studedude2004 Reviews

Mental Block (2003–2004)

Who am I, where am I going, why are my parents so annoying?

[26 May 2004]

Mental Block is a totally cool show. I don't know where it plays in the USA, but in Canada, it's on YTV. The hero, Donovan, has these kids living in his head, and yeah, okay, one of them is a girl. But why not? Having a girl in your head doesn't make you "think like a chick"! It just adds a different perspective. (And if you think having one out of four people in your head be a girl threatens your masculinity, you really got a lot more to worry about than this show!) And that's what Mental Block is about -- how a thirteen year old boy navigates his way through high school, like it's a space mission or something. The kids in his head are each really different. One is a really impulsive, macho guy who comes up with really dumb ideas. Another one is a totally indecisive guy. And then there's the girl, who's sort of bossy, sort of a know it all.

If you think about it, everybody's probably got different points of view that they work through when they try to figure something out, and that's what so cool about this show -- you not only see Donovan doing the same stuff real kids do -- but you also get to go right inside his head to see what made him do it!

Neverending Story (2001–2002)

Neverending Story Should Have Never Ended!

[26 May 2004]

Tales From The Neverending Story was a really great series that started from the same premise as the film, but took it in a completely different direction. In the movie, most of the action took place in Fantasia. In the real world, Bastien sat in the attic of his school and read a book about the adventures of Atreyu. In the TV series, the action doesn't just take place in Fantasia. Bastien has adventures in the real world too. At first, they're the type of adventures a normal kid would have, but they get weirder and weirder, because as the series progresses, the book becomes more real, and some characters from Fantasia start to invade the real world. One of them is Gmork, a great funny/scary character -- sometimes he's a werewolf, sometimes he's the worst substitute teacher in the world. And then there's Xayide, the totally Dark Princess, beautiful and way over the top. Both Xayide and Gmork are after Bastien, so along with normal problems with teachers, friends and his Dad, he has to contend with evil forces from another world. Near the end of the series, Xayide starts sending children to the real world to do her dirty work, and even lures one of Bastien's friends into Fantasia and turns her to the dark side. And that's barely scraping the surface. Like I said, a great series.

Blackfly (2001–2002)

Another great show canceled!

[26 May 2004]

Blackfly was a great, under-rated Canadian comedy. It was as funny as anything on TV at the time, and if it had been an American show, we'd still be watching it. It had that dark anything goes underdog's point of view, sort of like a period version of Trailer Park Boys, another hilarious Canadian TV series. The big difference? Blackfly was set in the 1700s, and maybe TV viewers just can't wrap their heads around the concept of a historical comedy. But the jokes and situations in Blackfly were totally fresh and contemporary. The creator of the show, Ron James is a terrific standup comedian, and he did a good job of translating his stand-up persona into a sitcom context. Shauna Black, as Lady Hammond, a reluctant pioneer with a very active libido, was hilarious; James Kees was sharp and funny as the fort manager; Sherie Maracle (Misty Moon) and Lorne Cardinal (Chief Smack Your Face In) did an amazing job playing 1700s' Natives as bewildered suburbanites; Richard Donat, the fort commander, was as loony as anything you could imagine on TV; Marcel Jeanin, as a voyageur, stole every scene he was in; and Colin Mochrie (Colin Mochrie!) was totally endearing and hilarious as a hapless British officer. They should play re-runs of this show, endlessly, until viewers finally get it!

Lassie (1997– )

Way to go, Lassie!

[26 May 2004]

This was a really good show; it stayed true to the original series, but updated it in a million subtle ways. The main character was still called Timmy, but Corey Sevier played him as a modern kid who just happened to have a fantastic dog. The rest of the cast was solid too -- Susan Almgren as Mom, Walter Massey as Doc Stewart, Tod Fennel as Timmy's best friend, Nathalie Vansier as --gasp! -- Timmy's girlfriend, and Chip Chiupka as the tenderhearted junkyard guy. There was a lot of humour in the stories; the series dealt with a lot of issues a normal kid would face -- like bullies, school problems, social issues -- but when it did straight dog-adventure stories, it did them with a big wink to the old series. Timmy actually falls in a hole, and Lassie goes for help -- but not in a way you'd ever expect. There were a lot of animal stories -- Timmy's Mom is a vet -- and they usually took some pretty strange twists; a baby goose thought Lassie was its Mom; Timmy and Jeff tried to impress a girl by raising chickens, but Hank's hawk kept killing them; Nathalie lost a boa-constrictor; Timmy and his Mom mistook a bat-infestation for ghosts; and my all time favourite, only Lassie could communicate with the aliens responsible for a series of crop circles!