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I was struck by how much annoying behaviour was in just the first 5 minutes (or would be 5 without the ad break)... First, while Calvin is watching basketball on TV, Dave WILL NOT shut up about his stupid useless fridge app, being so insistent about it as if it's urgent instead of being a normal person and waiting until ads or after the game, when the entire thing is clearly useless and Calvin is clearly uninterested and VERY interested in focusing on the game. Then, the mere mention of Gemma getting a new bathroom and Tina demonstrates she doesn't deserve any nice thing ever again, that the newly renovated rooms of the house are suddenly not good enough just because the bathrooms weren't included, and clearly nothing ever will be good enough (then I was quite offended-by-proxy at her taking Calvin's clear dismissal as acceptance, and that Calvin didn't correct that). Then Marty with his non-stop ridiculous pregnancy demands of Courtney, as if he's in charge of her and her body and is in a position to be questioning her perfectly normal choices. This is actually a pet peeve of mine, people falling prey to the fallacy of making such precautions top importance under the excuse of "It's better for the baby" while forgetting how many millions of babies were born and grew up perfectly healthy before such things were known. Take these things under advisement, certainly, but they shouldn't be treated as THIS important, SO important as to question the autonomy of a NON-GIRLFRIEND adult who is highly intelligent and obviously would already be well aware. Especially by a guy who has been depicted as the most intelligent main cast member. Nobody likes being preached to or commanded, calm down. End of rant.

The episode was fine overall (though I'm always bothered by depictions of injustice, even when the message is raising awareness like this), but that was THREE large loads of annoying piled together like that, it frustrated me into writing a rare review.

This show forgot to advertise. Always a red flag to me, I hate under-advertising almost as much as over-hype. So I went in without any high hopes. Just suddenly saw it in the guide after the new Night Court, so I gave it a shot, I'm watching the lead-in anyway. Starring Jon Cryer from Two And A Half Men fame and Donald Faison from Scrubs fame, both well liked funny entertaining shows (even if Men got a little formulaic and laugh-track heavy after Charlie Sheen's exit). COULD be promising, MAY be lazy, relying on the star power of these two and their credentials.

So I came in wary. But I've been pleasantly surprised. Cryer and Faison aren't just clones of their previous characters - a pathetic Hollywood trend to try to copy what works, instead of trying anything new and innovative and interesting like Firefly - they're new likeable characters. Cryer's Alan got to be very weaselly and a pure leech by the end of Men, nice to see him portraying a more confident guy who has the means not to be struggling financially all the time this time. Faison being the new husband of the ex-wife means they aren't trying to pair him with Cryer to mimic the Super Close Buddies dynamic he had in Scrubs.

And I've found the episodes genuinely entertaining. Fun, and largely skipping the usual warring exes/hated new beau dynamic that is rather tired by now. This show deserves WAY higher than the 4.4 or so it's averaging at the moment (so I inflated my score slightly, though I don't know any reasons I'd want to lower it anyway). The mostly comfortable separation Cryer and the ex-wife and her beau have is rather pleasant and a nice change of pace (such as from the similar trio from Friends, Ross with his ex-wife Carol and her girlfriend Susan, where Ross and Susan always openly showed hatred towards each other, leaving Carol in the middle. We've seen THAT dynamic plenty, THIS is refreshing).

This is getting annoying. Both Brooke and Cary are so stuck in their artificial drama, it's frustrating they're both being so stupid!

All season, Brooke has been up in her own head that COINCIDENTALLY many people in her life have ended up in Doing Good roles, leaving her exceedingly drowning in White Guilt (i.e. Feeling guilty over nothing you're responsible for, nothing you have any reason to feel guilt over). In Season 2 she had achieved the success and income she yearned for all series long by doing a job she enjoyed and was good at! The dream! But was it good enough for her? No, she quits her perfect job in a misguided mental breakdown where she is obsessed with appearing to Do Good, capital D, capital G. She tries empty vapid thing after empty vapid thing to appear better, but it doesn't work because they're empty vapid things. FINALLY she realizes that quitting was a mistake and rejoins the industry, but taints it by STILL being too focused on Doing Good. Last episode's missteps in the name of Doing Good leads to trying to fix it with the titular event. Ugh. Meanwhile, if Brooke were NORMAL, she'd realize that her desire to Do Good is already commendable, look for opportunities to Do Good, there's no need to dedicate your life to it, there's nothing wrong with enjoying how her life is going, giving up the good in her life misses the point, and she doesn't have sacrifice her happiness to Do Good. And if she looked at Lance in particular, she could see that you can be happy AND do good. That's another thing, Lance was nothing but supportive, yet she breaks up with him for the judgement she FELT, but he wasn't doing! This is emotionally unhealthy!

