So as everyone who knows me knows, I am a fiend for the Disney Channel. To this day, I still think Life With Derek is the most enjoyable thing Canada has offered the world since.....
......hold on......
.....give me a second.....
....just.......let me think.....
Okay, anywho, Life With Derek is pretty fucking awesome. But I digress.
Sonny With A Chance, which debuts February 8th, follows the classic show-within-a-show template that has become so en vogue lately. The show stars this Demi Lovato chick, who made a name for herself by singing it up in the Disney Channel movie Camp Rock, starring alongside new age boy band wonderkids the Jonas Brothers.
I won't waste anytime in this post with my own personal assessment of the brothers Jonas. Although I will say that "Video Girl" is a hot ass song. See, I don't hate everything.
So the question on everyone's mind: is the world really ready for Disney's take on 30 Rock? Well, if it's anything like Disney Channel's current line-up of programming, the world is in for yet another painfully unfunny tween sitcom. Disney has made a name for themselves lately with this type of offering, with shows like Hannah Montana, The Suite Life Of Rosemary's Children, and Cory Needs To Get The Fuck Out Of My House.
This is not to sound like some sort of TV snob. I will admit to laughing every once and a while at a joke in one of these programs, but for the most part, Disney Channel's current lineup is depressingly dreadful.
Now, look, I know what you're thinking: "But Anonymous Blogger, the shows aren't targeted at your demographic."
And I understand that. But that doesn't give these shows any excuse to suck this much ass. Flash back a few years, and you'll find a time where shows targeted at this same demographic had a lot more going for them. Shows like Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series All That, and Disney's own The Famous Jett Jackson, So Weird, Even Stevens, and The Jersey were all quality programs, regardless of who the demographic was. I catch clips of these shows nowadays, and I still find myself enjoying them immensely.
So the question is: why the hell are these new shows so fucking awful?
Answer: The laugh track.
When you take a step back and look at what the Disney Channel is offering nowadays, it's actually quite fascinating. In a time where the multi-camera sitcom is a dying art in network primetime lineups, the Disney Channel has filled their programming schedule with nothing but multi-camera sitcoms.
It makes a lot of sense when you really think about it. Multi-camera shows are known to be much cheaper to produce than single camera series, thus making it a smart economic move. The death of the multi-cam sitcom in primetime has had more to do with a creative shift than an economic one, but Disney has found a gold mine in their rebirth of the genre by focusing on characters who share many of the same problems as their target audience. However, they set the shows in more fantastical situations.
Hannah Montana deals with plenty of tween girl issues, but sets it in the world of pop music, complete with celebrity cameos and references galore. That's So Raven is about a group of annoying ass high school kids, but the lead character has psychic powers which allow her to see when shit is about to hit the fan.
Much like how the recent wave of comic book adaptations has focused on real, flesh and blood characters steeped in extraordinary situations, Disney Channel has found a niche in providing tweens with tween-centric stories, but with the twist of Disney magic. The shows are light, colorful and fluffy, and keep 'em coming back for more.
And hey, when you're able to attract A-list talent like Bill Ray Cyrus to headline your show, you know you've got a good thing going.
So while I despise 99% of what the channel offers, I do have to give the Disney Channel a heck of a lot of credit for what they've been able to do over the past four or five years. Although, I'm pretty sure Sonny With A Chance is gonna suck a whole lot of ass.
PS: Mr. Moseby is fucking hysterical:
Posts
