Top 14 Shows on TV

As part 2 of my year-end content, I'm going to cover my 14 favorite current shows on TV (again considering all shows, not just those relevant to my blog). All that remains is my top 10 albums list, which will be coming soon. No movies list because I don't watch movies. I didn't even see 10 movies this year, if you don't count TV movies, which makes it rather difficult to make a top 10.

So here are my top 14 shows on TV. Counting mainly the "current" quality of the show (meaning the recent episodes and how good I expect the future episodes to be), with historical quality being used as a tiebreaker. And of course only shows currently airing new episodes are eligible for this list. Presented in convenient countdown format, as always, with some commentary.

(14, because I was having trouble narrowing it down to 10 and there was a big dropoff after 14. Didn't count because I don't know if they are gonna air new episodes: Beauty and the Geek and Darcy's Wild Life.)

14. Heroes (NBC)
NBC's new hit show has promise but moves a bit too slowly for my tastes. It's starting to show signs that it's all gonna pay off, and not totally fizzle out (like, say, Lost), but I have my doubts that it's all gonna end satisfactorily. Nevertheless, it's been a fun setup and I'm enjoying the show a lot as is. I won't feel comfortable ranking it higher until I see how the storylines start to ravel up. The last episode before the new year was a great start in that regard. This could move way up in short fashion.

13. Desperate Housewives (ABC)
I think this is the best of ABC's trifecta of hit dramas (this show, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost), because unlike those shows this show has compelling plots and likeable characters. And this last season has been the best one yet, even better than the first season. Extremely entertaining and watchable; just because it does not engage one intellectually doesn't mean it's bad. There's a place for brainless fun on television, and this does it better than most.

12. True Life/Made/The Real World (MTV)
This is cheating, but this slot represents the entirety of the MTV reality show catalogue. None of MTV's other reality shows engage me. Laguna Beach would have made it last year, but the last season sucked ass. But I do so love these 3 shows. The Real World has been down lately, but the Denver season looks to be the best one since San Diego, after a long string of mediocre seasons. True Life and Made are always entertaining looks into the real world. The problem with Made is that a lot of the kids are annoying and unlikeable, but when the kid on the show is likeable (as in, say, the "Girly Girl" or "Beauty Pageant" episode, or the one with the fat kid who wanted to be skinny and then struck out with his crush) it's one of the most entertaining shows on television. Similarly, True Life has many boring episodes, but it also has produced a lot of extremely compelling TV (like the "Friends With Benefits" episode or the one about dieting). A very underrated network. Inconsistency prevents it from climbing higher on the list

11. Entourage (HBO)
Entourage had a great first two seasons. The last season, season 3, was rather weak but I still hold high hope that this can find its voice again. Jeremy Piven is, of course, excellent and the rest of the cast is quite good as well. A funny show, and it can really crackle when the plots are working and pushing forward, as in season 1 and 2, but when the show is running in traction with Vince acting like a whiny baby all the time and Ari not given much to do but yell a lot it gets tedious, the show can really drag. One that would have ranked much higher a year ago, and that hopefully will rank much higher again.

10. Hannah Montana (Disney Channel)
As I've said several times before, its still a show I see great promise in. Yeah, it's got the same problems it's always had. The acting is poor, the plots and jokes are ridiculous, the physical comedy is over the top, the characters and drama are not handeld well. But it's also still incredibly cute and eminently watchable, the music is great, and the kids have great chemistry. Not exactly a classic, and Phil of the Future is still way better, but this is still wholly entertaining.

9. American Idol (Fox)
Speaking of shallow, eminently watchable, slightly guilty pleasures...Well, once again, I love this show. I guess that shouldn't surprise any of the readers here. But this show, among all reality shows, does a great job of getting people to root for their favorites and hate their least favorites. And they don't even develop personalities or anything! I can't explain it, but I find it totally engrossing. Maybe the talent's not the greatest, but that hardly even matters. And the show is still capable of producing great musical moments like Kelly C's "Stuff Like That There".