Then there's Cary. He complains he's not successful enough to go to his reunion. Uh, what? Beginning-Of-This-Episode Cary has done several things of notice, enough that his airplane video went viral. Pilot Cary would want to smack this Cary for being so unappreciative of what he's achieved, particularly his notoriety! He's famous in his own right, now, not piggybacking on Chase's fame any more. Strangers recognize him. HOW is this not enough for him to shine at his reunion? He is too stuck on not being successful enough for his own liking, he can never satisfy himself because each small step he takes feels insignificant because he's already there. Pilot Cary would be ecstatic at the thought of having regular work on a Netflix show, but here and now it's nothing to care about. And last episode Cary lost all his gaggle of friends because his obsession with success has clouded his humanity, he couldn't support his main friend when he looked more successful. How shallow is that?

BOTH Cary and Brooke are too focused on comparing themselves to others, particularly when none of the others are doing it! It's made them blind to the good things in their lives, losing them some of the things they have. Neither has any friends any more, nobody to confide in. It's getting unpleasant to watch, seeing these two people we USED to root for become such unsympathetic people, all alone because they drove everyone away. NOW the only good I wish for them is that they get back to being the people they were before, otherwise I don't care about them. Their characters have suffered for the sake of the comedy, and, sorry, they don't have to have crappy lives to be funny.

When the episode started out, and they revealed that Jordan being 17 made it legal, I figured this would be an episode where Bull flips the script and changed to defending the teacher. So disappointing that they still ended up on the side attacking the ones who did nothing morally wrong, really. So then I'm hoping they lose this one, but the show is called "Bull", because he wins, so I doubt this will go the right way (I'm still watching, but reviews sound like I'm right, this will come out wrong).

The laws and rules referenced in this episode are about preventing authority figures from using their power to manipulate to people beneath them. Jordan was in no way forced or manipulated. He was a willing participant. He consented. In situations like this, the usual response is that a minor cannot legally consent (except that they establish he's not legally a minor), but consenting, being a willing participant, should still be a VERY important factor! How about honouring the SPIRIT of the law and stop focusing on the LETTER of the law? A birthday isn't a magical event, he's depicted as 17 and 3 months old, is he supposed to suddenly become instantly capable in 9 months? Nothing to worry about anymore, but requiring COURT INTERVENTION now? As it is, the school rules against fraternization means she was fired, seems a bit heavy-handed and overly interfering, but I guess there needs to be SOMETHING to prevent possible favouritism (better grades than he earned, advanced notice of tests, etc), but such heavy-handedness should be more than sufficient, these court proceedings are ridiculous.

So disappointing to see TAC on the wrong, prudish, side of this fight. Larger age gaps later in life are perfectly normal and acceptable. 7 years? In 3 years nobody would blink twice (at 20 and 27). 10 is quite common. They're just a year early, really.

One problem I've always had about this show is making EVERYTHING about race, EVERYTHING is a big deal, everything is a fight. No aiming to remove race as a factor to move for actual racial equality. It's so bad they even pointed it out themselves a couple of episodes earlier. The final episode had one so bad, making it a PLOT POINT, that I was driven to write this rare review.

Starting the episode with preparing the grandparents to move out, boxes and RV in driveway, permanently racially-oblivious white neighbour Janine comes over. What is clearly supposed to be blatantly obvious but is way too subtle, she has assumed the whole family is moving. In show: This triggers Narrator Dre to go off about still not being accepted after all these years, of neighbours wanting them gone and not accepting them, and gossiping about them. In reality: So?

Firstly it's a logical conclusion, a bunch of boxes and an RV in front of a house, first thought is the family is moving. It's a natural conclusion to the facts as presented. Any family. Secondly, neighbours gossip! About everyone, about every little thing! I declare with absolute certainty that a white family or Chinese family or Indian family or any other would be talked about in the same way! And they're long time residents, if they were leaving it would be major neighbourhood news/gossip! "OMG, the Johnsons are moving out? They've been here forever!"... For ANY family. I was tempted to submit this as a Goof, but I suspect it would be rejected as too subjective, especially since it was clearly written to be about race.

