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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

TV Thinking of Buying GRΣΣK: Chapter Two on DVD?

Posted by Lindy West on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 2:54 PM

If you are, then first of all, way to commit. And second of all, you probably don't care what intrepid film intern Evan Stewart has to say about it. But you should read his review anyway:

About three years late in TV’s recent slew of teen drama/comedies, ABC Family Channel’s GRΣΣK tells the annoying go-nowhere saga of a bunch of kids in the Greek system at the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University. It combines all the intrigue of fraternity/sorority politics with the high drama of semi-casual relationships. If that doesn’t sound interesting to you, that’s because it isn’t.

Everybody at Cyprus-Rhodes seems to have the same problem: they can’t get over their ex-lovers. Rusty can’t get over Jen K., Cappie can’t get over Casey, Evan Chambers can’t get over Casey, and Casey can’t get over Cappie OR Evan Chambers! (These people are all as irritating as their stupid names would suggest.) Frankly, I can’t see why any of them can’t get over each other, since every character is so bland and middle-of-the-road, they’re nearly indistinguishable.

The tone of the show suffers from a similar problem: it can’t commit entirely to any one genre. It’s not funny enough to be a comedy, not dramatic enough to be a drama, and not interesting enough for me to watch ever again. I was a die-hard fan of The O.C. (before that surreal fourth season of garbage), a show that GRΣΣK mindlessly apes while missing what made it—and its recent idiot cousin Gossip Girl—so great: over-the-top crazy drama from good looking idiots.

If GRΣΣK cuts out the stupid plot devices like some teenager missing their old girlfriend (relatable! boring!), and starts having really stupid plot devices like someone doing porn to raise the money to pay their legal fees for killing their teacher, then I might start watching it. Maybe.

Comments (15) RSS

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The only virtue shown by the author is in being frank that television programming should be for idiots, and idiots like it that way.

Posted by The more idiotic and unrelatable, the better! on January 7, 2009 at 3:03 PM

Is it just me or does the guy on the bottom left with the glasses sort of look like Paul Constant?

Perhaps this photo is actually of alternate reality Stranger staff members.

Posted by PopTart on January 7, 2009 at 3:07 PM

But, if they followed your advice, they'd be like One Tree Hill ...

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 7, 2009 at 3:10 PM

but the important question is: are there any hot gang-shower scenes and/or homoerotic hazing?

Posted by boxofbirds on January 7, 2009 at 3:14 PM

I really wish Clark Duke (aka fake Paul Constant) would get some better roles; he is such a damn funny guy.

Posted by Levislade on January 7, 2009 at 3:14 PM

I wonder what someone who followed all of Will's advice would be like? Some sort of ersatz Canadian desperate to tour Europe in a 100-storey plug in Diesel, who hears voices?

Posted by elenchos on January 7, 2009 at 3:16 PM

What is GRSSK?

Posted by spσlling bσσ on January 7, 2009 at 3:32 PM

Isn't Disney almost entirely tween programing? Weird. I don't really get why they have a show set on frat row, unless the FBLA is puppet mastering their lineup now. Now if you'll excuse me, Zack and Cody: Criminal Intent is on.

Posted by Dougsf on January 7, 2009 at 3:45 PM

ABC Family has some really weird shows moonlighting as "family" entertainment. It's almost as if they want to provide a more wholesome version of the network shows, yet when they tried to do that they realized how utterly dull they became so then they had to add back in "intense subject matter" which negated the whole idea of "family" television. Well, unless your family is more Family Guy than Waltons.

It is a separate channel from the Disney channel, where the tween programming (Hannah Montana, Suite Life etc.) lives on in bubble gum sappiness.

Posted by PopTart on January 7, 2009 at 3:51 PM

@2, beat me to it.

I think SOMEBODY'S got a hand down "Paul's" pants.

Posted by rob on January 7, 2009 at 4:59 PM

ΓΑΜΩ ΤΟ

Posted by ο μαλάκας on January 7, 2009 at 7:27 PM

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13 Comment Pulled (Spam) Comment Policy

Aw man, I love Greek! It's... okay, it's kind of a character flaw, how much I love it, but I really do. It is definitely my single guilty pleasure show.

(For what it's worth, I've never watched The OC, or Gossip Girl, or One Tree Hill, or ...anything else in the genre. I don't recall what inspired me to watch the pilot episode of *this* a couple years ago, but I fell in love. For what it's worth, a good 60% of the show's entire draw is the performance put in by Scott Michael Foster, aka Cappie, standing second-from-the-left in that pic. Another 20% is the previously-mentioned Paul-Constant-lookalike, Clark Duke. Good times.)

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