Within the past twenty years, there have been many great high school comedies, but none compare to the iconic status of 2004’s Mean Girls. So it’s no wonder Netflix’s latest coming-of-age story feels wonderfully inspired by Tina Fey’s hilarious and “fetch” hit. Boo, Bitch gives off some major Mean Girls energy, except added on top is an element of the supernatural as Lana Condor’s character goes from invisible high schooler to ultra-popular ghost.
When CinemaBlend spoke to the cast of Boo, Bitch about the fun limited series, star and producer Lana Condor, who recently came off leading the All The Boys trilogy, shared why comparing the Netflix series to Mean Girls makes perfect sense. In her words:
In our show, it's very raunchy, it doesn't take itself seriously. All of the characters are very specific and elevated. And I think that that's something that when I was watching particularly, like that clique of girls, I felt like their chemistry together was very similar to Mean Girls, which I think is a classic and I think is so enjoyable to watch, not nice in real life, but enjoyable to watch on film.
In the upcoming Netflix series, Lana Condor plays a high school student named Erika Vu, who has spent her years being wrongly called “Helen Who” instead. On the night Erika and her ride-or-die bestie Gia (Zoe Colletti) decide to actually party, Erika gets run over by a car and a deer at the same time. When Erika finds out she’s dead but able to be still seen to complete her unfinished business, she makes it her mission to become known at her high school.
In that last sense, Boo, Bitch is an awesome Mean Girls homage, often playing with a similar fun tone the 2004 movie did. Zoe Colletti also spoke to the similarities:
I think for sure in the way you like [Lana’s] interactions with them and how [her] character kind of joins in with them in a miserable way that, like you said, people will love to watch, but everyone that's experienced that in real life is just dying inside.
In Boo, Bitch, there is of course a popular school girl, Aparna Brielle’s Riley. When CinemaBlend spoke to the actress, she shared that she did base her role on Regina George in some aspects, but also wanted to do more than play homage to one of the greats. As she shared:
Well, certainly you can't play a mean girl without playing some kind of homage to some of the iconic characters we grew up with. I mean, hello, Regina George. But, one thing that I always wanted to focus on throughout this whole thing is understanding emotionally where she was at this whole time and that is being at a place of deep insecurity. She's someone who, despite acting like she's confident, isn't really confident at all underneath. And, it's just funny, because in high school I was not the mean girl at all. I was not the popular girl. I was kind of like the weird one out a little bit. I was an odd duck. And so the one thing I was able to lead into for Riley was that insecurity that you kind of feel at that time in your life when so much importance is placed on your social standing and all these other things. I really just wanted to focus on what made her human and what made her real.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Mean Girls came out and it remains an important part of pop culture. Just this weekend the movie arrived on Netflix and the internet was all over rewatching it. So much so the movie became one of the streaming service’s top trending movies.
Boo, Bitch was created by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Erin Ehrlich and Awkward's Lauren Iungerich, alongside co-creators/executive producers Tim Schauer and Kuba Soltysiakis also on the team. The show is additionally executive produced by Lana Condor, which is a first for the actor alongside Jamie Dooner, Jonathon Komack Martin and Blake Goza.
If you’re looking for something in the camp of Mean Girls, Boo, Bitch is not only a homage, but takes some of the elements from it to deepen its characters, along with telling a more modern story. Hello, social media!! You can check out Boo, Bitch with a Netflix subscription on July 8 and look forward to Condor next in Looney Tunes spinoff film Wile E. Coyote following that.