The fallout is that out of nowhere Dre decides to de-integrate. Move away from the white people, quit trying to be accepted as an equal without regarding race, surround himself with black people, even leaving his job full of white people. This quitting move is tripley dumb: Not only this isolating himself away from white people, but also he has spent the last two episodes fixated on the realization that with Devonte he won't be able to retire, he needs to keep making money, AND they idiotically for no reason decide to move, to a luxurious house which clearly costs considerably more than the house they're leaving (going from a standard neighborhood to a higher altitude one where they have a multi-million dollar view).

They're upheaving the whole family's lives over not understanding what neighbours are like? Leaving their beautiful comfortable home of 17 years, the only one Jack, Diane and Devonte have known, essentially the only one Zoey and Junior have known, adopting an unnecessary debt and loss of income, all in one fell swoop! At the same time the grandparents are moving out! Making all these huge nonsensical changes in a Season Finale could work, to give them new writing directions for the next season, showing how they adjust to their new circumstances, but this is the SERIES Finale! There's no more writing left!

Finally, this show has always been too sparse with laughs, doing Special-Episodes-Which-Are-Too-Often-To-Be-Special episodes, getting too serious too often, forgetting constantly they're a sitcom, but this episode they should have ended the show with SOME fun, come on!

(I'm also realizing now, they've never given Jack & Diane relationships, and the show ended with them and Junior single, seems kind of bleak. They had interests and crushes, but that's it. No idea about Zoey since they exiled her to an obscure channel - but somehow kept her in the credits anyway, despite being almost entirely absent save a cameo or two - but I believe on this show she didn't have any long term relationships either).

TL;DR: Almost none of the things changed from the book were necessary or even contributing.

I grew up on Gordon Korman's books (I get the impression he's only a handful of years older than me), primarily the Bruno & Boots books (And this was only the first 4 books, I never realized he wrote 3 more in the series until a few years ago when I found them for my iPad). So when I saw that YTV was airing movies a few years ago I was so excited - except I saw the ad on a recording for a weekend airing when the weekend was about over. It took until this past weekend to FINALLY spot it on the schedule, I just watched it.

First of all, WHY do the second book first and the first second? I think I'm catching the other one next weekend, it remains to be seen if the viewing order matters at all.

Now, I recognize movie and TV adaptations must always disappoint because some material HAS to be lost, some has to be changed or updated, so I only excuse changes for 3 reasons: To fit the time available, to update it to current times, and for things that can't work outside of our imagination. Most of the changes don't fit any of these!

For example, only 2 characters have a physical description to match: Mr. Sturgeon/The Fish and Wilbur Hackenschleimer. Now, The Fish is perfect-looking, he really has the "Fish look" nailed as described. Very well cast. Wilbur, however, while not stated outright, is essentially Arnold Schwartzenegger but a teen. Similar German/Austrian names, same tall and bulky build. Wilbur seems easily mistaken for an adult he's so tall and bulky, and as a food addict it's clear that he's only saved from being fat by his likely workouts. In this very book he's described as being able to, and succeeding at, dead-lifting a piano for the talent show (which this movie skipped and swapped, more on that later). And with an apparent German/Austrian familial background, likely to be white. They CAST a skinny black kid whose only matching feature is being tall-ish. He is introduced lifting a barbell one-handed, but clearly seems like he'd be unable to do any of the things the literary version can, and is never depicted as particularly strong again. Now, I understand and support the drive to diversify the cast. They cast a darker skinned girl as Diane and it works great. But WHY pick the ONLY character where it makes a difference? Make Elmer someone not white, would work fine! (That kid who constructed a clock which was suspected as a bomb a few years ago, he had a GREAT look to be a non-white Elmer). Chris Talbot is artistic, that's it. He'd be fine as any race. Mark Davies - the newspaper guy/office page - appears completely absent, cast him! This change was unnecessary. And the actor appears minor, without a profile picture on IMDb, so not even some name to gain notoriety.

Since these movies are the wrong way around, we're missing the proper introductions to Elmer and George Wexford-Smythe III, again, unnecessary. And since I found out about the failed order I cannot find any explanation WHY they went out of order. They seemed to keep that George is a spoiled unpopular rich kid, but then make him a monitor! How does that make sense that a spoiled rich kid would CHOOSE to work? Seems to just be a cheap way to paint him as unliked, but that would be - and is - easily done just by showing his attitude.

