nishka19

About so much more than just a sport, Friday Night Lights brought rich, real characters to our screens, dealing with everyday life in a small community that just happened to really, really love football, and focusing on a family who truly cared for the town and the teens growing up in it – even though they didn’t always get the same respect back.

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”

Based on the Sara Shepard book series of the same name, Pretty Little Liars kicked off during the summer of 2010, doing the oft-impossible. Its numbers actually went slightly up for its second episode! Yes, there was nothing hotter on ABC Family than these four girls in a small town with a very large secret. With the first finale numbers topping 3 million, ABC Family struck television gold, and they struck it in all the right demos.

Many have made adult allusions to Desperate Housewives because of the noir tone, the mystery backbone and four women at the center, and I’d have to concur. For all the reasons that I adored season one’s DH storyline of why Mary Alice committed suicide, I fell head first into the unraveling of why Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer’s friend Alison died and who the mystifying “A” could be.

There hasn’t been a teen show so dark and intriguing, in my opinion, since season one of Veronica Mars. (It doesn’t hold a candle; VMars is bible, folks.) But it has certainly proven a contender, and somehow I wasn’t endlessly annoyed that the mystery wasn’t wrapped up in a pretty, little bow at the end of the summer season.

Normally, I can’t stand a long, drawn out mystery, but if done properly, I get pleasure from sitting on the edge of my seat, week after week. (See: Lost) Pretty Little Liars does just that, though I could do without the overdone teacher-student love story.

I had a strange obsession with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, a book about gymnasts and figure skaters, which was turned into a 1997 Lifetime made-for-TV movie. The movie depicted the heartbreaking tale of sacrifice, physically and often mentally and emotionally, that gymnasts go through to attain Olympic Gold. So when ABC Family announced a similar TV show, I jumped for joy.

Make It or Break It isn’t as dramatic and dark, but it certainly touches on similar issues. At the center of it all are Payson, Kaylie, Lauren and Emily, the four best gymnasts at The Rock, a Colorado gym. All are training to be future Olympians, and each is as different as day and night. Their friendship doesn’t just get them through the hard falls and the heavy losses. Their support transcends to relationships, parental divorces and financial struggles.

Now, this wouldn’t be a teen soap if there wasn’t boyfriend stealing and backstabbing, but for once, it’s kind of nice to not see kids in their school hallways. This show centers around young women who do what most
consider the impossible and somehow manage to bear that huge amount of pressure.

Debuting in 2007, Greek focuses on Rusty (Jacob Zachar) and Casey Cartwright (Spencer Grammer), a brother and sister who attend Cyprus-Rhodes University. Both are members of a fraternity and sorority, but it’s not just about Greek life.

The stories are about growing up and becoming adults, figuring out who you are and who you want to be. It’s a sudsy drama, but at its core, it’s a light-hearted, comical show that reminds me fondly of my college years.

Maybe I have a connection because I remember the not so wonderful and the slight awesome parts about being a sorority sister. But regardless of what drew me to watching the show, it’s the talented, young cast, sharp writing and a good vibrations-type of feeling that keeps me invested. I always walk away with the sentiment that your friends are also truly members of your family.

Seriously, I’m not a fan of adult gross, animated humor. I was into South Park for about a season before I couldn’t handle it anymore, and I’m sure, by now, I’d be utterly too disgusted to even make it through an episode. I also thought Beavis and Butthead were just dumb.

But there are cartoons like Daria, Family Guy, and Home Movies that I find to be smart and quirky and witty and just hysterical. Since those, I haven’t found a cartoon that I can watch on a weekly basis, until Archer. It’s dirty, it’s ridiculous, and it’s a complete parody, but it’s done so well.

We all knew Work It had a short shelf life from the jump, but Smash was going to be something different. Yes, it was risky. But Glee had proven that niche genres can break through on television if their smart and different enough. Glee’s star may have dimmed since its debut, but Smash’s Broadway lights never got any power.

The songs were a little too generic, though there were some sleepers produced. The guest spots never really generated any buzz, and most were given boring characters. (Poor Uma Thurman without her Tarantino!) Megan Hilty broke out, but she was never the lead, and the lead Katherine McPhee never popped off the screen. To doubt that she could ever be Marilyn Monroe, when she was supposed to be the protagonist we were rooting for, is never a good sign. And this is coming from someone who loves most musicals and even owns the soundtracks to both Camp Rocks.

At least the Hollywood Foreign Press showed them some love.

The CW hasn’t had a great track record with fun and interesting concepts. Still, they’ve kept me holding on with the work that’s been done on shows like Supernatural and Arrow. The Carrie Diaries tried to piggyback off of Gossip Girl’s end and bring us a new young girl rushing towards her destiny and desires in the big city.

AnnaSophia Robb plays a teenage Carrie Bradshaw just as she starts chasing her fashion dreams while also dealing with school and guys and girlfriends. It may not be as saucy as its adult counterpart, but it was adorable and plucky and a lot of fun to watch one of my favorite characters grow up.

A show that I can talk about is usually a show that’ll keep me interested, and Girls made me laugh, cry, cringe, and gag while wondering what the hell I’m watching and why the hell relate to these self-absorbed and spoiled 20-somethings sometimes.

Lena Dunham writes funny, real dialogue even when the situations seem completely absurd. She’s brought to the forefront confused characters, not yet adults, but no longer cute kids. That hasn’t done well in a TV landscape that would rather show 90210 bikinis or Gossip Girl Upper East Side shenanigans.

I also appreciate her character Hannah’s complete comfort in her body and her sexuality, even when I don’t really want to see it. I can’t keep my eyes off it! At the same time, those self-absorbed and spoiled 20-somethings are also as deep as they seem vapid. Even if what they say doesn’t make sense to me, I can feel their unwavering belief in it. They care about each other, dysfunctionally but so honestly.

Another show trying to mix it up with a little sudsiness, murder and mystery. Deception stars Meagan Good as Joanna Locasto, a cop and former best friend of a recently murdered socialite named Vivian Bowers.

When her ex-partner calls in a favor, Joanna finds herself undercover and back in the Bowers’ home, where she grew up as a kid. The number of secrets she could uncover is endless. This is Days of Our Lives if it tried to do a The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo arc.

Bunheads is no Gilmore Girls, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something witty and sweet about Paradise, a small town filled with aspiring ballerinas, and Michelle, the ex-Vegas dancer who found herself connecting with the studio-running mother of the man she loved and lost in basically a day.

I was sad for Michelle when she essentially maced and ruined The Nutcracker and became Paradise’s town leper. I teared up when Hubbell appeared to her in a dream, telling her that she was meant to bring a little change to the small town. And, I literally cried when her little ballerinas jumped on their chairs in solidarity and said, “O Captain! My Captain!” And I laughed all the way to getting there.

With the relationship between Michelle, Fanny, and the four teen ballerinas at the core, I’m not sure if Paradise will ever be paradise for the smart, dry, dance loving city girl, but it does feel like home.