First a confession. This is my third draft of this review, each one written further along as I watched the first - and last - season. I have never done this before. And I have been writing reviews for a very long time. (Before computers. Back in an age when very few people did it, and those that did were paid for their work.) So, the question becomes, what is there about this seemingly innocent Disney-esque summer knockoff of Buffy that creates such confusion and bafflement? Simply this -- whatever meds the writers were on when they penned this fiasco (if ever there was a series that deserved to be cancelled, or euthanized, this was it) the FDA should investigate, and quickly. For the first nine episodes we have an awkward setup of a typical metaphysically-driven, teenage, coming of age, superpowers yet to be revealed, story. Nothing new, especially given the competition. And the awkwardness, the fact that the scripts can't seem to decide between whimsy and dark magic, between frolic and death, is not unexpected, given the producers and the delivery channel. Although I found the pacing uneven, by episode 9, I had come to view this production as more about relationships than plot, the harmonies/conflicts among the would-be Scoobies was, on average, entertaining. With standouts, such as Samuels, the lead, and Coppola, who mesmerizes in a supporting role. Then, just as I thought I had nailed the Zen of this series, along comes episode 10, the finale. And what a finale it is! Murder, mayhem, lying, weapons, poison, betrayal, WOW, false identities, gunshots, the death of the heroine -- a viewer would be forgiven for thinking they had tuned into the wrong show. Not only did it leave all (repeat ALL) plot threads un-resolved, but it opened up brand new ones. And the tone. So depressing that people on Prozac could backslide merely from watching a few minutes, even by accident. Could the writers possibly have imagined that by ambushing the viewer in the finale, they could somehow buy another year or two of production to make amends? Or, more likely, they were already tipped off that the series was not likely to be picked up, so they figured, hey, let's have some fun anyway? I will end with this -- there are Rob Zombie productions which, overall, are kinder to the audience than this was.
A footnote in time --> Chloe King may yet go down in history (for TV students of the far future) as the most OUTRAGEOUS PRODUCT PLACEMENT in the history of the medium. Which is really saying something, considering that most dramas of the 1950s were essentially excuses to sell a single brand of soap (hence the term, "soap opera"). You can almost hear the pitch by the adman, "See, we'll do something no one has ever done before, we'll have Skyler's character fall in love with a Kia, and then, after longing for a few episodes, her mother will pay half and she will get the car on screen. Sure it is only a few second of air time, but subliminally teenage girls all over the world will suddenly develop a craving for a new Kia and they'll expect their parents to pay half. If this works, we'll try it with ovens, hedge trimmers and maybe a Jacuzzi."
A footnote in time --> Chloe King may yet go down in history (for TV students of the far future) as the most OUTRAGEOUS PRODUCT PLACEMENT in the history of the medium. Which is really saying something, considering that most dramas of the 1950s were essentially excuses to sell a single brand of soap (hence the term, "soap opera"). You can almost hear the pitch by the adman, "See, we'll do something no one has ever done before, we'll have Skyler's character fall in love with a Kia, and then, after longing for a few episodes, her mother will pay half and she will get the car on screen. Sure it is only a few second of air time, but subliminally teenage girls all over the world will suddenly develop a craving for a new Kia and they'll expect their parents to pay half. If this works, we'll try it with ovens, hedge trimmers and maybe a Jacuzzi."