Plus this adds that they wear uniforms and have a demerit system (at least, George hands out demerits, and has a "Monitor" sash suggesting they're legit), both of which being added being a major plot point of the fourth book, The War With Mr. Wizzle (which Korman seems to have unnecessarily renamed to The Wizzle War at some point), leaving not much to spark the titular War, which seems to be the third movie. Now, as a boarding school, uniforms make some sense, but it was still an unnecessary change.

Updating it with the kids having cell phones makes sense, but it does destroy a signature aspect of the series, the boys sneaking across the road at midnight to meet with Cathy and Diane for planning sessions. Now, okay, maybe they didn't want to portray such a hint at sexuality, maybe there's a writer from the 50s who doesn't want to portray a boy and girl together in a bedroom, but there was never any romantic interest anywhere between the students, including the main 4 (I'm on the fence about Diane's clear interest in Boots, makes sense but disturbs the innocence of the books).

Also, these visits, sometimes they'd get caught by Miss Scrimmage wielding a shotgun. Which means that when the shotgun came up as a plot point, they hadn't established it, so they changed it to a completely nonsensical morning star as an armed robbery weapon (which wouldn't work). Plus they changed the customer who bought it from a woman roughly matching Miss Scrimmage's appearance to a bearded guy for whom Miss Scrimmage couldn't possible be mistaken. Turning a logical wacky turn of events to an unbelievable mess, and for zero benefit, seemingly just to skip the shotgun!

Now, I must say, outside of Wilbur the casting is great. They all play their roles well, and casting Caroline Rhea - the only person I recognize, except I keep seeing Cathy lately including the reboot of Reboot - as Miss Scrimmage was a GREAT move, she's so great for the role (except that book-Scrimmage is very old and frail). They changed the name of her school from Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School For Young Girls to The Scrimmage Academy For Education And Awakening. Changing old-fashioned nonsense for new age nonsense feels a LITTLE more up to date, and fits a younger Scrimmage (the original idea seeming to be that Scrimmage was so old she still clung to outdated concepts of Finishing, now with this later AND her younger that's more of a stretch) but I remain on the fence about this change.

Another COMPLETELY unnecessary change: In the book, Boots finds out by letters that his parents don't like the underwhelming P. E. program, largely that they don't have a pool and York does, despite that Macdonald Hall is the top school academically. Bruno has Boots flood his parents with letters raving about the school to show how happy he is. After all their fundraising efforts Sturgeon shuts them down for being only motivated by jealousy, only to later find out that York has been poaching students, including Boots, making Sturgeon realize they had been trying to save their friends. HERE Boots mentions the possibility of leaving in FRONT of Sturgeon right at the beginning, telling Bruno at the same time, totally removing this later revelation, they merely guess that a pool will help, the mail campaign is replaced by a website and Bruno flooding them with emails about it, and they state that Macdonald Hall is only #1 in attendance, implying it's NOT a top school academically, a frequent source of pride in the books. The only GOOD change here is that changing mail for a video chat/website is much smoother and more fitting to modern day. Other than the electronics, NONE of these fit the criteria for an acceptable change. They don't save time, they don't modernize, and the book version is completely film-able.

One thing they kept was the Toll Road idea. But in the book the school was rather rurally located but on a fairly useful road so having regular traffic, they covered both directions, and their first "customers" were Mr. Sturgeon and his wife, so they were shut down before committing an actual crime. Here it's a suburban neighbourhood - not isolated enough for such a stunt - Bruno is doing ONE direction by himself, and Bruno states he has already collected $200 (40 cars @ $5), so he already broke the law.

Speaking of this moment, Mrs. Sturgeon - Mr. Sturgeon's softness and kindness conscience - is completely missing, putting a hint of her influence into his secretary Mrs. Davis. This works in the books because she is the one important person in his life not under his command, while Mrs. Davis is his employee, she can only realistically exert so much influence. Also it turns out Chris has been always silent, a point not truly sold until the obvious silence gag of having him speak at a crucial moment to everyone's surprise. Making him silent doesn't add anything except this cheap gag, which fell flat due to not properly selling the silent bit in the first place. As a secondary character only seen occasionally, it's simply not terribly noticeable (only that in the planning session he draws his suggestion, which just felt like it was selling that he's an excellent artist). In the books part of his character is that he has developed his art to the point where he is impressively business-like about it, like after graduating he'll slip into having an art business with ease.