8. Shark (CBS)
The best of the new class of shows, in my opinion, this show seems on the surface to be a rote copying of the procedural crime/lawyer shows that currently permeate the air. And in a lot of ways it is. But James Woods is appropriately over-the-top as the main character, Jeri Ryan is great as always, and even the assistant DA's are all a lot of fun to watch. Maybe the crimes/mysteries aren't super engrossing, but the character interactions are always fun to watch. And, yeah, Danielle Panabaker as Shark's daugher certainly doesn't hurt. She does a really great job, and is starting to be pretty attractive. I would expect no less of a member of the Panabaker clan.

7. How Do I Look? (Style)
This show is a fashion makeover show, which makes it one of a hundred on TV. But I really love how every episode of this show tells a completed story. Everybody starts out confident in their style, gets torn down through meanness and sadness, and then is built back up from scratch, as a confident woman! Yay! Finola Hughes is great as the host, and the scene where all the family members tear into the main subject for their bad fashion is oddly compelling. Maybe it's one of a large type, but it's the best of that type by far.

6. House (Fox)
I still love this show, even though the format is getting a little stale. Hugh Laurie's performance, though great, is untested as he is always given the exact same things to do episode after episode. House's assistants are all growing to be a bit too one note as well. The episodes are too formulaic, and most of their attempts to break from the formula (e.g. the season finale for season 2 and season premiere for season 3) have gone really poorly (although "Three Stories" was, of course, a classic). The multi-episode arcs (Vogler, Stacy, Tritter) have all been disasters. That being said, all the actors have their characters nailed by now, and the formula IS extremely entertaining. This last season hasn't been too great, but it's still got those great actors and that great formula going for it. And Dr. Cameron is a hottie.

5. Unfabulous (Nickelodon)
Still the best teen/tween show on TV. Executed perfectly. Emma Roberts is great. For all this and more, see this post I already wrote, extolling the virtues of the show. Genuinely funny, and I love how they begin every episode with an out-of-context clip from later on in that same episode.

4. Monk (USA)
Although this show HAS become a bit weaker over time, it's still firing on most of its cylinders. I actually prefer Natalie to Sharona (or at least I like them equally), because even though Traylor Howard may not be Bitty Schram's equal, I love Natalie's cute and sweet relationship with "Mr. Monk" (I also like how she calls him "Mr. Monk") . And I like Julie a hell of a lot more than I ever liked Benji. The problem is that the plots to the episodes have become progressively more and more gimmicky and progressively less and less about any of the characters other than Monk. Not that I don't like Monk, and Tony Shalhoub is brilliant of course, but I love the supporting characters too! The actors and characters still make this show extremely entertaining.

3. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)
The funniest show on TV, yet sadly it seems to be little known. There's no depth to the show, and no real characters or relationships, but that's hardly what a show like this is about. As much as I normally strongly prefer "clean" and simple humor to the more "adult" kind, and as much as I normally dislike humor based mostly around shattering taboos, every single episode of this show has several big laughs. But all this talk of "adult" humor or "simple" humor or "shattering taboos" is silly and lazy, because most of the humor of this show IS of the classic variety, based around hilarious dialogue and irony. To me, as always, humor based on hilarious dialogue is way funnier than humor based on characters being put in funny situations or acting self-consciously wacky or stupid. (Which is, by the way, why I still can't stand Meet the Parents, Will Ferrell movies, and the majority of modern comedies.) But the humor on that show rarely reaches this level.

2. How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
The best show on network TV today singlehandedly proves that the seemingly stale old sitcom formula still has plenty of life in it. I am a big fan of that old formula, and this show IS the modern day Friends, which I loved (although is it intellectual suicide to admit that?). While not quite reaching the heights of humor of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia there is an underlying sweetness that permeates this show, and that plus the great character relationships push that above this. Not that this show isn't hilarious, because it is. And the second season, currently in the middle of airing, has been a big step above the first season (see, for example "Ted Moseby, Architect" or "Slap Bet"). The first season had its share of highlights as well (in particular "Okay Awesome" and "The Pineapple Incident"), but it got worse towards the end. So I was totally unprepared for the complete awesomeness of season 2. If it keeps up the quality of the first half of the second season, we could be seeing a real classic unfolding here.

