A.N.T. Farm

It's cute, silly and a bit of fun. Although it will never win any awards it still has it's charm. The characters may be a little weird and out there but they are entertaining in their own ways. China Anne McClain is certainly the star of the show and has great potential. The occasional catchy fun song is thrown in from time to time which also adds to the likability of the show. While it is not superb television it will entertain you.

There are good episodes and bad ones and luckily they ended the show on a high before it dragged out too long. It is great for kids, not so much for people with short attention spans but it really is not that bad.

This show really needs to be reworked. It seems to be a Hannah Montana knock-off. The lead character is a singer (without the secret identity). Since the show began I have come to seriously dislike the Chyna Parks character she is constantly bossing her friends around insisting that they do what she wants with little concern for their feelings of ideas. The show would be much better if she went from a lead character to a costar and they elevated the other characters to equal status. The two cheerleaders Lexi and Paisley are good though they should make Paisley a bit smarter (she is in High School after all). And Lexi's schemes always make me laugh. The Angus character just needs to go away he is absolutely useless. Since the show began he was only useful in one episode. Finesse Mitchell is hilarious as the dad (Darryl) but I think that there are some Cops out there that may not care for him. Overall if they tone down Chyna and spotlight the other characters this show will be a really good show.

Update: After watching pretty much every episode I think I have figured out the basic storyline for each episode.

The show opens with one or more of the cast members either wanting to do something not wanting to do something or doing something.

Enter Chyna. She sees what is happening and she either doesn't want the cast member do something, wants them to do something or wants to do it herself.

She comes up with a plan to get her way; regardless of what her "friend(s)" want.

She drafts her "friends" into helping her. Her plan fails. She sings a song.

Chyna's "friends" apologize.

I put "friends" in parenthesis because she doesn't treat them like true friends. Also they are still using the autotuner for Chyna's songs. This is usually used for people that do not sing very well. So its use confuses me since I cannot believe that Disney would have somebody sing if they really can't

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