Also the entirely co-operative team effort of Miss Scrimmage's and Macdonald Hall is turned competitive, quite destroying the wonderful united front they always have in the books, and nonsensically turning them into destroying each other's best effort in the name of competition - when the talent show was switched to a bake-off and Bruno and Cathy both turn to sponsorship - despite that they're both raising money for the same goal and sabotaging each other will cost the project money as a whole.

Finally, the final big fundraising, getting George's help to finish, is brought up completely flat since again we're missing the first book where it was established he's majorly informed about the stock market, so they change what's barely shy of guaranteed insider trading - seemingly almost zero risk - with a very risky bet on a long shot, making the move horribly irresponsible. They even KEPT THE STOCK NAME "Lorelei" and that it was lucrative! George's friend thanked him for the Lorelei tip!

This movie is so problematic, in ONE viewing I found and added 5 Goofs - as in stuff that's so wrong it's not personal opinion - without even trying.

So much missed opportunity here. Do better, please.

When they were advertising this show before it aired, something looked off about the titular character, something vaguely odd. I looked this show up to find out the gimmick, that this teenaged boy is played by an adult woman, an attractive woman I even recognize a bit, somewhat from the thankfully short-lived Mulaney, more from New Girl, and I even spotted her when I saw the new Aladdin with Will Smith when it was in theatres, she was a newly added character who didn't exist in the original.

I'm 2 episodes in now, and there's been no explanation for the cross-gender thing, no reference, nothing, we're just supposed to accept this strange weird looking boy is supposed to be a normal boy. Since her name is all over the credits, I can only surmise that the concept of the show is hers, this is her baby, and she simply took the lead role.

The first scene had promise, Chad getting his braces off and ripping his orthodontist a new one, calling him out for his incompetence, but things went down from there. Chad, being a socially awkward teen desperately wanting to improve his lot in life, is a sitcom standard who is easy enough to understand and identify with - on the surface. As an example, his first day back to school with his newly confident brace-free mouth, he introduces himself to everybody trying to become popular. So far so good. But he gets unrealistically stupid about it. Having awkward interactions followed by "I'm Chad" again! Really? After giving a bad impression you want them to remember the name of the awkward idiot? Trying to inject himself into a group conversation fails, instead of bailing and moving on he forces himself in with another introduction, highlighting the awkwardness.

Walking by some jocks tossing a water bottle, he laughs as he does a basketball block slapping it out of the air like he's playing around, missing the obvious that this kind of messing with people only works when its friends you know well, it CANNOT endear you to NEW people, who are now just going to see you as a jerk. This is not believable behaviour!

Then we get the one that drives the plot: In desperation of no conversational tactic working, he randomly blurts out that he's had sex over the summer (completely off-topic to the conversation he was trying to butt into, to boot), then displays a complete lack of understanding of the act while trying to make the lie more believable, which magically nobody catches that he's saying the wrong things. What kid his age hasn't had a sex ed class, SOME exposure to the absolute basics? Even if its rumours from friends or sneaking a look at some porn?

Now, being desperate to have sex, to have people know you've had sex, IS typical and believable of teen boys. So they had to make it ridiculous. Approached by a girl who HAS had sex, who reaches out to him as a kindred spirit, he gets the opportunity to ACTUALLY have sex, and instead of being overly eager as is usual with such a setup, the whole thing goes as if he's being forced into a torture chamber! This act he quite reasonably yearned for is now something he suddenly dreads? Some more ridiculous lack of basic understanding, some idiotic behaviour - including walking home fully dressed but wearing her sheet over him anyway as if he lost track of his clothes, and bawling his eyes out (not over blowing this fantastic opportunity, but over thinking it actually happened) - and we get an episode that as a whole doesn't make much sense. The cherry on top being he gets an instant dad-crush upon meeting his mom's new boyfriend, seeming remarkably like a girl falling deeply in crush over a hot guy the second she first bumps into him, but with admiration to a father mixed in - without knowing anything about the guy except his name and what he looks like!

So, maybe it's just an awkward start. Maybe episode 2 will be better?