1. The 4400 (USA)
Like Lost or Heroes this show is a science fiction type show with long, epic storylines that unfold during the course of several episodes. Unlike those shows, this show maintains a strong interest throughout by moving at a breakneck pace. Multiple important events and revelations during each episode is a matter of course, with all the events leading to further interesting mysteries and storylines. Maybe it's because one season of The 4400 is barely more than half the length of those other shows, so they have to pack everything in much faster. Maybe it's just that the writers have better ideas. I dunno. All I know is that with all the questions that have been done on this show, few have been settled too slowly or quickly and few have been answered unsatisfactorily. Each season has been totally different from the last, and each has been better than the last. And the most recent season, season 3, ended last summer with an excellent series finale that left several interesting cliffhangers which may, in fact, change the entire nature of the show yet again. There's no way I could have seen this coming from the mediocre original miniseries, but I feel quite comfortable declaring this to be the best show on TV right now. And Heroes is totally a ripoff of this.

Movie Review: Sky High

Coming up this December I will have plenty of fun Christmas related content for you guys, including reviews of Christmas albums & songs, Christmas movies, and Christmas episodes of TV shows. (I'll have some non-Christmas content too, depending on just how many ideas for Christmas content I can come up with). Given how well I've stated I can relate to "Not This Year" one would think I'm not the biggest Christmas fan, and I'm not! But I do love Christmas themed entertainment. If you have an idea for any Christmas themed material (though with a teen culture interest) for me to review, please leave a comment or give me an e-mail. If you suggest something I will track it down and review it. My e-mail address is in the sidebar. Year-end review content as well! It will be a fun month, so be sure to check back.

Until then, though let's close out November with a review of one of my favorite teen movies of all time, and one of my top 5 favorite movies of 2005.

Sky High




Starring: Michael Angarano, Danielle Panabaker, Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Plot Summary: It all begins at a secret school in the clouds like none on earth: Sky High, the first and only high school for kids with super-human powers going through crime-fighting puberty. At Sky High, the student body throw flames with their footballs, study Villainy with their Chemistry and are divided into Heroes and Sidekicks instead of jocks and geeks. It's an out-of-this-world yet completely recognizable place where cool gadgetry, rampant bravery and awe-inspiring magical skills mix it up with parental battles, peer pressure and dating trouble--with explosively fun results. This year's class features some of the best, brightest and most powerfully gifted super-teens ever assembled. And then there's Will Stronghold. When you're the son of the world's most legendary super heroes, The Commander and Jetstream, people expect you to live up to the family name The problem is that Will is starting with no superpowers of his own and, worst of all, instead of joining the ranks of the Hero class, he finds himself relegated to being a Sidekick. Now he must somehow survive his freshman year while dealing with an overbearing gym coach, a bully with super speed and a dangerous rebel with a grudge (and the ability to shoot fire from his hands)--not to mention the usual angst, parental expectations and girl problems that accompany teenage life. But when an evil villain threatens his family, friends and the very sanctity of Sky High, Will must use his newfound superpowers to save the day and prove himself a Hero worthy of the family tradition. [attribution to IMDB as always. What a terribly written plot outline.]

Greg's Review/Comments: Sky High is an extremely entertaining teen movie that harkens back to the classic 80's teen movies, while not being merely a pale imitation of the same. In fact, I would stack this movie up against any of those 80's movies that this one has been accused of ripping off. The teen relationships in the movie are very realistic, which makes them interesting to watch. Plus it captures the fear and excitement of entering high school really well! Really, the fear and excitement of undertaking any new project which you feel you may be slightly inadequate for. In addition, the comedy in this movie, while not laugh-out-loud funny, does add to the movie. Particularly of note are the comedic performances of Kids In The Hall alums Dave Foley and Kevin MacDonald. That being said, if you are just going into this movie hoping for sidesplitting comedy, you will be disappointed. Like the best movies of this type, it lightly touches on the comedy, and quickly lets it pass by, to draw laughs but also to lighten the mood of the movie. It doesn't dwell on the comedy to the detriment of developing the characters' relationships, and those relationships are what are definitely at the heart of the movie.

