Richie Rich

I loved the Richie Rich movie (1994) with Macaulay Culkin when I was a kid. Of course, once I watched it again as an adult, I found some things in the movie just dumb, but I could still see why I loved it so much. It was well written, had a good plot, good actors, etc.

This Richie Rich show, however, is simply bad. No, wait, I have a better word for it: horrendous. Story is pretty much inexistent, characters and dialogues are horribly written, and actors are just... not good. After watching a few episodes, I couldn't take it anymore.

I know they are just kids that were probably just very poorly directed, but still, this is something else. They remind me of puppies that are avidly learning to do new tricks. In this case, their "punchlines" are the tricks, and the "laughs" are the rewards. And honestly, it gives a stink of desperation to the whole show. They kinda look like they are on speed or ecstasy too. Yep, a bunch of puppies on drugs, that's pretty much what they look like to me.

And let's not forget the obviously objectified/sexualized robot French maid... She has the best lines, and she's a freaking robot! And just like all the other characters, she's an overused stereotype that is just inappropriate. It's like they took her character from a bad indie porn movie and put it in a kids show on Netflix.

I don't often take time to review movies/series, but this show just made me so mad I had to vent somehow. I can't believe such a show can still be produced in 2015. It's sad for the actors, because you sense they do have potential and talent hidden behind the poor direction, but I officially brand this as unwatchable. There's too much wrong stuff at the same time, and I honestly don't understand how someone could enjoy it.

When I found out Jenna Ortega was in this show I had to watch it, after all I loved Stuck in the Middle and Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous. So I gave it a chance. Episode one broke me with the sexisim, objectification of a woman in a maid outfit by a child... I and then Jenna's character basically being a gold digger and the hapless dad... 5 episodes in and I couldn't take any more. Poorly shot, horribly written, toung in cheek acting, it was a disaster and not something I'd recommend for children at all!

This show is really bad. At first blush, it looks like a typical low-budget children's show, not unlike what you might see on the Disney Channel. But it has some huge problems. First, is that the Murry, Richie's money manager is a Jewish stereotype. For some reason, Richie Rich's money manager is a 12-year-old like him and has a bunch of Jewish money manager stereotypes. He also has a bunch of weakling nerd stereotypes, but those are just annoying, not insulting.

The second problem is that the robot maid is a typical model in french maid outfit. It's weird that a kid that hasn't hit puberty yet (at least not in the first episode) would choose a blatant sex symbol. That said, she has the best lines. Heck, she's the best developed character. It's like the writers knew how terrible the concept was, and gave a bunch of great dialogue to compensate.

The worst problem is Darcy, who is a girl Richie's age who 'spends his money' and otherwise acts like a vapid spoiled trophy wife/girlfriend. But she's twelve (or around that age), and they're not dating.

It's unsettling to see young children acting out these adult tropes. The only actual adult (besides the robot) is a Richie's father, a man child who doesn't seem to have ever held down a job in his life. How he had two kids (Richie has an older sister) is beyond me. It isn't that I can't picture a woman having sex with him, it's that he's so immature I can't imagine him being interested.

I'd stay away from this show. Far, far away.

I don't think that this concept is something that will ever translate well from comic books to television or movies. The Richie Rich comics were funny because they described wealth so outlandish, that when Mom went to the East Wing of the mansion, she traveled by plane. Money gushing out of oil wells and vaults so big they were measured in acres. Stuff like that.

Of course, that stuff does not translate to the real world very easily. Richie Rich may be a good comic for kids fascinated by money, since it teaches that friendship and family is far more important than money. But trying to translate that into a real-world TV show by papering the walls of Richie's bedroom with foreign banknotes just seems silly.

The concept COULD work if it were "dialed down" a bit... Like a show about a kid in an extremely wealthy family who just wants to play with other kids and is a good person, but who has to contend with things like the security guards that follow him everywhere for his protection. Or who asks his Dad for lunch money on his way out the door and his Dad hands him a $100 bill because it is the smallest bill he has. Little jokes like that would at least be believable.

But this series is completely over the top. I know that most movies and TV shows require a suspension of disbelief, but this one requires a suspension of your entire brain.

The show has 0 humor and there's nothing in the plot, even when considering it's a kids sir, to carry it.