Haters Back Off

By: Paige Zinaman

When announced that Miranda Sings the outrageously funny YouTube sensation was going to get a Netflix series the bar was raised high. Fans love her videos and wanted nothing more than this show to just as equal to their video loving hearts. And “Haters Back Off” did nothing short of spectacular. Each episode brought light to not only Miranda and her hopes of being famous, but also to a broken family you begin to see episodes in. And that to me is what stuck out the most. The performance from the cast was beyond amazing, Colleen Ballinger shines bright in the series through and through as each struggle becomes more and more real and heartfelt.

In Uploading my Fist Video, the first episode of the series, we are shown that Miranda (Colleen Ballinger) is a homeschooled girl that lives with her mother Bethany (Angela Kinsey) who works at a grocery store while also trying to tell people she has undiagnosed fibromyalgia. Colleen also has a sister, Emily, (Francesca Reale) who is pretty much the adult in the house that already has adults and there is Uncle Jim (Steve Little) who is everyone’s crazy uncle that is more focused on fame and glory than being an adult. Uncle Jim is trying to get Miranda famous by his five step plan. Meanwhile, we see Emily living what others could call a “Hannah Montana life,” as she acknowledges Miranda as her sister at home but when she’s at school she is someone totally different – no one knows she has a sister. So, when Miranda shows up for a meet and greet at Emily’s school it takes everything Emily has to get Miranda to leave without people finding out they are sisters. We also meet Patrick (Erik Stocklin), a faithful friend who brings Miranda a popsicle everyday, but who we also discover is very much in love with Miranda. Unfortunately, Miranda is blinded with fame. But when Miranda’s video receives a hateful comment, it sends her into a spin and she’s as determined as ever to be famous. It also leaves Emily once again dreading that people would find out she and Miranda are family.

In Preeching 2 the Chior, Miranda has given up on YouTube because of more hateful comments being left on her video. Bethany and Miranda go to church where Miranda sees Owen (Dylan Playfair) the good looking, guitar playing lead boy in the church’s choir. Miranda sets her sights on him once Owen mentions that they are looking for new people. Miranda joins the choir, much to the dislike of Patrick. When we meet Keith, (Chaz Lamar Shepherd) the Pastor of the church, he asks Bethany if she would go to singles night where we find out Bethany is quite the flirt. When choir practice comes around, Miranda shows up to basically drool and flirt with Owen which causes the other members to get very upset with her because she can’t sing and is becoming a huge distraction. So, April (Rachelle Gillis) requests with the support of the other choir members that Miranda be kicked out of the choir. Keith talks to Miranda and she ends up kicking everything that’s around her as she storms out of the church, making Keith her enemy. When Patrick tries to comfort Miranda and give her words of encouragement, she twists his words and comes up with a plan to make Owen fall in love with her. As Bethany is preparing for the singles bingo night, she comes up with conversation cards that are so bad Emily stops her from using them. This then leads to Bethany asking Emily to come to singles night with her to which Emily reluctantly agrees. Miranda shows up to sing a passionate love song to Owen, but of course she makes a scene and Keith asks Owen to escort her outside. Owen locks Miranda outside the church with a promise he’d come back. All this leads to a scene between Bethany and Miranda where she tells her daughter that she is so strong and to not let anyone stop her, ergo Miranda goes back to Uncle Jim and tells him she’s going back on the Internet.

Netwerking at the Nursing Home opens up with Miranda uploading her cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” to which Emily sees and asks Miranda if she would come sing to their Aunt Moira who is suffering from dementia and that is staying in the nursing home. At first Miranda and Jim decline, but soon Jim realizes that if Moira dies then Miranda gets “her stuff.” While still sad that Miranda has a thing for Owen, Patrick brings Miranda her daily popsicle. We also see Bethany and Pastor Keith getting closer when he pops into the grocery store she works in. When Emily takes both Miranda and Uncle Jim to the nursing home, Uncle Jim finds himself in the presence of an old movie director, Bob Hamburg. This causes him to lie to Emily to get her away so Miranda could audition for Mr. Hamburg for one of his upcoming movies. When Emily finds out, she forces them to leave. Not ones to be told no, Jim and Miranda sneak back into the nursing home and into Mr. Hamburg’s room where Miranda’s singing all but kills him. Miranda receives a phone call from Bob Hamburg’s nephew (who is none other than Ben Stiller) asking her if she’d speak at his uncle’s funeral as she was “closest” to Bob when he passed. When Ben tells Miranda he is in the ‘industry,” Miranda tells him rather rudely that she doesn’t want an “industrial job” because she wants to be famous. At the funeral, Bethany and Pastor Keith flirt with each other through an elderly lady sitting between them. When Miranda is about to perform, Emily is quick to step in only to have Uncle Jim and Miranda to call her a “jealous hater.”

