Change Your Image
elliotrupert
Reviews
Eve (2003)
Well, this show won't last long...
The acting is dry, the plots are predictable and the jokes are dated. Also, Eve is a better actor than most rappers but she can't carry a whole sitcom. She should stick to small roles in movies like she's been doing. If this show was on a major network like FOX, it would have been canceled by now but since it's on UPN, it'll last the whole season.
The Magic Hour (1998)
Wack "Arsenio" reject
1998 was the year of all of these pathetic Arsenio knock-offs (this show, Keenan Ivory Wayans' show and VIBE). The jokes were average and Magic had no interviewing skills. This show made The Byron Allen Show look like a masterpiece. At least Magic has a better job now running his record label.
In Living Color (1990)
Nothing lasts forever
I was 12 when this show came on Sunday nights (after The Simpsons maybe, I'm not sure), and this show was the talk of junior high school on Monday morning (I even remembered when they had to change their logo after getting sued by black rockers Living Color who had a similar logo). Keenan Ivory Wayans was a comedic genius and he brought his family and friends to bring us an urban version of "Saturday Night Live". Many careers started from this show (i.e., Fly Girl dancers Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez, Jamie Foxx, James "Jim" Carrey, Damon Wayans) as well as many catch phrases ("Homey don't play that", "I'll rock your world", "Hated it", "Lemme show you something!!", and the list goes on).
"In Living Color" made fun of American culture and while there are too many standout sketches to name, one example is a play off of a sitcom called "A Different World" named "A Different Message" (Kim Wayans sang the theme song: "It's a different message/And we'll shove it down your throat!"). Here, whenever a character said a "black power"-type message, everyone around him/her would applaud. You had to watch "A Different World" to get the jokes.
As with all sketch comedies, the laughter didn't last. Actors start leaving (in this case, the Wayans clan) and the hilarity declined with each Wayans' departure. The jokes and the recurring characters were getting old, especially Jamie Foxx's "Wanda" who became more a bathroom break during the course of the show, and the series ended. You used to be able to see reruns on FX, but perhaps due to its dated quality, that stopped also.
Cedric the Entertainer Presents (2002)
Maybe it deserved to be canceled
Not as funny as Dave Chappelle's show but a lot better than Wayne Brady's, Cedric's show made me chuckle a few times, but he and his ensemble can't carry a whole half-hour show. Characters like the Cafeteria Lady got old before the sketch ended. However, it was good for Jerry Minor to get work again after getting fired from SNL. Still, the Flip Wilson days have come and gone, you know what I mean?
Soul Food (2000)
This is the last season? Good.
The show started out weak, then got better during the second season, then started getting silly again. The only reason that I watched this show was because Boris Kodjoe (Damon) was a good actor. The reason why I hated this show was because you could watch an episode (let's say the fifth episode of the season) and at the end the announcer will say something like, "See you in a few months!" The show is too inconsistent. If this is their last season, then good riddance.
Sorority Life (2002)
Can somebody say, "As if!!"? How about "Not even!!"
I watched this show a number of times and it is so stupid that I stopped soon after. Being a college graduate who was in a fraternity in school, I know a thing or two about "pledging". There are so many examples that I can give that fall underneath either the "Oh, Please" category or the "If This Were a Black Sorority, It Would Have Happened Like This" category.
First of all, the pledges are knowingly parting and getting drunk almost every night while the pledgemasters catch them and hardly reprimand them. They just basically say, "They may be ruining our image." Man, if I were to sneak out during my rush, I would have been gotten dealt with for sure! But what really gets me is that the pledges break all these rules (i.e., drinking, having boys over, breaking curfew), and they wonder why the big sisters are being mean to them??
If you still watch this show, stop it. You're only encouraging MTV to keep airing this show and maybe make another season of it. Even non-Greeks can look at the show and tell you it's fake. This soap opera-esque show highly glamorizes the rush process (they don't show everything, possibly because it would take the mystique away from the who process), so if you want to really know how sorority life is, join one instead.
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972)
Very so-so cartoon
I only saw these episodes in syndication and it only adds to the theory of how generic some of the animation in Hanna-Barbera cartoons were back in the 1970s. In another "Scooby-Doo" rip-off (even though it was based on Charlie Chan movies), "The Amazing Chan..." always had a mystery to solve where Chan's kids would figure out the mystery and Chan himself would add the finishing touches. But the most generic element of this cartoon (other than the tendency for the characters to pass the same scenery whenever they're running or riding in a car) was to see the kids play in the band. They were always moving the same way while different songs were playing (notice the two kids in the back playing horns and trumpets but you hear none of those instruments, as well as the girl playing the tambourines; same goes for the guy just tapping the drums and the lead singer just moving his/her lips, not matching any of the lyrics). Maybe kids weren't supposed to notice these things, but hey, I did.