A.N.T. Farm

When I decided to attempt to give everything on Disney Plus a try, it was the show's like "ANT Farm" that I was particularly concerned about. There appear to be endless, witless, crappy, canned laughter shows like this, that I'm going to have to have a shot at. I watched two episodes before deciding that life was too short, which equates to just over 3% of the shows complete output.

11 year old music prodigy Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) joins high school early, as part of the advanced natural talents (A.N.T) programme. There she meets Olive (Sierra McCormick) and Fletcher (Jake Short) fellow wunderkind who warn her about the tribulations of the older kids at the school. These include Lexi (Stefanie Scott) the schools head cheerleader who immediately takes against Chyna, but also her older brother Cameron (Carlon Jeffery) who isn't keen about sharing a school with his younger sister.

I am miles away from the target audience for something like "ANT Farm" and had it not been for my stupid quest to watch stuff blind, would never have come across it. Though there's potential in some of the cast ultimately I can't say that I enjoyed it. I'm not going to criticise the kids for their stageschool overacting (any further than just mentioning it there). I'm sure it's what they were told to do and depending on the character performances run from promising to nails down a blackboard. I will throw some shade in the direction of Zach Steel and his character of Gibson, the student councillor. He's spectacularly awful, a gurning unfunny jackass. It's a hugely broad style of comedy, that I'd imagine might appeal to kids of that age. Silly, slapstick style humour that I felt got old pretty quickly. I should say that each of the two episodes I watched, did raise a smile in me at some point though.

I feel like, though I didn't care for "ANT Farm" much I fear that further investigation of shows available on Disney Plus may end up with me looking back fondly on it.

Advanced Natural Talent, that's what an ANT is in the world of high school Magic Kingdom style. Some of these kids are stretching the boundaries of what might be talent. One young lady has a photographic memory, another kid makes robots, one is an aspiring gymnast. But our protagonist young Chyna Ann McLain only sings beautifully. All the kids are too young for high school and none of them really fit in, nor do the others try. In fact one of them is Carlon Jeffrey who is Chyna's older brother and he's more of a traditional misfit.

ANT Farm is neither the best or the worst of Disney's juvenile comedy shows. It's like Hannah Montana in that it really only comes alive when a very talented young lady like Miley Cyrus opens up and sings.

I cannot see how this show even passed the drawing board. I know Disney has had poor taste lately but this just adds to the idea of failure. Basically, the show is a bunch of pre-teens who are in an advanced program set at their local high school. One of them is a musical prodigy even though it is blatantly obvious that she cannot play any of those instruments. The other is a person who can memorize everything they see and hear. That is not exactly likely. The jokes are cheesy and overdone. I cannot see that plan even passing in the real world. Where do you get enough geniuses to create this program? The acting is lousy and very overly dramatic. Just skip A.N.T. Farm.

What is going on with Disney Channel right now? Well after seeing (most of) this show I can sadly say that it has become the epitome of how I view Disney Channel.

I can't even say something good to give it some justice. So what this show is it's a comedy that has a lousy script that makes it effortless for the writers to do work. These writers don't have a clue on how to write kids and what their social life is. Since it is a channel for teens, preteens, or maybe even children watch this garbage, the "actors" have to be at the same brain level as the target audience even if the adults have to act like children and not real people.

The main part is to keep the audience at least captivated for a half of an hour and to just have lame boring humor that only a young child could laugh at. I can't see anyone my age (17) or older to actually laugh and care for this show. Ultimately there are going to be people that doesn't agree with me but the characters are as bad as the flat jokes that exhale through their lungs. I can't really say for their acting capabilities since the directors doesn't really put forth any effort. Their young and barely inexperienced but I don't have any remorse for the adults that may have actually took acting classes. Though they don't have much of a script to work with it's still the whole thing has to be a team effort therefore it doesn't work for me.

One thing with Disney Channel these days is to take their young stars and cash in the success what brings to them. After take in the next in line to be celebrity and who knows what will happen to them after. They picked China a youthful girl that would already become a success on her own, but chose this career instead. They haven't done anything spectacular and will be surprised to see any brilliance come upon them later in their acting career.

I can't relate to the characters, it has no redeeming jokes, directing is lazy including the writing, and the acting can't even come off as a school play. I'm not able to recommend this to anyone that is older than a toddler because believe it or not if the channel had a face it would be A.N.T. Farm with no questions asked.

Now I haven't gone in detail on what doesn't work in this show and for good reason because you see if I did that would mean that I take up more room and time for you to read my thoughts on A.N.T. Farm. So if you are still curious on seeing how bad it really is and why this was a particularly short rant on this subject. Than if you still want to see for your self in the nonsense than don't come back at all.

As much as I did grow up on Disney, I do dislike most of the stuff on the Disney Channel nowadays. I do like very much Sonny with a Chance, Good Luck Charlie and Phineas and Ferb, but there are some like Hannah Montana and Shake it Up that I can't stand, I find those shows irritating and unfunny.

I actually wasn't expecting much from A.N.T Farm, but got far more than I expected and in a good way. I can understand though why some mayn't like A.N.T. Farm, some of it is cheesy(with a rather edgy reference to Satan at one point) and the pilot episode is not as funny or as exciting as the other episodes(the haunted locker episode was one of the better episodes).

That said, I do think A.N.T. Farm has potential to grow. A lot of TV series when they first start are rocky to start with, and get better until they're great. Although A.N.T. Farm has only just started, it's not bad, in fact I like it.

For instance, the production values are well above average, with trendy fashions, sets that don't look tacky and good(if not award-worthy) photography. The music is also very memorable and catchy, with nice melodies and lyrics that make sense and are intelligible.

The writing is amusing mostly, some of it is cheesy, but the dialogue does make me laugh and the jokes are not as clichéd or as stale as they can be on some Disney Channel shows. The story lines may have some predictable moments, but overall they're interesting and well paced.

I personally really like the characters. Chyna is very charismatic and fun, and the actress who plays her seems to be having a ball playing her, but my favourites are Lexi and Olive, played very appealingly by Stefanie Scott and Sierra McCormick. Paisley, Gibson and especially Fletcher are also fun characters. The actors do have chemistry, and I was most surprised by the singing, the lead actress has real talent and could go a long way with a voice like that.

In conclusion, this show to start with is not perfect, but it's far better than expected and has room to grow. 8/10 Bethany Cox