Review: Magical Girl Friendship Squad “The Real World”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
Daisy freaks out after Nut introduces a chore wheel inspired by The Real World to help clean the apartment, and is even more enraged when Nut explains that Daisy’s tendency to rebel is rooted in resentment for her ultra-strict upbringing. Alex offers to stay home to make sure Daisy’s ok, but Nut shoos her off to her company’s “women’s empowerment conference” (EWWCon, for short) to discover more about Aggregon’s evil plans. She’s greeted by Corvin (“it’s called being an ally!”) and heads off to speed mentoring with female execs. Back at the apartment, Daisy disregards a very specific sticky note and drinks some of Nut’s forbidden tea, which causes her to be transported to an alternate universe where everything is perfect (Coraline vibes, anyone?) In this new reality, she lives in a shockingly clean apartment with her monogamous girlfriend, Pansy, and has lunch with her parents/across the hall neighbors who appreciate her and have a stable marriage that taught her about relationships. Upon discovering what Daisy’s done, Nut calls up her sister Gloriana (voiced with impeccable “annoying sibling” magic by Paget Brewster), the creator of this “copycat” universe, and asks her to get Daisy to drink the return tea. Gloriana begrudgingly agrees, but says she’ll only offer the tea, not force her to drink it if Daisy prefers Gloriana’s “superior” world. In speed mentoring, Alex attempts to learn about the company’s research hoarding and instead gets a ton of information the company’s egg freezing program. After an intense mentoring session with Verus, Alex thinks there’s something fishy going on, and heads off to investigate. In the alternate universe, Daisy is starting feel the restraints of perfection, but Gloriana isn’t willing to let her leave without a tussle. Alex finds the creepy mutant/clone/Silent Hill-nurse-looking monsters being created from employee’s frozen eggs, is confronted by Corvin who reveals that it’s his initiative and that he’s distrusted her ever since she skipped “Fri-die Tie-die” before setting the creeps loose. Daisy finally gets the teleportation tea from Gloriana, but not before the jaded sister reveals that Nut lied to them, and they’re not destined to protect her. She’s able to join Alex in the nick of time, and the two take out the frozen egg freaks, before debriefing/confronting Nut. Verus sees an opportunity to get close to Alex, informing her that Corvin has been terminated and offering her the position of executive assistant. After discovering Nut chose them at random, Alex is interested in Verus’s proposal that echos Natasha Bedingfield’s hit, “your destiny is still unwritten.”
Our take
Christine Baranski (that’s Mary Sunshine for you Chicago fans) is NAILING the animated villain game as of late. First as The Devil Wears Prada-esque Amanda Hannity, editor-in-chief of Manatee Fair on Bojack Horseman, and now as the powerful, terrifying, stunningly green-eyed Verus, the shoulder-padded chief exec of Aggregon that’s setting up the plot for world domination with her impressively low, smooth alto that somehow manages to avoid any gravelly tones. While there’s been plenty of one-off encounters with otherworldly foes, this episode seems to be the start of a more ominous build up to a final showdown, lending this goofy buddy comedy some much-needed serious tones (although it’s still pretty goofy.)
This episode also leans a little more into heavier questions, ranging from the existential, like what truly defines reality/how many universes are there/the benefits of free will (notably missing from Gloriana’s “perfect” world), building a career vs. starting a family (aka the classic “have it all” conundrum that working women face), and of course how women wield power, both as our magical protagonists, and as our highly successful, ambitious, and powerful villain, Verus.
I’m definitely interested in seeing how this plays out, especially considering how bitter I (still?) am about The Female Persuasion, a novel that presents itself as a feminist investigation of female ambition, only to MAJORLY disappoint when it comes to any critical analysis other than “Ambition: it will make you betray your friends!” I’m hopeful that this show will navigate show broken trust and the tricky path back towards forgiveness with a bit more nuance, since it’s already managed to lend multiple facets to the on-screen relationships so far without being ham-fisted or leaning too hard on harmful tropes.
The concept of destiny is also being broken down, which makes for a fascinating philosophical discussion as well, and one that I’m hoping to see fleshed out a little further. Animation, and the magical girl genre in particular, can lean particularly hard on the “chosen one” narrative, which seems at odds with the concept of free will in general, but these concepts are rarely used as anything more than a plot device. It might seem like a lot to ask of a wildly goofy show, but I’ve been impressed by animation’s willingness to delve into philosophy throughout the late 2010s, and I’m hoping that Magical Girl Friendship Squad will brilliantly continue this trend into the next decade.
While Corvin’s contract has been officially terminated (a line delivered with glorious malice, and extra eye-sheen for good measure) I doubt this will be the last we hear of Matteo Lane in this series, but only time will tell what new role this character will serve in the show.
I hope this turns out to be another Gravity Falls-type show with an overarching storyline.