“Rod Trip With My Uncle” is the fourth episode of the season where we see Pastor Keith making himself at home in Miranda’s house, while also dropping a huge bomb – he and Bethany have been dating ever since the Mr. Hamburg’s funeral. To say Miranda is upset is an understatement, she’s absolutely livid. Keith tries to smooth things over by offering to get Miranda a gig at the Thea Foss Theatre. Not to be outdone, Uncle Jim says he has a better gig planned in Seattle for her, but the only problem is he has no theatre booked. He sets off with Miranda and Patrick in toe being their roadie in their very own tour bus (a/k/a Bethany’s mini van that Patrick spray painted to have Miranda on all sides). Uncle Jim tries keeping Miranda from asking so many questions about the theatre he tells her to pick a stage name -there she becomes “Miranda Sings.” Things can never go easy for them so when the minivan/tour bus gets impounded Jim improvises and spots a Karaoke bar, telling Miranda that’s where her gig is. When Miranda sees she’s supposed to be performing on very high stage and people would see up her skirt, Uncle Jim comes to the rescue and gives her his red sweatpants. Meanwhile, back at home, Emily is the topic of discussion at the dinner table when Keith starts asking her about her artwork. Emily caught off guard because no one ever asks about her artwork or her interests yet she tells Keith all about it. But soon enough, she becomes suspicious when Keith buys Bethany a motorized scooter and finds him sniffing Bethany’s neck brace. When Patrick tells Emily they need a ride home, Emily shows up with Bethany in the scooter and Keith to the bar to see the disaster of a show, sparking Keith to propose to Bethany to take her away from the “train wreck” of a life.

In Staring in a Musicall, Miranda does a cover of “Genie in a Bottle” that Bethany edits for her, which leads Bethany asking Miranda if she wants to do a home production of Annie that they loved to do so much. Jim states that he knows more about show business so he takes over planning to record the production and send it to Broadway. So, he puts an ad on Craigslist for actors. Jim rewrites Annie making Daddy Warbucks a love interest for Annie instead of a father, to which Patrick wants the role. During the play practice you see Miranda and Patrick getting closer and closer. Emily’s friend Kleigh (Lindsay Navarro) is cast as a tree and goes exploring the house as Emily tries her hardest to cover any evidence that she lives there. When the musical is shut down due to raw sewage seeping in the backyard Emily is beyond embarrassed when the truth is finally revealed.

The sixth episode, “Becuming a Magichin,” has Jim and Miranda arguing over posting a “Free Voice Lesson” tutorial that Miranda doesn’t want to post. Jim thinks will bring in all the views and fans. When Patrick tells Miranda he’s excited for his upcoming audition at a magic club, she proceeds to tell Patrick it’s taking her too long to become famous so he offers to teach her magic and let her have his audition much to the dislike of Uncle Jim. Emily, who has been depressed since the truth came out at the musical, has refused to leave the garage and not eating. Just painting. Meanwhile, Patrick’s efforts in teaching Miranda magic leads to her discover he has been working on a very beautiful piece of artwork using the popsicle sticks she chucks on the ground. When it comes time for the audition, Bethany shows up at the magic club only to be told by Patrick it’s a closed audition and that if someone finds her there Miranda could be disqualified. Before she can leave, stagehands start to come and move the sets so she hops inside the magic box that Miranda will be using when Patrick goes inside the box he is shocked to see Bethany inside. All goes well until Miranda goes off script resulting in both Bethany and Patrick getting stabbed inside the box. While Patrick is fine, Bethany gets some unsettling news.

“Starr off the Parade” starts with Miranda yet again uploading of a cover of “Love Shack” to YouTube at the request of a fan only to find out it was Patrick who asks Miranda if she’d go out with him. Sadly, Miranda tells him she’s famous now and can only date to marry famous people. The news Bethany gets from the doctors draws an all new aspect to the show, her kidneys are failing. With all that’s going on, Emily looks up an art school that Uncle Jim mentioned but when she brings it up to Bethany she says that they need Emily there with them. Bethany eventually agrees to let her go. Uncle Jim is trying to get Miranda to be the Grand Marshal of the town parade. Jim gets all the home-schooled kids together to form a color guard to march infront of Miranda’s float that Patrick builds, but once again Uncle Jim’s fireworks cause the float to catch fire as Miranda and Patrick are about to kiss. Miranda finally agrees to a date with Patrick as Emily’s interview at the school goes horribly due to Miranda’s “help.”

I’m Famous is the season finale and it shows Patrick still planning his date with Miranda, but she runs into Owen who asks her to come to his CD release party at the Thea Foss Theatre where she has always wanted to perform. She goes. Owen asks Miranda to be the distraction so the audience wouldn’t expect him to propose. Miranda, thinking he means her, calls Patrick to tell him things wouldn’t work out and that she’s with Owen now – leaving poor Patrick alone on a white horse in the water with candles floating. When Miranda finds out Owen proposed to April she gets upset and asks “Why is it so funny that someone could love me,” before being forced outside by security in the downpour. When no one would answer her calls, Miranda walks home to find her mom asleep on the couch who she wakes up. When they get into a heated argument, Bethany tells Miranda that her kidneys are failing and that the only one Miranda cares about is herself. Miranda finds she’s alone when Bethany leaves the house. Jim had left when he was “fired” by Miranda and Emily had left to go live with her dad. The season ends with Miranda alone in her room with the “Free Voice Lesson” tutorial on the screen. Before she deletes it, she clicks on it to find the positive comments and over 100,000 views