Oh it's already been broughten!

Pilot review: Hellcats

I'm going to be honest, I expected this to be the first in a long line of shows that I wouldn't watch past the pilot. I didn't expect to hate it so much as to be bored and uninterested. Based on the TWoP review, I also expected the main character to be downright intolerable due to appallingly bad acting. But the thing is, I liked this. It was fun to watch, I want to see the next episode, and Aly Michalka isn't good but she isn't really any worse than Eliza Dushku (and she's definitely not the charisma sucking black hole that is Nina Dobrev). So here's a quick breakdown.

What it has going for it:

• Cheerleading. It's generally fun to watch and I like that they're portraying these cheerleaders as actual athletes. And unlike wafer-thin Kirsten Dunst or Dianna Agron (sorry Dianna, I love you, but you're a twig), these girls actually look like they've got the bodies for it.
  
• Ashley Tisdale. 1) She looks great as a brunette. 2) She's way cuter than I ever gave her credit for on HSM (probably because she was overshadowed by Vanessa Hudgens' button-nosed adorableness). 3) And her character, Savannah, is just incredibly likable.
  
• Lewis. He's a hot guy who stands around shirtless. Honestly, I've said this before but I don't understand why the CW won't apply their male shirtlessness quotient to all their shows.
  

What i has going against it:

• Marti. It's not just that Aly Michalka is bad. It's also that she's written so annoyingly. I hate the TV version of an outsider. Of course she has a guitar. And what's with the knit finger glove things? It's like she's living in a totally different climate than the rest of the show. And that hip hop dancing stuff she does is what she's learned in the townie clubs? Does she live on the set of Step Up?
• Dan. Marti's townie guy friend: 1) looks more like a Malibu Ken than a blue collar Memphis kid, 2) is bland and that 80s camcorder he's hauling around doesn't help, and 3) will inevitably be the angst keeping Marti and Lewis apart.
  
• The adults. Apparently Marti's mom is so incompetent she can't even function as a human being without her daughter's help. I am really not looking forward to the angst that's obviously going to result from the cheerleading coach/football coach/Robin Wood (or Wayne Palmer, if you'd prefer) love triangle being set up. And why is Aaron Douglas even in this show?

So those are my thoughts. Since this is the first show of the year, I don't have a good sense of what the common elements might be, but I'll note a few things that seem noteworthy:

• voice over narration (seriously, again?)
• Memphis (or possibly just quirky, previously underrepresented city)
• main character who rides a bike (I just feel like this might be a thing)
• "1901" by Phoenix
• "Hey Soul Sister" by Train (or maybe it should just be a ukulele song category)

Okay, I've said a surprising amount about this little CW number and all without mentioning Bring It On, so I'm going to finish this up by saying that it's definitely no Bring It On, but it's still fun so I might watch next week.