As Patricinhas de Palm Beach

This is the best new CW show of this season and I LOVE it. I am a fan of Gossip Girl so when I saw the preview for a story of 2 rich girls, I immediately thought of that. I thought, "great, another show about rich kids" as if reality TV isn't enough. I decided to watch the first episode because I love Joanna since watching her on Reba. This is a show that I could easily watch with my parents or whoever and I don't have to worry about someone having sex in the next minute or so. It's more than the lives of the rich, rather it deals with real-life issues that any high school student faces. I wish there was more shows like this that had substance. Every episode of the show has a theme, a moral to the story. The other great thing about this TV show is the music! This is the only show that I actually dig around trying to find out what music played during the episode. Here's hoping for another fantastic season.

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!

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.

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.

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