Privileged

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.

I love this show. Best new show of the year. Joanna is like that of Amy Adams. The show is a light and funny comedy full of romance and life lessons for all. Wonderful acting , writing and a chance to see the beach from Florida (nice to mix it up from all the LA shows). It is refreshing to see something so entertaining with some where to go. I feel all characters have a change coming. I for one am thrilled we get to watch it unfold. We can not compare this to anything we have seen before.

Watch it ...you shall be entertained to the fullest. I always like to watch and judge a show for myself ....do not let the name or material make you feel foolish for enjoying a delicious hour of suspension of disbelief. Oh, and P.S. this world does exist and most people don't know it. It is unfair to judge the beautiful, smart,wealthy and funny because all 4 of these things make it possible for us to visit their world.

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

But without any likable characters, quality writing, or anything remotely resembling wit, meaning this is not like Gilmore Girls at all.

I'm three shows in so far and the only thing I can say about the main character is she reminds me of every blonde joke I've ever heard. Yale graduate, huh? Right.

And the two rich, spoiled, and bitchy teenage girls? I'm sorry, but we did rich, spoiled, and bitchy teenage girls the right way on Gilmore Girls and these two girls just come off as lame.

If I appear to be using Gilmore Girls as a standard by which I measure the quality of a show like this, it's because I am. Gilmore Girls had just the right blend of wit, humor, quality storytelling, and an entire cast of likable characters. This show doesn't.

I'm not saying this show is bad. I'm saying it's barely average, mildly entertaining, and you'd probably be better off spending your television time on something else.

"Privileged" is based on the book by Zoey Dean by the name "How to teach filthy rich girls" and though the premise is the same, the characters don't have the same depth. What's alluring about the book is not just Megan's struggles to teach the girls but bond with them. After watching the pilot just days after finishing the book I was let down. I won't spoil the book for those who are thinking of reading it, but the back stories it provides are far more interesting then what the pilot provided us with. Yes, its ultimately a story of the wealthy and their drama... but the book is something more... If you were less then impressed with the series I still recommend the book. Seeing the promos prompted me to read it, and it was one of my favorite reads of the year.