Turns out that Chad always gets gifts on his sister's birthday because he's a whiny baby, and he gets this nice ancestral sword from his overseas dad, a gift he's ecstatic over - that part at least makes sense. He is forbidden from bringing it to school to show it off but he does anyway - still both perfectly believable. Shows it off to a select group of friends who question the coolness or the wisdom of bringing a weapon to school, so he's disappointed his big surprise fell flat. Okay.

Then while walking down the stairs the cool boy walking upstairs says "Hey, cool sword" while passing. Chad is gleeful, finally. Then at the bottom turns around, gets Cool Guy to turn around from the top of the stairs, and says something to the effect of "I want you to have it". A SPECIAL GIFT from his ABSENTEE FATHER that he adores, and out of NOWHERE he gives it away? It wasn't even a quiet moment in conversation, they had passed each other, this was utterly unnecessary, Cool Guy didn't even hint at wanting it! How ridiculously unbelievable is it for him to offer up his most cherished possession without any provocation whatsoever?

Hijinks ensue, including Chad absolutely REQUIRING advice from mom's boyfriend who has barely met him, but to me the highlight is when Chad sees the sword in the back window of Cool Guy's car, a small hatchback. Being unable to utter the words "I need that sword back", Chad breaks the back door window and instead of quickly reaching in to grab the sword that is inches away, and running off before he's caught, he dives bodily into the car, ensuring he's seen and caught, and getting a deep cut on his leg for his trouble. How is any of this realistic behaviour?

This show could rally and improve, but only if they get some serious input to make Chad a more realistic and believable human being. All of his crashes and burns would be fun if this was a despicable person, but he's portrayed as vaguely likeable if annoying, so it just comes off as painful. I expect his female friend in a wheelchair/scooter/something will end up having an attraction to him (they seem to be hinting at it), her sardonic attitude and clearly higher intelligence than him could easily lead to some character development into a more likeable and stable Chad. I look forward to this happening, hopefully soon, before this show is quickly cancelled before they get the chance.

Looking at reviews on here, it looks like this premiered SOMEWHERE maybe a year ago, but around here it premiered only a few months ago, with maybe a week between seasons, so it's rather easy to compare. The title nicely fits the premise of season 1, Heaven is an office with departments, with Buscemi's God being the goofball CEO. Fun. And loved seeing Radcliffe in something else. We mainly follow two angels trying to pull off a miracle (where they're limited to techniques that don't automatically prove there's a heaven). I found it fun and funny, and as someone gleefully without religion, religious topics usually don't interest me, but that wasn't a problem here.

Cut to season 2, subtitled The Dark Ages. The subtitle likewise neatly explains the setup. But EVERYTHING from season 1 is gone! No god, no angels, no heaven, no divine influence... The only thing in common is the majority of the cast, all in completely different roles! Now, while it's cute that their experimental human from season 1 now gets to interact with the others in season 2 (though we're missing the female experimental human, I found her cute and would like to see more of her. Pity), that isn't anything, really. This is essentially a completely new show! Plus it betrays the title, there's no miracles going on, nobody is "working" on miracles. Plus I miss the magical elements, the Heaven way of doing things here and there.

I can't take off TOO many stars for this weird shift in tone and setting, the new season is still enjoyable (though unquestionably less so, with less and more subtle humour). Radcliffe becomes the new goofball. Buscemi and the female lead become downtrodden peasants (a SIGNIFICANT step down for Buscemi, LOL!). Of course, the focus changing to downtrodden peasants in a backward time has an unpleasant undertone of their sad bleak existence. One cute thing is frequent somewhat subtle references to modern life, converted to Dark Ages, like someone asking Alexa to play music and skip tracks becomes telling a minion the same things and having him sing things for entertainment. It's a cute gimmick, but it inspires a smile at best.

Hopefully if this gets to a Season 3 they'll remember the "Miracle Workers" part of the title "Miracle Workers", LOL!

Terrible, just terrible. I gave an extra star for some mildly funny silly gags, the only redeeming feature besides potential for interesting guests (like Kevin Smith).

First I heard of this show was an ad about half an hour before the first episode aired. I was surprised that in this time of everything being in reruns to see my guide label something as New. Plus Fred Savage, evoking fond memories of Wonder Years. I have a soft spot for him so I really wanted to like this.

The thing is, I hate underhype almost as much as overhype. This show was underhyped, I didn't see ANY mention before the night of the first episode. Then it's about a show that they're portraying as overhyped but seems just as underhyped as itself! All the "Everybody's looking forward to it! The greatest thing this year" stuff REALLY got on my nerves.

