Clark Duke: Awesome, or Super-Awesome?

By now, you guys know I love me some Clark Duke. He rocked my summer with both Clark and Michael AND his consistently scene-stealing (show-stealing?) performance as Dale on Greek. And who could forget his memorable turn as "Party Teenager #1" in Superbad?

Well, ABC Family has a funny video up on their site in which Clark and Trevor Moore (from The Whitest Kids U'Know) are unleashed at Comic-Con with a camera, a microphone, and a couple of ideas for awesome, awesome superheroes. Zach Quinto from Heroes is one of several special guests!


[Via Pop Candy]

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Greek: Lies and the lying liars who tell them

Man, tonight's season finale certainly was action-packed! And as usual, we learned a valuable lesson from the good folks at Greek, this time about how lying is bad and prone to backfiring. Mostly. Except when it's kind of not. Thanks, Greek!

The trouble largely stems from a big expose on the Greek system and its partying, sex-crazed ways published in the campus newspaper (Dale: "Finally the liberal media gets something right." HA!). After the Dean of Students announces that everyone's on triple secret probation, Frannie's all for a witch hunt to find the "rat" feeding stories to the paper, until Casey points out that most of the examples published had to do with Zeta Beta Zeta, thus making their sorority the most likely source of vermin.

And (gasp!) Jen K is the rat! She fesses up to Rusty that she's been undercover all year for the school newspaper, which is quite competitive and goes for flashy articles. He's really upset, especially since he and his sister's personal lives were (albeit anonymously) described in the article. But, okay, I one hundred percent don't buy that the AP would be picking up this article for national syndication. I mean, how shocking could sex, cheating, and drinking possibly be in a large school's Greek system? That's hardly newsworthy, let alone on the national wires. But whatever. Casey and Frannie are also understandably upset when they find out, especially since a national representative from the sorority (played by Charisma Carpenter!) is coming to see if they deserve to keep their charter. Frannie tries to chalk it up to Jen K being a pathological liar, against Casey's advice.

Casey and Ashleigh lure Cordelia to a "Greek-Free Zone" (a poetry reading), and Casey lays some truth on her, agreeing to take the fall in order to save the chapter. Of course, this selflessness pays off (as it always seems to on television), and Cordelia ends up removing Frannie as president and installing Casey in the interim. Frannie and Casey have officially moved from frenemies to enemies, especially after Frannie goes to Evan and tells him that Casey stayed with him for political reasons after he cheated on her, and is totally still into Cappie. Evan doesn't take this very well, especially after Casey admits to kissing Cappie, and breaks it off with Casey. Fair enough, I suppose, although it's kind of ridiculous to see him getting all holier-than-thou when his cheating caused all these issues. "You jerk, you stuck with me solely for political gain after I cheated on you" just doesn't seem that sympathetic to me, somehow. I mean, not to use the obvious and dated example, but I don't think anyone's all, "Poor Bill--Hillary only stayed with him after he hooked up with an intern to keep up her image."

Aaanyway, in the meantime Casey has convinced an uncertain Rusty to break it off with Jen K. He wonders what makes this situation different from the situation when Evan cheated on her, and Casey claims it's because Jen K betrayed his friends and family as well as just him. I kind of think Casey might be using that as an excuse to keep Rusty from making the same mistake she made by staying with Evan. So this episode leaves Jen K sad, friendless, and boyfriendless, all because she lied to get ahead.

However, ABC Family would also like us to see the dangers of not lying, because family programming is all about the mixed messages. You see, Ashleigh, somehow, hasn't gotten the 411 on Calvin's sexuality, and awkwardly and horribly tries to seduce him after breaking up with Travis. So! Uncomfortable! At first, it seems like a total "don't lie to your friends about your sexuality because it will only end in awful, awful awkwardness" moral, but after Ashleigh gets over her embarrassment and decides to be a friend to Calvin, she accidentally outs him to his fraternity. Um, yikes. So...keep on lying to friends who are too ditzy to be trusted with secrets? Calvin's furious at Ashleigh, and the brothers are really uncomfortable and quiet around him until he just takes off his pin and leaves. Aww.

Finally, in his last night on campus before heading home for the semester break, Rusty stumbles upon Cappie and Rebecca Logan in bed at the frat house. EW. So to recap: Casey and Evan - broken up. Cappie: Just slept with Casey's sworn enemy. Rusty: Totally knows about it and is going on a ten-hour road trip home with Casey. Hmm...something tells me that the second season premiere in '08 might be a bit explosive. I kind of can't wait.

