Privileged

At first glance, I assumed many people, including myself, thought this series was just one of "super rich girls do anything they want" stories. Fortunately, after watching 5 episodes now, this is certainly not the case. There were actually motives and backgrounds to the characters which I thought was one of the most forgotten aspects on creating this type of series.

It is true that this series is more close to Gilmore Girls than 90210 or Gossip Girl. I thought the dialog are witty and the characters are interesting, especially our main girl, Megan (played effortlessly by JoAnna Garcia). She is quite wise for her age, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have any flaws, in particular regarding her relationship with her sister.

Overall, I hope CW will pick up this series for a whole season, just because the story potential are endless and the characters are interesting. And for those reasons, I think Privileged is one of the best new series this fall.

Megan Smith (JoAnna Garcia) is a Yale-educated journalism major who was hoping for much more when she had a chance to see Palm Beach cosmetics business magnate Laurel Limoges (Anne Archer). Instead, she is offered a live-in tutoring job for her two spoiled grand-daughters Rose Baker (Lucy Hale) and Sage Baker (Ashley Newbrough).

The girls start off as spoiled, but it's obvious where this is going. Megan is going to teach them lessons, and they're going to grow on her. So any bickering or mean girl act is all simply just on the surface. I think everybody did a good job playing these standard characters. The series lasted only 1 season. It was probably good for 2 but not much more.

The best part about this show are the delicious men.

Sure, the Baker sisters are fairly entertaining albeit inconsistently so, as is Anne Archer in her posh, business Grandma role (she's the senior poster girl for lip gloss). We like Marco (Allan Louis) the in-house gourmet chef for his wit and irony, but Joanna Garcia (Megan) in the lead is just hands down - annoying.

Can she please stop twitching her head every time she says something (which is literally all the time)? Someone else commented on "Privileged" comparing it to "Gilmore Girls". Perhaps I should have read that before I started watching this show. There is no show on this planet more annoying than "Gilmore Girls". Joanna Garcia is not quite as annoying as those Gilmore girls, but she's quickly becoming my pet peeve of this show. Who knows, a few more episodes and she might be running for the gold medal of Most Annoying Protagonist.

So why watch it? Really. Three reasons, plain and simple.

*Charlie (Michael Cassidy) *Jacob (David Giuntoli) *Will (Brian Hallisay)

Yum, yum and yum. I want to marry Charlie.

the pilot is not very mind blowing and might not make you want to come back for more.. but anyone watching this series or Gilmore girls or gossip girl is not watching it because of the lessons you can learn but because its light hearted and easy flowing... after 5 episodes, i think i want to see at least a full season..of this... it might not last as long as 5 seasons.. but am guessing its going to grow into its own..

the story lacks depth now, but considering its still in its infancy stages, i hope to see it become deeper, if it doesn't, i should stop watching it then.. until then.. its quite OK.. i gave it a six because i would love to see what happens after... it probably would have made a better movie.. not enough story for a series!

Network: CW; Genre: Teen Drama; Content Rating: TV-PG (some language and suggested sex); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

Part a star vehicle for the adorable Joanna Garcia ("Reba") and part an adaptation of Zoey Dean's book "How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls", "Privileged" as a bubbly, agreeable even addicting guilty pleasure. The show starts promising and then does all it can to let the air out of all the fun.

Garcia stars as highly-educated and seemingly unemployable college grad Megan who is presented with an opportunity of a lifetime. In exchange for tutoring Ann Archer's spoiled daughters, Sage (Ashley Newbrough) and Rose (Lucy Hale), she gets to live in a gorgeous Malibu mansion, drive a sports car, hang out with her best friend Charlie (Michael Cassidy) and get advice from the mansion's chef Marco (Allan Louis), who serves as the show's all-knowing advice-giver for Megan.

Starting with what I like about "Privileged", the greatness of casting Garcia in the role cannot be underplayed. Her personality and buoyancy floats in and carries the show. Megan is cute and intellectual, but also thick-headed, judgmental and self-absorbed. She is not a good person, but she sure thinks she is. It's a more complex character balance than you'd expect from a show like this. But the rest of the cast doesn't quite stack up. Sage and Rose are the Legally Brunette figures who like their designer labels and boy toys and use those things to craft their own success – and naturally Megan succeeds in making them look a little bit deeper into what they want to be and do with their life. Archer is the usual hardass boss.

If this all sounds familiar to you, it felt that way to me too. "Privileged" can't just be a light guilty pleasure finding humor in girls and their toys in the lap of luxury. It can't just have fun in the sun with Megan, her romance with the neighbor stud Will (Brian Hallisay) who, of course, is in love with her and her BFF Charlie (Michael Cassidy), also in love with her, as I think "Privileged" would have played out best. Instead it settles into the type of relationship angst and familial melodrama you'd find in any old high school series or prime time soap. Megan's's backstabbing sister, her alcoholic father, her absentee mother who returns so Megan can give the "you can't just waltz back into my life and be my mother" speech. Rose and Sage date guys who aren't part of the societal uppercrust. One by one by one these story lines squeeze the fun out of the show, turning it into an empty melodrama where Meg does a lot of wining and crying about how "screwed up" her family is to anyone who will listen – all based on a past we haven't seen and have no point of reference.

Had it had the commitment to go for the guilty pleasure brass ring "Privileged" could have filled a television void for light-weight, glassy-eyed guilty pleasure. Instead it's worse - a drama with the empty head of a guilty pleasure (the last thing I want is a show like this lecturing me about gay marriage). It can't think of any other way to fill the time than with anything but the most familiar family drama clichés and self-aggrandizing comedy that isn't at all funny.

* ½ / 4