The theme of the series incorporates many aspects of everyday life for a teenager attending high school and the struggles of being a teenager. It is a comical series, integrating a humorous perspective, into the life of a teenager.
The series is like that stereotypical high school, which has the sports jocks, the nerds and geeks, and many other groups who attend the school. The series demonstrates several key aspects of the high school social environment, which are shown through the eyes of a teenager.
Presentation and Clarification
The first words of the first episode are “my name is RJ Berger”. This introduces the audience to the main character, namely, RJ Berger. Throughout the series this line is used to summarise what happens during his life. He makes several remarks about his life before being disrupted by his mum. This creates a nice transition between the introductions of the characters. A new scene begins at Pinkerton High, which is the local high school. The audience now experiences the world through a hand held camera. This camera is handled by RJ’s best friend, Miles Jenner. Milles is an overweight kid who goes to the same school as RJ. He is a very immature character whose main aim is to get with one of the girls at the high school. RJ is more mature and often has to suppress his best friend. They are both completely distracted by another of the main characters, Jenny Swanson. Jenny Swanson is the most attractive girl at the high school and both RJ and Miles admire her. Jenny however, is at the top of the social ladder. She hangs out with basketball jocks and the cheerleaders, who are both considered to be respected socially. RJ and Miles are at the opposite end of the social ladder. They are considered to be nerds and at the low, disrespected end of the social ladder at high school. Miles has a second crush, Robin Pretnar who is a cheerleader like Jenny Swanson. RJ and Miles’ discussion about the attractive girls however screeches to a halt as official school stalker shows up. Lily Miran fancies RJ very much but RJ does not feel the same way about her. Much of the series doesn’t just revolve around RJ but also Lily’s attempts to seduce RJ. Later on in the episode there is a basketball match where the antagonist of the series, Max Owens, is introduced along with the team coach. Max Owens is an overconfident snob, who continuously bullies RJ. Max Owens and RJ have several conflicting interest such as Jenny Swanson, basketball and later on, the running for school president. Their rivalry is one of the main conflicts of the series and continues throughout the whole season.
Language and setting
‘The hard times of RJ Berger’ is filmed and directed at most parts, at the fictional; Pinkerton High in America. There are several scenes which take place in the main character’s home, but the theme of the series is mainly influenced by iconic moments of being in high school. The series portrays this iconism, through RJ Berger, the main protagonist and the leading star of the show – And it is through RJ, that the film portrays certain difficulties that high school students are confronted with – Mainly being embarrassed by their parents and the highly tough task of finding the most beautiful girl. Indeed the series shows this iconism excellently, mainly because of RJ Berger. RJ is portrayed as a nerd, and a socially awkward 15 year old high school student who currently is undergoing his second year as a sophomore. The series shows RJ as a talented and gifted person, but also as someone who is either picked on or just generally ignored by the people around him. The problem is, RJ is unpopular, yet he is in love with the school’s arguably most beautiful girl – Jenny Swanson. His unpopularity is not his only problem however, as he is often very shy as well, and is also afraid of Jenny’s boyfriend – Max – Who is known to the school as a popular, handsome and a great athlete – possessing the exact opposite abilities that RJ has – And it is this exact contrast that defines what the series is all about – Showing the different sides of High school and how different people succeed in different ways, some socially, and some academically. Mixed with humorous lines and sexually but entertaining irony, the series does a great job in showing what it really does intend to show: ‘The hard times of RJ Berger.’
The language of the show is also appropriate to its theme. With the use of slang and words that only most young people would apply, the language makes the series a great success, as even though the theme can easily be related to by many – its teenaged language makes it even easier for viewers to understand what’s really going on. The characters in the show almost never use formal language, albeit there are several scenes where formal language is used, this is mostly due to the nature of the specific scene, for example in the second episode, RJ is to give a speech to as why he thinks he should be chosen as the new student government association president – And formal language is used as one would expect from someone as intelligent and in the caliber of RJ Berger.
Another aspect the series focuses on when it comes to language, is to make the show as realistic as possible, and in addition to teenaged language, it also uses a great amount of foul language – usually uncensored. Whilst some viewers might find the common use of foul language disturbing, it is hard to deny that profanity does not give a smoother and more realistic picture in the series – Because it does, and the show takes great advantage of this.
Point of no return
The point of no return is associated with RJ Berger’s increasing interest in Jenny. As the first episode progresses and especially throughout the second episode, several scenes are shown in which Jenny also shows some kind of interest to RJ. For Berger however, there is still the classic problem of having to deal with Max. It is here that RJ is faced with his toughest task yet – Making the choice of his life. He loves Jenny, but confronting Max could be his worst nightmare - If he fails to make an impact he’ll surely be regarded as one of the biggest fools in the school – And judging by RJ’s previous reputation, it seems more likely he will fail then succeed. RJ is given two choices – Man up and fight for his love – or to forget all about her, and try to move on.
Escalation
As the show progresses, the main characters love interest for his dream girl Jenny Swanson grows clashes with Jenny’s boyfriend, Max Owens, the schools jock and most popular student become more common throughout the series. Jenny, who is hosting a pool party, invites the entire grade to her place. At the pool party, RJ (the main character) is talking to Jenny and out of Max’s jealousy bunches RJ, knocking him out. Having endured enough of Max, RJ insults Max by rubbing his hand on his crotch and smearing it on Max’s face, totally humiliating Max in front of the entire party and taking the quarrelling to a whole new level.
Resolution
At Jenny’s pool party, RJ Berger is punched by Max Owens. After getting knocked out, RJ gathers his courage and heads in the direction of Max to finally settle it. Having endured enough of Max, RJ insults Max by rubbing his hand on his crotch and smearing it on Max’s face, totally humiliating Max in front of the entire party… This unusual behavior that RJ expresses surprises everyone at the party. RJ and his two best friends Lilly and Miles leave directly after this incident.
One might think that the conflict has been solved but this thought is proven to be completely false when RJ is greeted by Max’s clenched grip around RJ’s scrawny upper body followed several hand gestures and threats through eye contact. The ever occurring line at the beginning of every episode; “my name is RJ Berger..” followed by a comment about how lousy his life is.
In this episode RJ states that “being a loser has never felt so lonely”.. This is a reflection of his constant fight with Max which is never resolved. This could very well mean that the writer of episode is getting you to continue to watch further episodes. When analyzing series, the Hollywood Model is a model that is used to analyses the structure of films and often times, texts. It shows how the movie’s/book’s suspense build up in plot, conflicts and resolution. Unusually, in the first two episodes, no conflicts have been solved. This is another sign that the writer of these episodes is still luring you and keeping the suspense in the series as to keep you interested.
It would be silly if there was a huge conflict started and the resolution came in the same episode.
Strangely enough, in the following episode, RJ and Max have yet another clash when RJ's proposition to the Student Government Association for Computer Club funding is denied; he angrily decides to run against them in hopes of becoming the schools new S.G.A. president. When speeches are made and ballots counted, Max wins the election with no surprise. The crucial moment when all is resolved after the conflict is skipped for the second episode in a row.
Fade out
Even with RJ losing the election and individually getting 12 votes. Only able to account for 11 of them, RJ then notices Jenny holding a button that RJ made for his campaign. So happy that his dream girl voted for him, RJ then has a smile on his face and expresses his joy by saying that it never felt so good to lose.
