Boo, Bitch! is a comedy
Miniseries that premiered on
Netflix on July 8th, 2022. The show stars
Lana Condor as Erika Vu, a high school senior who, after attending a party with her best friend Gia (played by
Zoe Colletti), discovers that she is now a ghost. While Erika tries to discover her unfinished business, she also wants to make the best out of her remaining time on Earth.
Boo, Bitch! provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch:
- Riley, who hates Erika because she accidentally broke her nose during freshman orientation.
- Erika also starts to become one after her newfound popularity goes to her head.
- Dead All Along: It wasn't Erika who died the night of the party. It was Gia.
- Foreshadowing: While Erika and Gia are wondering why people can see and hear Erika, Gia goes ignored by most people besides Erika, hinting at the fact that she's the ghost. Early on, when they get coffee, the baristo's confirmation that he heard them consists of repeating only Erika's part of the order, and Gia's complaint that she got whipped cream despite requesting otherwise goes unacknowledged.
- Gaslighting: Turns out Gia has been tricking Erika into thinking she was dead for most of the series, having put Erika's shoes on Gia's body and messing with the power, making Erika think she was causing it. Lampshaded by Erika after the reveal, who calls it ghostlighting.
- Ghostly Chill: Wherever Erika and Gia go, people frequently comment on the low temperature, and the girls conclude that it's one of the definite effects of being a ghost.
- I See Dead People: At first, this trope seems to be subverted, as everyone besides Gia is able to see and hear Erika and can even interact with her despite her being a ghost. Played straight, however, when it’s revealed in Episode 6 that Gia was the ghost all along and Erika and Gavin are the only people who can interact with her.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All eight episodes have the word "bitch" somewhere in the title.
- Kissing Cousins: Brad admits that he had sex with his cousin, after he tried to convince his friends that he had sex with a ghost.
- Malicious Misnaming: After Erika accidentally broke her nose during freshman orientation, Riley convinced the entire school, with the exception of Erika's best friend Gia, that Erika's name was Helen Who.
- Mistaken for Undead: After finding a dead body wearing her shoes crushed under a moose, Erika mistakes herself for a ghost, and she spends plenty of time trying to figure out what exactly being a ghost entails, why she can be seen and heard despite being a ghost, and what her unfinished business is. It turns out, however, that it's actually Gia who's been dead this whole time, but her ghost put Erika's shoes on her body to keep it secret.
- Once More, with Clarity: After Erika's parents tell her that they haven't seen Gia since the party in the first episode, a flashback is shown to Erika having conversations with Gia, but only Erika is there.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are three Jakes in Erika's year at school, known as Jake W, Jake C and Jake L. At first when Gia simply mentions "Jake" Erika has to ask for clarity, and points out that saying "the tall one" doesn't help since they're all tall. That said, only Jake C is a main character.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Lampshaded by Erika while researching ghosts. Every piece of media she finds seems to just make up its own rules for ghosts and she doesn't know what's what. Erika herself doesn't have any of the stereotypical ghost powers; everyone can see and hear her, she can't float or walk through walls, she still needs to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. The only notable difference is that dogs start barking, electrical systems sometimes go haywire around her, and the room temperature drops. Subverted when it turns out Erika is still alive and Gia was the one who actually died. Only Erika and Gavin can see her and she was the one messing with the power, being able to control it sometimes.
- Title Drop: After the Wham Shot of the body revealing that Gia's the ghost, not Erika, Gia says, "Boo, bitch."
- Tomato Surprise: The series has one regarding Gia, with Erika serving as the Audience Surrogate. It turns out Gia was the ghost all along, not Erika.
- Unfinished Business: Erika convinces herself that once she kisses Jake C, she'll have wrapped up her unfinished business and will ascend. When that doesn't work, she determines that she'll actually have to go to prom with him to finish her business - and then, deciding that she wants to stick around, she gets prom cancelled so that she doesn't have to move on. Going to prom with Gavin is actually part of Gia's unfinished business, and after Erika makes a speech at the now-uncancelled prom about what a good friend Gia was, Gia finally ascends.
- Unwanted Assistance: In an attempt to settle her affairs before she moves on, Erika attempts to make it up to Devon for ruining his reputation when they were younger. Devon repeatedly asks her to leave him alone and her attempts at repairing his reputation only remind people of his Embarrassing Nick Name, which they had started to forget. Ironically after Erika stopped trying to interact with them that something she did by accident got him more positive attention.
- Wham Shot: At the end of episode 6, Erika pulls her body out from under the moose that crushed her to death, but the corpse isn't hers - it's Gia's.
