left me.
P.S.: My laserdisc copy looks and sounds terrible. I want a DVD!!
