We need heroines. And the world will find two who ring true in the characters of Billie Jean Whitehead and Jane Caruthers, college students, roommates, and best friends, who find their calling after a pajama party. Billie Jean discovers a cantankerous pimple on the left shoulder blade of Jane during a pillow fight. This zit’s large enough to have an area code. But Jane can’t reach it on her own accord. Billie Jean has got her back.
So Billie Jean squeezes. The white oily insides explode. The release is orgasmic. The girls giggle, embrace. Jane regrets they didn’t record it. People might have wanted to watch, to share in it. Billie Jean doesn’t understand, but is intrigued. Who would want to watch?
Jane then introduces Billie Jean to the Internet community dedicated to pimple-popping. For the rest of the sleepover, they binge watch blackhead extractions.
Billie Jean tosses out an idea. After all, their majors are undecided, but maybe there’s something here for us, Billie Jean declares. Maybe they should start their own YouTube channel. Jane agrees, but maybe they should reach further. Maybe they should attend medical school. Become dermatologists.
No way, Billie Jean says. They can do both, and they can do it themselves, without the man telling them how they should fight bad skin. They can be “Pop Stars.”
They immediately drop out of college to pursue dermatology where it’s needed most: in the streets.
Cue the opening credits.
As the pilot episode unfolds, Billie Jean and Jane post an ad on Craigslist as freelancers. Their acne-riddled clientele come to them when they can no longer afford decent healthcare, which would cover the traditional route of bi-monthly doctor appointments and Retin-A treatments. The niche they have carved out is messy, but they dig their fingers in. There is splash back of sepum. The pay is small and sometimes it’s not cash, only in a knowing wink. But the girls film their adventures and post them online, hoping to build a following.
But, there’s a hiccup. Once their landlord sees their videos, he busts the duo for operating a business out of their apartment, against their lease agreement. Evicted, they pack up their belongings and have to live out of Jane’s car.
On a Christmas break, Jane drives them across the country to Billie Jean’s childhood home, where they plan to beg Billie Jean’s father, an out-of-work auto factory worker, for a place to stay until they get back on their feet. Billie Jean doesn’t know how her father will take the news of their entrepreneurship.
When the girls arrive on his doorstep, Billie Jean’s father gives them a wry smile. He’s just glad to have his daughters home. He says “daughters” because he wants to make Jane comfortable, but he says it in a way that’s kind of creepy. He’s played by James Woods.
Over Christmas dinner, as father piles mashed potatoes onto his plate, Jane slips and reveals to him the career path they have chosen. He lambasts Billie Jean. The two of them are chasing a dream, impossible to realize. He kicks both girls out of his house. No daughter of his will be an amateur dermatologist!
As the snow falls to the ground, white and unblemished, Billie Jean raises a fist to the sky, promising that she will make the Whitehead name proud again whether her father believes in her or not. Jane thinks they should give up. Maybe go back to school. Get a degree.
Never.
Billie Jean storms back into the house and gives a fiery speech, convincing her father if she doesn’t do this she’ll just “pop.” He’s never seen such passion in his daughter before. If it makes her happy, then, yes, they can stay. And they can use the bathroom to perform on patients as long as the mirrors and countertops are disinfected daily.
Spending the last of his savings, Billie Jean’s father orders the girls matching pink comedone extractors from Amazon. When the shipment arrives, he gives it to them on one condition. The girls must personally lance a cyst on the small of his back.
Cue the closing credits.
Add a celebrity guest star each week.
And repeat.