Monday, July 16, 2007

Greek: Room to grow

Tonight on Greek, we learned how hard it is to try and be two things at once. We also learned that nerds can rock at beer pong, that hazing kind of sucks (but not that much, apparently), and that the best characters on the show are the most complex (really my moral more than the show's moral, I suppose). 'Cause is anyone else feeling like Rebecca Logan, the Senator's daughter, is a bit unrealistically horrible? I mean, come on--it's verging on laughable. On the other hand, I'm really loving Casey and Rusty, and their evolving relationship. Although I gotta say, as a big sister myself, I think Casey is being unrealistically cool about Rusty honing in on her Greek territory after only having a week or so to get used to it. Although it's possible my brother and I are slightly more competitive than Casey and Rusty, I guess.

I was pretty unimpressed with the hazing, or at least surprised by how tame it was compared to all the stories you hear. I mean, I know hazing is generally illegal, but I still thought it was all about drinking until you almost pass out and then going out and puncturing people's tires, or something. No? Not so much? Well, I at least thought it was more than a scavenger hunt, melting some ice, or doing laundry. To be fair, though, the scavenger hunt alone would probably be more than I could live through.

And ah, beer pong. Drinking game of champions. Pretty predictable choice for a frat-to-frat challenge, but I liked the twist that Rusty rocked at it because he was an Eagle Scouts ping pong champ. Poor Calvin, though! I actually had to get awesome at quarters in college just because I hated beer so much, and didn't want to lose and have to drink any. Disgust is a valuable motivator.

Clark Duke, unsurprisingly, continues to awesome it up. Even though this episode, with its predictable plots and cartoonish villains, didn't quite live up to the pilot, Clark Duke redeemed it and then some, managing to make Dale a funny fundamentalist without making the joke solely on fundamentalists. Another redeemer: Scott Foster (Cappie), whom I find completely adorable and who also manages to create complexity out of his seemingly stereotypical party guy role (take note, Dilshad Vadsaria).

Here's hoping the show continues to develop its characters and base the plot off of them, rather than turning into an Eighties Movie-style rivalry between fraternities, with Casey as the prize. At the very least, I think we're seeing some pretty solid talent being cultivated. At most, Greek will find its voice and live up to its potential, much like Rusty did in the beer pong competition. Okay, not at all like that. But you see what I'm saying. Right. So I give you a B, Greek, but if you go do your homework and work on your problem areas, you could turn that around to an A- in no time.

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