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Greek: A passive-aggressive throwdown

Tonight on Greek, passive-aggressive behavior was at an all-time high. And, for the record, it didn't pay off. So I wouldn't bother with that note you're about to leave for your messy roommate--it'll probably just turn into an escalating prank war, or backfire and make everything think you're a jerk.

First up on the passive-aggressive train are Dale and Rusty, who are having the oldest roommate conflict in the book, with a bit of a twist: Rusty wants the room to himself now and then so that he and Jen can hook up more often, but Dale's against sinning and all, so he's not really on board. Oh, Dale. Being sexiled is like a rite of passage freshman year of college! But fair enough--I guess you bring moral objections to the table as well as logistical ones. Anyway, at first Dale agrees to vanish for an evening so that Rusty and Jen K can do the nasty.

However, when Rusty ditches Dale at a nerd lecture, Dale gets all jealous and passive-aggressive, angrily denouncing the presence of Rusty's milk in his fridge and filling the fridge with his own, labeled milk. Rusty fights back in what becomes a war of passive-aggression at a level previously unknown to man. They're typing loudly, people, and tapping their feet against the bed!!! Dale finally bites the bullet and tells Rusty that he feels like Rusty is throwing their friendship out the window, and Rusty replies that they're not friends at all, just roommates. OUCH. Happily, Jen K patiently reminds Rusty that he and Dale are, in fact, friends, despite Dale's conservative religious views, so those two crazy kids are able to work it out and stay roommates. Phew. Rusty clearly handled this situation better than I did with my (first semester only...) freshman year roommate, though to be fair, my roommate and I were not at all friends, and she called my music "satanic" in the first conversation we ever had. (For the record, it was Moby.)

In other passive-aggressive news, we have an ugly situation at ZBZ. It's the time of the year when the "Omega Chi Sweetheart" is elected from the sorority ranks, an honor which is apparently mandatory for any incoming ZBZ president. (So, does ZBZ win every year, then?) At any rate, Casey is selected as the ZBZ finalist, which leads to much screaming and jumping up and down. However, Frannie (the current ZBZ president) is apparently in need of a few extra credits to graduate, and thus will be remaining in school for a fifth year. Aaaand, she decides to run for Sweetheart again, and gets very, very unhappy when Casey refuses to drop out of the race.

Thus, Frannie resorts to passive-aggressive warfare, which becomes openly aggressive when she calls a plumber and puts Casey's name on the work order, thus trapping Casey at the house during the Sweetheart ceremony until the plumbing work is completed. How Cinderella! Luckily, Jen K is able to help with the plumbing (riiight...), and Casey is able to attend the ceremony after all. She gives a really guilt-inducing speech about passing the torch and having a selfless mentor for all things Greek, and wins the vote for Sweetheart (oh-so shockingly). Frannie, it seems, wasn't too touched by the speech, either, and the race for next year's president is ON.

Last but most certainly not least, Cappie participates in a psychology experiment which entails sitting in a room for 30 hours with Rebecca Logan while she administers tests that I thought I'd never have to hear about again after I finished my psychology major. Nothing much happens (we learn that Cappie apparently has hippie parents and an embarrassing real name), though Cappie and Rebecca are getting along fairly well by the end of the experiment. Cappie uses his earnings to pay Casey back for last week's strip club bailout. Aww...he really does care!

And that's it for the penultimate episode--next week is the season finale, so start psyching yourself up now! From the preview, it looks like there will be some heavy drama.

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Greek: Love stinks

This week on Greek, we learn valuable lessons about love, virtue, strip clubs, and IMing one's roommates. Ah, college. I'd have to say, however, that the true theme of tonight's episode was "Clark Duke is Awesome." Man, his brief appearance in Superbad was such a tease!

Before we get to Clark and his awesomeness, we begin with Rusty and his anti-awesomeness. The poor guy decides he wants to drop the L-bomb on his girlfriend, Jen K, after only three weeks of dating. (Kind of her bad too, since she brought up the fact that she hated how she had to initiate everything romantic with her high school boyfriend.) YIKES. As anticipated by anyone with half a brain, his declaration of love is awkward, awkward, awkward, and goes over like a lead balloon. Not the right time, not the right delivery, just Not Right. Poor, humiliated Rusty is ready to give up on girls forever, until Cappy takes him (and the rest of the frat plus Calvin) out to "The Lunch Buffet," which turns out to be a strip club. Eww. And Calvin makes a very fair point about the bills currently being tucked into the strippers' G-strings subsequently going back into circulation. EWW.

After calling Jen K from the strip club and hanging up on her (oops), Rusty gets up the courage to basically un-love her, and then somehow sweetly proposition her. Only Rusty could be so awkward and yet so smooth. He gets a happy ending when he and Jen K decide that they "think they might" love each other. Seriously? 3 weeks? These kids are bananas. Adorable, but bananas.

