TV – Hannah Montana

☻☻☺☺☺
(two smiley faces out of five)

Since I just did an iCarly review, I thought I’d review Disney’s television sitcom offering to female ’tweens, Hannah Montana.

Only I ain’t gonna be quite so nice. In fact, I'm not even really sure why I'm giving this show two smiley faces instead of just one, except that it's so gosh-darned popular that I'm going to give millions of screaming little girls some benefit of the doubt.

Hannah Montana is about a 'tween girl, Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cirus, country star Billy Ray Cirus’ daughter), who lives a double life as a pop star. During her everyday life, she’s plain ol’ Miley Stewart with brown hair. But when it’s time for her to throw-down at a pop-country concert, she busts out her blonde wig and appears on stage as Hannah Montana. It’s this double life that allows Miley to have some privacy and friends.

Speaking of friends, Miley’s friends, Lily and Oliver, know her secret and keep it for her. Miley is also joined by her annoying older brother Jackson and her real-life father, who also plays her father on the show. Miley’s mother died a few years ago, but sometimes shows up in flashbacks and is played by Brooke Shields.

The main problem with Hannah Montana is the writing. It’s just terrible. It’s that same old tired, boring, trite sitcom writing that’s been employed by such “winners” as Three’s Company (yes America, I’m sorry to inform you that Three’s Company completely sucked), the Brady Bunch, Different Strokes and a whole litany of bad, bad, bad sitcoms that have been produced in this country over the years.

Hannah Montana plots are, in general, completely insipid and uninspired.

As far as the acting goes, Miley Cirus’ acting skills aren’t stellar, but I really think that she could move forward from this show and learn to be a competent actress. I think her dad does a pretty good job as an actor, as well. I also think that the periphery actors might be good, but it’s really hard to tell as they’re forced to work from scripts that are downright poopalicious.

Heaven help you if your daughter is a Hannah Montana fan. Your eyes might get stuck in the back of your head from all the rolling.

iCarly

☻☻☻☻☺

(four smiley faces out of five)

iCarly is a show aimed at ’tweens that  airs on Nickelodeon, though my 6-year-old daughter and her 7-year-old friend are HUGE iCarly fans. As it turns out, so am I. (So is my husband, but don’t tell anyone I told you.)

The show is about three good friends who are freshmen in high school who have their own weekly web show called iCarly. Carly lives with her older brother, Spencer, who is 26, and conveniently, he's the only adult around as Carly's father is on an aircraft carrier somewhere and her mother is ... well, we don't know where Carly's mother is.

In the world of kid’s sitcoms, iCarly is a breath of fresh air. The plot-lines aren’t those tired, recycled old sitcom plots you’ve seen for years. (You know. Someone is stuck in an elevator. A pregnant woman goes into labor in an inconvenient place. So-and-so has to ride on a plane, even though they have a plane phobia. Blah, blah, blah, YAWN.)

Whoever the writers are for iCarly sure know what they’re doing. The writing is fresh, witty and genuinely funny. My husband and I often catch ourselves looking at each other thinking, That was actually funny. Can you believe it? No. Me neither. And then we laugh out loud.

And the actors are absolutely top-drawer. And I mean everybody on the show. Miranda Cosgrove is a pre-teen acting powerhouse. You may have seen her as Summer in the Jack Black movie School of Rock. Jerry Trainor, who plays Carly’s older brother, has a genuine comic talent and I expect to see him moving on to greater things. Carly’s friends, Freddie and Sam, are also talented kids.

Each character is well-written and well-rounded, and some of the running character attributes are hilarious. Freddie’s mother is overprotective to the point of absurdity, giving him “tick baths” and making him wear “anti-bacterial underwear.” I find Carly’s best girl friend, Sam, interesting as well, as Sam is … well … pretty much white trash. There are often jokes about various members of Sam’s family being in jail or stealing things. And Sam’s mother’s parenting skills are often called into question. But again, I find this to be refreshing and a little edgy.

There's a recurring character, Neville, who's a foil to the iCarly crew, and ... well, you'll just have to see Neville for yourself. He is so funny he almost makes me pee my pants.

I do, however have a couple of complaints about the show. For one thing, these kids are pretty blasé when it comes to money. It’s pretty much no big thing for Carly to pull 50 bucks out of her pocket to pay off some kid in some scheme that she and her friends have cooked up. I can’t do that without a trip to the ATM and even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll be 50 bucks in there to pull out.

I also have a good friend who is also a mom who thinks that Sam’s character is “too mean”. And she’s right; Sam can be pretty darn vindictive, especially to Freddie. However, there is an episode when Sam goes too far, her friends call her on it and Sam really lowers herself to make amends. Sam’s “meanness” is written to be flip and funny, and it’s fine for your ’tween who will understand the humor. But my six year old and I often talk about when Sam is being overly malicious.

Overall, I find iCarly to be a show that the whole family can enjoy together and I really appreciate Nickelodeon's effort to produce such a well-written, funny sitcom.