The superhero aspect of the film is what, of course, brings it that extra level of entertainment, above and beyond your typical teen film. Not only do you get very entertaining teen drama with real teen relationships, but you get exciting superhero action as well! I went into this film with extremely low expectations for the superhero action, but it was actually a pretty entertaining aspect of the film. The superhero action scenes are not intense, at all, but they do feature acceptable special effects and very entertaining action, and are well-paced. They additionally are lighly dotted with humor at appropriate moments, and all in all they have just a really fun feeling to them. The movie ends, in particular, with a long and very entertaining action sequence where Will & his friends take on a team of super villians. Although, once again, it should go without saying that you should not see this movie if you are only interested in seeing exciting and intense superhero action.

OK, so if it's not the comedy and it's not the superhero action, what does make this move? The movie has a whole stable of memorable characters plus excellent performances all around, particularly from the female leads, and plus just the inherently entertaining nature of the teen movie formula. All of the characters are basically just your one-dimensional high school movie stereotypes, but they have super powers! That always makes things more entertaining. OK most of the characters end up in a different place, and with a different personality than when they started, but I think most people could predict how this movie will end approximately 1/2 way through the movie. My mom did, and she is horrible at predicting these things. But yet, several of the characters, particularly the supporting characters, have a kind of unique and original edge to them that elevates them above the genre. Plus the main characters of Will and Layla do have a nice depth to them, and really make you root for them. Yay Will and Layla, boo Gwen!

OK in any movie or TV show with a Panabaker, I of course will have to effusively praise their performance. It's one of the primary laws of the Teen Cultural Revolution. I can't pretend to be objective about a performance from a Panabaker sister. In this case, I will say that I didn't have any clue who Danielle OR Kay Panabaker were when I first saw this movie, and it was only through this movie that I became a fan of Danielle. Needless to say, Danielle's performance in this movie was terrific. She conveys the unrequited love of the character extremely well, and her friendship with Will is touching and fun to watch. Plus she manages to be nearly as naturally charming and loveable as Kay Panabaker. She is an ideal lead for these types of films, and although she is very good at dramatic work as well, I hope she doesn't convert her career entirely over to dramas. The one who really surprised me, though, is Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gwen. I had seen her before in Final Destination 3, and she was not good in that movie. In fact, I might even say that she was bad. But she's really great in this film. She conveys the popular girl really well, slowly revealing how heartless she really is, while gradually converting over from untouchable perfect woman to the evil, evil woman we all know she really is. A lot of actresses in similar roles, I've noticed, can screw this up one way or the other. That is, act so loveable that we feel compelled to like the character even after her dark, heartless side has come out, or let the dark, heartless side come out too early, so that we don't believe that the main character would really be in love with them (actually, this was a big problem I had with Danielle's performance in Read It And Weep). Yet, Mary perfectly strikes a balance between the two. Plus she's hot. Kurt Russell delivers an oustanding performance as well, as he always does. He's made a lot of poor movie choices, but surely this is one of the most underrated actors of his generation. Show me another actor who can do kickass action movies like Escape From New York and The Thing, subtle dramatic work like Miracle, and lighthearted comedic work like this movie so well, and so effortlessly. There are others out there but they are generally, unlike Kurt, acknowledged as great actors. Michael Angarano and Kelly Preston give adequate performances, but don't really seem to jump off the screen. In addition to the KITH alums cited above, Bruce Campbell also gives a memorable and very funny turn as a professor at Sky High.

And They All Learned a Valuable Lesson: Cliques are bad! Judge people for who they are on the inside! Yes, this is the message to EVERY TEEN MOVIE EVER. But this movie pulls it off better than most, and when Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston acknowledge that the sidekicks are real heroes, it's a great scene.