The show started (RIGHT out of the gate, right as the ads ended) with a scene from The Flare. Made NO sense, really underwhelming. It being Fred, who I'm used to being in comedies (and I quite enjoyed in The Grinder), I expected the scene to be funny, for the serious tone to be hiding some parody twist. I was reminded of an episode of Family Guy where they established that both Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are only full-suit characters played by Fred Savage, so I wondered if one of these Flare guys would unzip to reveal Fred, continue Family Guy's gag. Nope, cuts to Fred being over-amazed at nothing. LATER they explain The Flare's basic concept, which would have helped the scene make sense.

At one point Fred holds up what seems to be one of those free flyer magazines you pick up at the movie theatre and claimed it's now a collectible and it cost them $250. Just on and on about the overhype, seeming to try to create hype by pretending there's hype. The premiere got on my nerves so much I wrote a long Facebook post complaining about this stupidity.

So I had hoped that Fred declaring it as being all about The Flare, that he just meant the first episode. Checked the guide's description of Episode 2 immediately, no mention of The Flare, okay. So when Episode 2 arrived I was horribly surprised that the WHOLE SHOW is this. Acts like it's to The Flare what Talking Dead is to Walking Dead (even if I don't watch either), but that would only make sense if they air back-to-back. I thought maybe they meant The Flare would be airing this fall, but they sounded like it's current, talking about the latest episode. They declared it's Fridays on Fox, I see nothing of the sort on the guide! Wrote another angry Facebook post. Only redeeming feature is they got Kevin Smith, and he's my favourite director (from a guy who doesn't have favourites).

FINALLY during this week's episode, Episode 3, I come to IMDb to look up The Flare, maybe there's some alternate Fox I don't know about? (Like ABC Spark instead of ABC). Maybe neither show is actually new but aired last fall, and these are actually reruns in a different slot? The search finds a 2017 show about skateboarding, that's pretty much it. Wait, what? So I look up this show itself. Description: "An aftershow for the sci-fi show, The Flare (which doesn't actually exist).". OMG! I was right, it IS all as fake as I thought! NO mention anywhere in the episodes of this fact! And the past few weeks I've been unable to watch its lead in shows, but the ONE ad on the first night is still the only ad I've seen ANYWHERE, all week (and I watch a way-above-average amount of TV).

Sorry, you do a fake-out or parody, you have to be clear about it so everyone can enjoy the gag. This is just obnoxious and confusing. The only clue is the silly antics (like Episode 2 being full of accidental spoilers). Not enough.

This is my first review, as I generally don't have a strong enough reaction to warrant sharing it, but this one has me so frustrated...

When I first saw the pilot, my instant reaction was "Okay, Tori and Beck will end up together. Probably by the end of Season 1. Let's see how they get rid of Jade, in a Disney-friendly, nice way." But despite her acidic mean nature (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE her character), she somehow was a part of the core group of friends.

Both Tori and Beck seem to be two sides of the same coin, both of them are friendly, warm, easy-going (and having the good looks to suggest they should be full of themselves, but thankfully aren't). Seems like it was obvious from the get-go that they'd be an absolutely fantastic couple being the best boyfriend/girlfriend either could ever ask for.

Couple that with how bad Jade and Beck were as a couple, with their fighting and her elevated jealousy coming up regularly, painting their relationship as simply unhealthy and destructive, and it seemed like the end was inevitable. Then FINALLY Beck woke up, realized how far gone their relationship was, and he ended it.

It seemed like this FINALLY opened the door for the relationship that seemed inevitable. The writers even were heading that way, with Tori Goes Platinum, then again in Opposite Date, where Tori and Beck show their clear interest in each other. Plus, as is brought up in this episode, Andre was interested in Jade in Jade Gets Crushed (a GREAT Jade episode, the writers and Elizabeth Gillies did an excellent job making that crush easily believable), making for another nice potential couple.

Then THIS episode, they throw it all away when - and here's the spoiler - Beck takes Jade back. Now, she just sang a great song - her first solo / lead as far as I can recall - and Beck just discovered the hard way that he has no interest in a Yes Girl, but that's no excuse to forget the hardships. There's more than just the two extremes.

With the series quickly coming to a close, it doesn't seem likely that the writers will manage to fix this in time (especially if the cancellation was unexpected, I don't know). Such wasted potential. Such a shame.