Normally I ignore most made for TV movies.  Yet I found myself watching a commercial for one yesterday.  I know, setting myself up for failure, right?  Unfortunately, this isn't the half of it.  The movie played on one subject that is close to my heart, i.e. bullying.  But in this day and age, it took the form of Cyber Bullying [And thus the name of the movie is also revealed.]


So on a Sunday Night, I decided to plop down in front of a television set and spend 2 hours watching this movie.  Now I normally don't bad mouth movies I don't have high hopes/expectations for too much.  Why beat a horse that's already dead?  This movie, however, irked me to no end.  It wasn't that it was poorly done in terms of acting or directing.  For a made for TV movie, it wasn't half bad.  What truly got to me was the fact that cyber bullying, or bullying of any kind, was dampened down.  Honestly, I truly thought by the end of the movie "if this is what bullying is supposed to be, sign me up, kthnxbai!"  The main character was subjugated to torture by her own friend who instigates a rumor of a sexual encounter that left him [the false male account] with "the clap" [and tells the main girl this later] and ridiculed continuously by her peers, including the stuck up "Queen Bee" clique and many people she did not know.  This of course, leads to the main character's break down, her posting a "This is it" video on the movie's variation of Facebook or Myspace, and then attempting suicide.  A little cliche, I know, but since it was on ABC family, that was probably the best they can do.  The main character's friend [yes the same one who caused the issue and rejected her as a friend not 1 or 2 scenes ago] sees this video as she arrives home, which happens to coincide when the girl's having a "Final break down", and calls the leading lady only to get voice mail.  The friend, [tired of calling her that, her name's Samantha], then calls Taylor's [leading lady's] mother and informs her that her daughter may be about to commit suicide.  Samantha manages to get to the house of Taylor, rushes up the stairs, and saves her in the nick of time.  And this is the point where I begin laughing.  Forgive me, but you'll understand in a moment.


Samantha finds Taylor in the bathroom, sitting on what seems to be at the edge of the bathtub, unable to open a bottle of pills to murder herself.  Um, wait what?  Yes, you read that correctly.  What's more, the two begin struggling over the pills [good job Samantha, I approve], and the cap pops off within seconds.  Understand where the issue is coming in?  From here on out, the movie seems to lose my respect at an alarming rate, but it does have its good points.  Taylor gets put into a support group and is on anti-depressants, but only for what seems like a few days to no more than a week and a half.  All the while, the mother is trying to get someone to pursue legal action, even to go to the Senator to get a Anti-Cyber Bully law passed [which is shot down by legislation when she speaks to him, no surprise there].  Things progress, people tell her that she shouldn't die, they would be sad, the usual sappy stuff that is within most fairy tale films.  Taylor and her mother eventually go to the press, try to get their story published in a local newspaper for awareness, only to have it told that a girl who attempted to commit suicide due to active internet bullying, wouldn't be enough.  The story of Samantha acting as a false persona on the internet facebook-look-a-like and constantly jeering her friend would make for more a publicity appeal.  ...Allright, seriously, if this hasn't irked anyone else, maybe I am off my rocker today.  So Samantha and Taylor end up doing a minor [and I do mean minor] interview with a reporter and get things sorted out.  Remember how I told you Samantha tells Taylor she was the fake boy who claimed he got an STD from her?  Well its already happened [skipping around, sorry], and somehow everyone knows that it was her and now Samantha is being ridiculed.  Samantha tells Taylor about it, Taylor finds courage to go back to school [she's been skipping school all this time], and stands up for herself against the Queen Bees, who have gone on for several days ridiculing both of her.  This inspires Samantha and other people join in [a third, lesser seen friend, a guy she has a class with and sees in the help meetings, and the boy Taylor's lusting for] and defend themselves.  Queen Bees are verbally defeated, but not abused, and leave.


At this point, everything is right again and Taylor gets the boy.  Oh, forgot to mention, this same boy [Scott], is the reason why Samantha created the fake persona.  So she could show Taylor not all boys are nice.  


>.>
<.<


Maybe I am taking this a little too far, but this made everything I, or a vast majority of teenagers, had to go through seem like a joke.  A poorly planned out joke.  With no cutesy punch line either.  So in the end, what did I learn today.  "Bullying goes away once you get backbone."  Well, needless to say, I learned that everything that this large group I mentioned has gone through has been pointless, that we are all spineless and we need to confront the problem.

Okay, I am being harsh, but can you blame me?  I hope not.  So in response [and the whole point of this] is over the next few weeks I'm working on a little written project.  My flair for Cyber Punk meets Cyber Bullying [hopefully the idea sticks].  This is to show that not everything in the realm of bullying ends with a happy ending and that sometimes someone needs to speak up for the oppressed.  Because sometimes the oppressed don't get a chance to speak up or have someone or somewhere to speak up too.  Because Bullying doesn't always "Just go away".