Final Rating: 9/10. Highly recommended to watch. There are only 3 movies of 2005 that I can definitely say that I would definitely rank above this one on my list of favorite movies of the year (those being Junebug, Brokeback Mountain, and Just Like Heaven). Thus this movie ranks in my top 10 of 2005 for sure, if not the top 5.

10 Reasons Why Summerland Season 2 Was 10x Worse Than Season 1

Sorry, it's been a while yet again.

1. Bradin Westerly (Jesse McCartney). The average number of times per episode I want to punch him in the face is approximately 10. He's so unbelievably selfish that it borders on absurdity. I know that most high school kids are jerks, and that there's hardly a 16 year old out there that isn't a selfish idiot. I know I was when I was 16. But there are limits to how big a dick a character can act like and still be remotely likeable. Bradin shatters that limit within about 2 episodes.

2. Simon was the most boring character ever and had no chemistry with Ava (Lori Loughlin). I think this was supposed to be intentional, as ultimately their lack of chemistry is what ultimately results in their wedding being called off. But this was still a retarded storyline. NOTE TO PRODUCERS: I don't want to watch boring people with no chemistry be involved in a doomed relationship. Even though this happens in real life, that's one of those things I generally like to see glossed over.

3. Waaaaaay too much time spent with Ava's boring business ventures. The writers apparently labored under the impression that we are extremly fascinated by whether Ava's fashion design business was pulled off. And not only that but we needed to see it be pushed along by a ridiculous and offensive gay stereotype character. This impression is incorrect. This is a teen show, focus on the teen characters please. Especially Kay Panabaker.

4. Derrick's hair + character assassination. Season 2 was broken up for a couple months when it aired, and it was treated as two mini-seasons. The first mini-season took place during the school year, and it then skipped straight into summer vacation. When they came back, Derrick (the youngest Westerley kid) had gotten a new and HORRIBLE hair cut. In addition, he was all of the sudden really into skateboarding (had he even been shown skateboarding before? I can't remember. Certainly it wasn't an important part of his character). Also he was acting like a selfish jerk, just like Bradin! The show had too many a-holes that I want to punch in the face already. He was better when he was a pointless dead weight, like in the first season. At least then I didn't hate him.

5. Everybody is so mean to Nikki (Kay Panabaker)! Why is Amber in so few episodes? Plus Cameron (Zac) consistently and efficiently acts like a jerk to her in every single encounter they have over the course of the season. But yet she's still in love with him! Nice guys lose, be a jerk. And why did the gay guy from the book group (played by Will Stronghold from Sky High) ask her out on what clearly appeared to be a date, then be shocked when she thought it was the same (note that Nikki had no way of knowing he was gay at the time)? Clearly state your intentions jerk.

6. Carmen Electra guest stars in about 6 episodes and is horrible. Plus the way they wrote her out of the show was stupid. After she dies she is hardly talked about at all.

7. The fact that the kid's parents recently died is hardly acknowledged at all. Good to know they've been forgotten about already. They don't even have a picture up or anything!

8. Christy Carlson Romano as the spoiled pop star was ridiculous and over the top and much, much more annoying than funny. PLEASE stick to your bread and butter of teen drama!

9. The sequence where Nikki has to read a poem in front of a large audience to win an award, and then Amber gives her some alcohol is one of the least realistic scenes ever captured by camera. Nikki gets drunk off of part of one drink of Schnapps. Then she acts extremely over the top drunk, like a vaudeville parody of a drunk person. Then she goes up on stage and reads her poem perfectly, the alcohol having taken the edge off her nerves or something? Nice message to send to the kids, there.

10. The storyline where Bradin takes perfomance enhancing drugs to improve his surfing was laughably cliched and horrible. Worst storyline ever. In fact the entirety of the surfing storylines in season 2 pissed me off. At the beginning of the season he can't even crack the starting lineup on his school's surf team, and then a couple months later he's a national surfing champion. Come on. Then, he's portrayed as some kind of MASSIVE superstar. They mention that ESPN is calling him! PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT SURFING. WHY DOES THIS SHOW PRETEND THAT THEY DO? Way, way too surfing centric, this season was.

