While I found myself really starting to enjoy Boys Before Friends around episode three, it was difficult at first accepting the wish-washy premise of a dancing scholarship for the same school that was host to the super rich, a few of which were heirs to fortune five-hundred companies. In fact there was absolutely nothing about the staging of the scenes that even remotely suggested the wealth of the over-privileged that was essential for the storytelling. There's a fat BEARDED transvestite hairdresser in a back room somewhere doing make-overs for F4. I mean, come on. Still, I told myself it's low budget and fan-made...I'll give it another episode, but reflecting back this might of only happened because some of the script writing had coaxed a giggle or three.
For the original Zoey and Liam, I manage to swallow the abysmal acting and the fact I practically had to read the entire dialog in subtitles because the audio was too quiet to hear. The show lost something though when they decided to just soldier on with replacements; be it momentum or any hint of energy. Zoey went from edgy and feisty, to girl next door with her creamy skin, dimples and a perkiness that had her literally bouncing in and out of scenes. Liam who had been so very tall, dark and handsome, was now very reminiscent of Clark Kent's farm boy shyness, sans glasses and cleft chin. It was not a good fit for the roles they were playing, and I can only guess that pressure to push out another episode for donations (coughFORWHATcough) was the cause of such hasty casting.
I wish them well, but I will not be 'donating' to the continuation of the American version, nor supporting with additional page views. My only hope is that someone with a larger budget will come along and buy up the rights. Hopefully, with binding contracts for the actors.