[VIDEO] ‘Firefly Lane’: big glasses of young Kate – Roan Curtis

It’s a time-honored Hollywood tradition: the quickest way to turn a hot guy into a nottie is to seal it with a clumsy pair of glasses. And while the cliché has fallen out of favor in recent years (despite the examples of satire), the TV trope “Glasses for Nerd” makes a resounding comeback on Netflix Firefly Lane.

The 10-episode soap opera – which debuted on Wednesday – is centered on Tully (Grey’s Anatomy veterinarian Katherine Heigl) and Kate (once Scrubs doc Sarah Chalke), lifelong best friends whose bond was considered unlikely because the former is the “sassy and bold girl you can’t ignore” and the latter is the “shy and shy girl you never notice”. This contrast is hammered into viewers’ consciousness minutes after the premiere, when Kate’s teenage version of Chalke, played by the stunning Roan Curtis (The magicians), appears with a pair of glasses so big that it looks like two giant, transparent frisbees landed on his face. The actress and character appear to have come off the cover of CosmoGirl (REST IN PEACE).

Rising star Curtis then spends much of the next 10 hours trying hard to keep specs from falling off his face. In one episode alone (the third), there were 16 (!!) cases in which young Kate was forced to prevent her glasses from making a clean escape. On three other occasions, Curtis’s co-stars saw the monstrous eyeglasses running to the floor and intervened on behalf of their colleague.

It’s all very disturbing, but mostly confusing because … why wouldn’t Kate buy a pair of glasses that fit? And why would producers burden a cast member with an accessory that doesn’t even work for an episode, but for everyone 10? There is also the question of continuity: given the myriad shots that each scene requires, the position of the glasses rarely corresponds from one shot to another.

Do you think we’re overreacting? Check out the video edited by Jason Averett above and judge for yourself!