On the unhappier side of the spectrum, Calvin and his "he-friend" are having issues. After a fight about bowling, Calvin's boy cheats on him (can't wait to find out with whom), and suggests to Calvin that it wasn't really cheating because they were in a "loose" relationship. Uncool. Calvin, of course, refuses to discuss it further, and storms off to supposedly play the field. Aww. Poor Calvin. And poor Cappy, who is so broken up over his failed efforts with Casey that he gets totally bombed at the strip club after cleaning the frat house from top to bottom. Double aww.

Casey has her own problems to deal with, because the life of a Sorority Superhero is never an easy one. In charge of her sorority's philanthropy efforts, she organizes a musical performance at a "Bible Bunch" after-school program run by Dale (yes, awesome), who seems to have a bit of a crush on Casey. Unfortunately, Ashleigh isn't in the mood to help her out after TravisGate, going so far as to partner up with Rebecca Logan (whose character they do seem to be working on, finally) instead. Even more unfortunately, we don't get to see the final musical product, which apparently involves a giant sexy bee, Marie Antoinette, and dental hygiene. At least we get to see Dale's "Darwin Lied" band perform in a guitar-shredding avalanche of hilariously religious awesomeness. In the end, Casey finds out that Ashleigh is still seeing Travis, and decides to support her friend instead of remaining in the hypocritical judging brigade. Good move, Casey.

Finally, congratulations to Amber Stevens (Ashleigh) for her appearance on Go Fug Yourself. You've really made it now, Amber! (Even if it was just Random Fug.)

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Greek: Like warm apple pie

Every time I watch Greek, I feel like an anthropologist observing a totally alien culture. Lavaliering? Letters? Candle-passing ceremonies? Complete with songs?! Luckily, Rusty is as clueless as I am, and serves well as Bringer of the Exposition. At any rate, the show and its characters are growing on me every week, especially this week, given Princess Rebecca Logan's total absence. Here's hoping it becomes a permanent one, or that she's in some sort of cartoonish villain rehab program. Another plus? Tons of Cappy! Cappy + Casey 4 evah u guyz!!!1! Man, I wish those two crazy kids could just work it out. Stupid Evan and his pie-hating ways...

But wow, I guess Ashleigh's boyfriend Travis really makes Evan look like an amateur in the obnoxious privileged frat jerk department. Partly because Evan's character is becoming more and more three-dimensional (take note, Rebecca!), but partly because Travis is a complete turd. That said, I'm not sure I'm buying the Latin-speaking throwdown at the bar. I mean, really? With everyone cheering? Even though they weren't saying anything clever, and the crowd probably couldn't understand any of it until Cappy's final "smackdown"? Bananas. I'm also a bit unconvinced with the comparison the writers are apparently trying to draw between secretly being gay and secretly staying with a jerk boyfriend. But whatev--small complaints in the sweet, Cappyful scheme of things.

On the non-Cappy front, I'm really hoping next week isn't a whole "Rusty confesses about the cheating, thus earning the respect of his professor (who probably already knew) and a retake on the test." Because that would be Lame. But I have faith in Greek and its nonlameness, because Greek gave us Cappy. And Dale! Who wasn't in this episode enough, but whose Aura of Awesome lights up the whole show.

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Greek: Losing it

I have to say, I'm officially liking this show way more than I probably should, given that it was supposed to be trashy summer fare. This week is all about sex, baby. Rusty's looking to turn in his v-card, Evan's looking to have sex with Casey, Casey's looking to not have sex with Evan, and Calvin's still looking for a few good men (or just the one, I suppose).

First off, I feel the need to ask: Do people actually hook up on pool tables, couches, etc. in the middle of crowded frat houses? Because if so, gross! Second off, do sorority girls actually invite frats to mixers using choreographed dances in their underwear? Because if so, also kind of gross. And finally, would one frat brother actually let another frat brother use his bed for sex? That's true brotherhood, right there.

Seems like the rollercoaster saga of Casey and Evan not having sex, possibly having sex, and then still not having sex has reached its conclusion. I'm kind of (again) grossed out by the idea that Casey has to sleep with Evan for the sake of her sorority (that's unrealistic, right? ...Right?), but I'm still loving her character in general. And after this week, Evan's actually (gasp!) growing on me a little. Although Casey's makeover of Rusty into Evan-lite was, as Cappie pointed out, all kinds of creepy.