Bonus 11th reason:
11. It sullies Danielle Panabaker's good name by having her guest star in two episodes.

Movie Review - "Read It And Weep"

I'm really nervous to do this review, because it seems like my blog is becoming somewhat of a shill for the Disney Network. Nevertheless, this movie was high on my anticipation list for months before it came out, due to my love of Danielle and Kay Panabaker, and anyways I'm gonna blog about what I'm interested in, which at the current time is (sadly) teen pop/movies/tv shows, etc. And it so happens that Disney has a monopoly on that market.

THE FILM: Read It and Weep
STARRING: Kay Panabaker and Danielle Panabaker
ORIGINALLY AIRED ON: The Disney Channel, July 21, 2006.
PLOT OUTLINE: Jamie Bartlett (Kay Panabaker) is basically a normal girl, with three best friends (two girls and a guy: Lindsay, Harmony, and Connor). Like the stars of most teen movies, she is continually dumped upon by her brother and her classmates. In order to cope, she keeps a journal; however, unlike other journals, it does not simply chronicle her day-to-day activities. Rather, her journal is a piece of fantasy fiction, populated by caricatures of the people she knows, and a main character named Isabella (also known as Is [Danielle Panabaker]). Is reacts to all of the people the way Jamie wishes she could, she zaps the popular girls who torture her out of existence, and dates the hottest and most popular boy in the school. Due to a series of comic mishaps, Jamie accidentally submits her journal to a class creative writing assignment. The teacher is so impressed, she gets it published in a newspaper, a publisher gets wind of it, and next thing you know it, her journals are being published as a novel. Needless to say, the novel becomes a bestseller. And what happens is what you would expect happens, she becomes consumed by fame, too busy for her friends, gets the hot guy, etc.
Throughout this whole time, she has visions of, and converses with Is. Is advises her to basically do the things that Jamie would always want to do, and advises her to always do what is best for herself. Ultimately, this gets her in a lot of trouble, as Is starts to take over her life, and turns out Is is just a selfish bitch. The scenes where Jamie and Is are talking together are really weird.
The film takes kind of a nasty twist when all the classmates find out that the characters in the book are based on them, and everybody turns on Jamie. What happens from there, I will let you watch the movie to find out, but I doubt you'll have too much trouble guessing.

AND THEY ALL LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON: Well, Jamie is really the only one who learns a valuable lesson, that being to appreciate her friends and her situation as it is.

LET'S DISCUSS THE PANABAKERS, SHALL WE: I have been a big fan of the Panabakers for some time now; actually, I was a fan of each of them independently before I ever learned they were sisters (not twins, Danielle is older by two and a half years). I find both of the Panabakers to be really charming and cute. Danielle was the best part of the very good 2005 teen movie Sky High and Kay was excellent as Debbie Berwick in Phil of the Future. I'm happy to report both were cast perfectly in this movie. Danielle seems to really be a good actress, having appeared in a variety of roles in various teen movies as well as acclaimed HBO miniseries Empire Falls. I've been realy impressed by her performance in everything I've seen, and I believe this is the first time I've seen her play an antagonist/evil character, which she totally pulls off. Kay on the other hand really only comes in one flavor, that being ridiculous over-the-top comedy. A lot of people don't like that, and find Kay annoying, but in the right role I find her crazy facial expressions and ridiculous delivery to be very funny; Debbie Berwick and this movie were both great roles for this. I'm a little skeptical of her long run chance of success unless she can display a bit more range than she has so far, but if she can keep pulling roles like this, she'll be OK. Even though they may not be everybody's cup of tea, I found that the Panabakers were definitely the best part of this movie. So cute!

