Jack & Bobby

the first episode of jack and bobby moved me in such a way that i swore to myself i would watch every episode until production ended. so i was there for the second, and the third, and the fourth, and then...oh no, wait a second. no...NO...this can't be happening...it's turning into dawson's creek! when the relationships started flooding in - jack with courtney, then jack with missy, then jack with courtney, then missy with courtney, then bobby with dex, then the mom with the school president, then the mom with the TA...i was becoming so wary to the point of paranoia. every time one of the three leads gets close to a guy or a girl my brain goes...oh no, not a love triangle, not a wrong relationship....oh no! i mean, THIS IS A GREAT SHOW HERE,one with SO MUCH POTENTIAL...the actors are great beyond all expectations from TVland acting...but the writers had to stick with the Love angles?? goodness, there's SO MUCH MORE TO EXPLORE! COME ON! get on it already...how did bobby build such an extraordinary character? will jack and bobby's love/hatred for each other only root from girls?? there has GOT TO BE OTHER angles than these circles of relationships. the mom doesn't even have to have that angle! she could probably have that near the last season or something, but there's just so much boy and girl hoopla here that i can't seem to find the excellence, the passion, the greatness that was in the first episode. EXPLORE FRIENDSHIPS, REAL RELATIONSHIPS, for jack and bobby's sake. I OPEN THIS TO ALL THE PRODUCERS, THE WRITERS...go back to what you started in the first episode! there's so much more to this!

I watched the first episode of Jack & Bobby which airs tonight on a promotional DVD that was provided by Entertainment Weekly.

The show is innovative, it is a futuristic documentary that centers around the president of the United States between 2040-2048 and looks back to when he was a normal (or not so normal) kid in our present day. The show is pretty darn innovative, mixing some great creativity of our future, with some even more great realization of our current lives. It shows how one child, not too different from you and me can grow up to be president.

The cast is nice, great chemistry between all of the actors, and no significantly weak links among any of the cast, although the boy who plays Bobby's conformist friend could have stood some more acting lessons. The story for the pilot was great, it involved Bobby's mother and brother fighting over how he should be raised, and it deals with drugs in a smart gritty way, not how 7'th Heaven would deal with it. But again, most of all is how the show seems to blend Futuristic Political Documentary With Present-Day gritty drama, so seamlessly.

8/10 - I have high hopes for this one!

I had the pleasure of previewing this program on a promotional DVD. I have to say that it is an interesting and somewhat charming drama that peeks at the life of a future president of the United States – during his boyhood years! The family chemistry is excellent; Jack, as the brooding, somewhat self-assured big brother to Bobby, the geeky and asthmatic kid, coupled with their liberal-over-protective-college-professor-single-mother, wonderfully played by Christine Lahti. The emotions seem genuine (which means good acting!) and the story line (at least for the pilot) was engaging. The dialogues are smart and real. The "flash-forwards" are tastefully done, and although definitely related, doesn't distract us too much to the "present day" storyline. I would love to see how this story develops.

I often think back to this show. How amazing it was frames. How amazing the characters were. How amazing the stories were. A lot of good shows aren't renewed. But the fact that this one wasn't is just a horrible loss.

It's not available to stream anywhere. With al' the streaming services now someone should reboot it. Or just continue it. It's been 15 years but it's time for a good show like this to have a home again.

I was really drawn by the premise of this show, as well as by its loose allusions to the Kennedys, and funny, even though the acting leaves a bit to be desired and the dialogue sometimes approaches the Dawson's Creek zone. We've seen these situations before on the WB -- check out, for instance, one of Courtney's first lines when Jack tries to pick her up in the opener -- "you don't know anything about me" -- obviously implying she has some deeply-buried skeletons in the closet that will be uncovered in a later episode; very much like Andie McPhee's introduction to Pacey in Dawson's ... recycled material. However, unlike Dawson's Creek, which I watched religiously for three-plus years out pure amusement (you knew you couldn't take a show seriously in which every other line was some long-winded diatribe), there's something deeper, something more fascinating about "Jack and Bobby" that makes me keep coming back.

I believe that lies in the actual characters -- in some weird way, you really care about them. Maybe part of that has to do with the relationships -- they just seem so real. Jack has a strange love-hate relationship with his brother that actually reminds me very much of the relationship between my own brothers. Jack wants to push Bobby away because he's sick of being trailed by his annoying little brother, but at the same time subconsciously longs for his company, though denyingly embarrassed to say so. Grace is fighting to find the balance between smothering her sons and letting them do what they want. Some of the previous reviewers have criticised the show for not being explicit enough -- that Jack continuously refers to Bobby being "weird" but Bobby's actions don't support the accusation -- but they should look twice. How many of the outcasts in high school were truly those one-dimensional freaks you see portrayed too frequently in bad sitcoms? More often, the line between fitting in and being "different" is all too subtle -- I find it most interesting that Bobby is such a naive do-gooder at this point, he can't even internally comprehend what makes him so "different"... and because he can't see it, you can bet that it'll take time for the casual viewer to see it, too.

Another reason may be the flash-forwards -- you know this is not just some cheesy drama focusing on teens because they won't stay eternally young; everything they do in the here and now influences the people they will someday become, and the pieces are slowly and subtly being exposed, one by one. My greatest fear for the show is that, because we're learning about the future as we're learning about the present, the writers don't eventually get too boxed in, reveal too much about the future, and have to go back and "change" characters or take certain liberties in plot and time frame. If the writers can avoid such a pitfall week after week, there's little doubt in my mind that "Jack and Bobby" the show will be destined for greatness.

Seriously worth a watch. I can't wait for episode three.