Poor Rusty, though! All he's doing is trying to find a date to his frat's event, and Cappie hooks him up with a virgin surgeon? Rusty was clearly not ready for Lisa "the virgin whisperer." So that plot was a bit predictable, if amusing. In particular, I really enjoyed Cappie's sermon on dating, which involved evolution (much to Dale's dismay, I'd imagine), and compared women to "unicorns with breasts." If only, Cappie. If only. Man, Cappie's awesome.

Also awesome is Ashley, Casey's sorority sister and BFF. She's cute, she's funny, she's energetic--she reminds me of Madeline and Louise from Gilmore Girls, but perkier. Her analogies, however, leave something to be desired. Saying that Evan needs to be "McDreamy, not McSteamy," and hold off sleeping with Casey for a while is at best misinformed. Note to Ashley: McDreamy and Meredith slept together in the first episode of Grey's Anatomy. Like, as soon as they met. Ah, well. And rounding out the awesomeness category this week is Dale (Calvin just missed out). Dale's quote of the week: "Sex before marriage is like slapping God in the face." (Closely followed by the Wonder Twins impression by his abstinence club.)

Mad props, incidentally, to Greek for featuring Plain White T’s. I love “Hey There Delilah,” so yay! So what did you guys think? Can this show cross the line from trashy summer fun into semi-worthwhile viewing?

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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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Greek: It's all Greek to me

Greek, ABC Family's latest non-family friendly offering, stars Jacob Zachar as Rusty, a nerdy engineering freshman who wants to join a fraternity for the "real college experience." The show is basically a dramedy about the Greek system. As it happens, I intentionally attended a college that was somewhat lacking in the sorority/fraternity department, so I bring to the table absolutely no firsthand knowledge regarding the accuracy (or lack thereof) of Greek. However, I have seen Animal House, Old School, and a number of Veronica Mars episodes about the Greek system, so I consider myself to be basically an expert.

Now where was I? We have Rusty the nerd, and his sister Casey, a junior at his school (Cyprus-Rhodes University, har har har). Casey, incidentally, is played by Kelsey Grammar's surprisingly good-looking daughter. She carries high hopes of becoming president of her fancy-pants sorority, Zeta Beta Zeta, which is apparently "the most prestigious honor offered at this college," and makes one "campus royalty." Um, okay, whatever you say. She's managed to keep her geeky brother's existence hidden thus far, but now that he goes to her college, that's becoming a bit difficult. Especially what with his insisting upon pledging fraternities and all.

The two main fraternities we meet are Omega Chi, the hottie-laden, well-respected frat; and Kappa Tau, which is probably on double-secret probation. Casey is currently dating Evan, a well-bred member (and possibly president?) of Omega Chi. She used to be dating Cappie, Kappa Tau's super-cute slacker president. Evan, unfortunately, is a bit of a cad. When Rusty catches him hooking up with Rebecca, a Senator's daughter and a Zeta pledge, Evan offers Rusty a coveted Omega bid to keep him quiet. Our hero cannot be bought, though, and not only sells Evan out to Casey, but gets into an awkwardly scripted/directed bar fight with him. Drama!

This leaves Rusty pledging Kappa Tau, the fun fraternity. This also leaves Casey hooking up with Cappie, thus making her even with Evan, whom she can't break up with for political reasons. Basically, she's the Hillary Clinton of the Cyprus-Rhodes Greek system. That is, if Hillary ever got mad at Bill and hooked up with George Bush (representing the party-loving rival president in this case). Right. Moving on.

A couple of supporting characters also merit some special attention. First, we have Calvin, Rusty's newest pal and fellow rush participant. Calvin is funny, smooth, and a complete validation of my gaydar. Next, we've got Dale, Rusty's Confederate flag-hanging, high five-refusing roommate, who calls Rusty "a Yankee and a heathen." He actually reminds me of my first college roommate. Dale is played by the incredibly awesome Clark Duke, of the incredibly awesome Clark and Michael, Clark's internet comedy with his good friend Michael Cera, whom you may remember from a little show called The Best Comedy That Ever Was (also sometimes called Arrested Development).

I came into this show hoping it would be easily mockable trashy summer fun, Falcon Beach-style. And while it is certainly trashy summer fun, it's trashy in that semi-quality way, like (come on, you knew this was coming) The OC. Something I might actually (gasp) watch for pleasure. Although it you take Clark Duke out of the equation, the scales might tip a bit in the other direction.

Oh, and if any of you have any thoughts you'd like to share regarding this show's depiction of your precious Greek memories, drop some knowledge on me in the comments. (Sample topics: Is Rush Week really this much of an absurd beauty pageant, with the recommendation letters and all? Do those wooden paddles really exist, and are they for spanking pledges? Would a nerd like Rusty ever get bids at those two frats in real life?)

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