OVERALL COMMENTS: On the whole this movie was a lot darker and less cute than I expected it to be. Not that it was a really dark movie, or not a cute movie, but just that it was a lot more dark and less cute-oriented than the average Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM). The scenes that featured Jamie and Is together were of particular interest. The directing and dialogue in these scenes went to great pains to ensure that we realized that Jamie had a great deal of internal conflict over what she's doing. Whereas in the average teen film throughout the eighties and later, the main character would abandon their friends for the popular crowd at first possibility, without regard for their friends feelings, Jamie is painfully aware throughout the movie of how her actions are impacting her friend and family. She sees it herself, and has intense internal dialogue (in the form of conversations between her and Is), but yet the rush of fame, and the positive aspects of how it's impacting the family business and her new popularity...she knows it's wrong but just can't stop letting the internal Is take over. Hey, we've all been there. I thought that aspect of the movie was the most interesting part, the reflection on doing the wrong things, and becoming just the type of person we never wanted to be, but being unable to stop ourselves. Like I said, a pretty much universal human condition, I think most of us go through that at some point or another. Moreso than any other supposedly "real" high-school movie like Mean Girls or The Breakfast Club, this is the film I'd recommend any 8th/9th grader to watch to prepare yourself for high school.
A lot of teen movies have tread the ground of expressing the dangers of selling your friends and your values out for popularity. Ultimately, the main characters in those films don't really seem to have as much at stake as Jamie does. Seriously, she totally screws up her life almost irreparably, to the point where it seems like she should just move to a new city and totally start over again. I think that gives the lessons in this movie a lot more depth than they would otherwise have. Which leads us to...

THE ENDING: What a copout! I was so disappointed. It's cute enough I guess but it just wraps everything up way too patly and simply, and seems to abandon all of the previous depth and previous events just for a simple cute happy ending. She got back in everybody's good graces way too quickly. I wish that just once there would be a teen movie that expresses the truth that our actions have real long-lasting consequences, and you can't get back to being everybody's hero again by making one cute speech and doing a good deed for your friends. In fact, it was so pat that it makes me think that my brilliant analysis above attributes way more depth to the movie than the filmmakers ever intended.

THE NEGATIVE ASPECTS: Of course, the film is not perfect, and the negative aspects are so obvious and numerous I'd be remiss not to point them out. First off, other than Jamie and Is, none of the characters in the movie are even there, I never even really learned the name of the other characters in the movie because they are oh so inconsequential. Mainly though, when you are going for a bit more depth, like this movie is, you open yourself up to a deeper level of analysis (never a good thing for a Disney movie). The dialogue and storyline were very cliched, the acting wasn't anything special apart from the Panabakers, and like I said the ending sucked.

FINAL RATING: Yes, like all the best DCOM's it was cute and fun and camp and ridiculous, but it legitimately made me think too. Maybe that wasn't the intention, and the whole thing worries and frigthens me, and makes me think that maybe I watch a wee bit too many lighthearted teen films and a wee bit too few movies with actual depth, but it is what it is. And I do think this film can be enjoyed with a bit more depth than the average teen movie. 8.5/10. RECOMMENDED TO WATCH. Not going to give high recommendations; you aren't going to like this if you aren't a fan of teen movies. Makes me want to read the book it was based on.

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I wanted to conclude this post with some general comments on Disney Channel Original movies. I've now done reviews of three DCOM's: Life Size, High School Musical, and this movie. All three movies were rave reviews. Thus, any reader of this blog will think that I really love all DCOM's or something. Let me assure you, this is not the case. There is a serious selection bias at work here, being that I only review the Disney Channel movies that I enjoy. Sure I could do a review that trashes the crappier ones such as Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior or Get a Clue but that seems kind of pointless. I'd say that those three that I've reviewed are definitely the three best DCOM's I've seen (and I've seen many). At least 75% of these movies are pretty much impossible to watch all the way through.
Attentive readers will note that I've given this movie an 8.5, whereas Life-Size and High School Musical both got 8's. Thus, this is my favorite DCOM of all time? Really I've decided that I underrated HSM, it deserved a 9/10. My real list of the three best DCOM's of all time, in order is: High School Musical, Read it and Weep, and Life-Size. The only three DCOM's that I would be willing to legitimately defend as good movies.