TV Meme: Day 2 - A Show Needing More Viewers.

Welcome to Day 2 of the TV Meme where I will be discussing a show needing more viewers. This one was an easy choice for me, mostly, though it's a bit of a wasted discussion. Rachel used the same show for hers, though we're almost the only two people I know of that watched it. But I'll get to that in a minute, because I did have a runner-up.

The reason I didn't go with my runner-up is because of the massive format change for its third season. The show is called In Plain Sight and it's about a pair of U.S. Marshals that work for Witness Protection. Now, up until this season, the show did it right. It had great character interactions, great humor, and great stories. In fact, the second season was probably the best. Now, I can't say too much bad about the current third season since I've only watched about a third of it (mostly due to DVR issues). But the USA Network got new bosses who decided that they wanted to take the show and make it your run-of-the-mill procedural instead. They cut literally half of the main characters, added in some new ones, and made it essentially about the "witness of the week" instead of the personal lives of Mary and Marshall (the two main characters). The format changed completely, we're missing a couple wonderful characters, and some relationships that spent the entire second season building was almost for nothing now. Therefore, I'm not going to ask more people watch the show, except for maybe the first two seasons, which are great (again, not to say the third isn't... it's just... different).

Instead, I'm going to ask that you watch a show that is about to be canceled called Greek.

Greek has been going on for a few seasons now on ABC Family. I was a bit wary when I first went to watch it because, well, it was on ABC Family... and those shows tend to suck. But this one didn't. At all. The show is about a handful of young adults going to college and their adventures therein, usually involving the Greek System and sororities/fraternities. And we're basically given two main characters, each with their own story going on that usually end up intertwined. That's one of the cool things about the show is that these two completely different stories can be going on, and they'll go to each other for advice, and somehow whatever was going on in one story will spark inspiration or give help to the other... and you never see it coming. But anyway, on to the main characters.

First we have Rusty Cartwright, who is a major science nerd. It's his first year of college, and he wants to make a name for himself, to do all the wild party stuff he never did in high school... in other words, he wants to join a fraternity. During Rush (where they go around looking for where they wanna go), Rusty befriends Calvin, a former high school football player whose family has a Legacy with the rich Omega Kai fraternity... and he has a secret--he's gay. And yes, this ABC Family show is NOT afraid to show two guys kissing. Rusty also befriends (though not really at first) his dorm roommate Dale (Played amazingly by Clark Duke), who is a very southern, very religious, anti-everything (sex, homosexuality, etc.) kinda guy. Needless to say, Dale and Rusty don't exactly hit it off at first, with Dale constantly trying to save his soul (for partying and promiscuity) and the soul of his friend (for being gay). Anyway, Rusty ends up with the slummy party fraternity, the Kappa Tau's, run by slacker (and genius) Cappie. Calvin, on the other hand, ends up with the Omega Kai's, who are rivals with the Kappa Tau's mainly because of Cappie and the Omega Kai leader, Evan.

The second main character is Casey Cartwright, Rusty's sister, who is a few years older and has been at the college for a little while now. Along with her best friend Ashleigh, she's part of essentially the best sorority on campus, the Zeta Beta Zeta's (or ZBZ's, as commonly referred to). Now, Casey starts off the show in a pretty heavy relationship with Evan, and it isn't long before you discover that she used to date Cappie... and that Cappie and Evan used to be best friends. I'm sure you can figure out where the animosity came from.

There are other side characters, too; mainly the other people at the fraternities/sororities. But those are the main ones. I usually found myself more invested in the Rusty side of the episode, but that could be that I'm a guy and could identify more with another guy? Or maybe it's just that Rusty was more of the main character than Casey, so they focused more energy on his stories. Casey's stories were generally the same things over and over again, particularly later on in the show. Ashleigh was having some kind of boy problems and Casey was trying to find a way to save the house from utter doom. The only other real main characters I didn't mention were Frannie (who is only in the first season and a half of the show) and Rebecca Logan, a rich, snooty girl with quite a few problems of her own. But Rebecca's character got really strange later on in the show, as if the writers had no idea what to do with her after her main story arch completed.

(From Left to Right: Rebecca, Evan, Casey, Rusty, Cappie, Dale, Ashleigh, Calvin)

Anyway, Cappie is probably one of the best written characters on television. He's quite the slacker and has changed his major numerous times to the point he knows a lot of stuff, but not enough to graduate with any specific degree. He did this more early on in the show, but I always loved when he came out with some random bit of knowledge to show he's not just the dopey frat guy that he's made out to be. I always thought he should get into psychology or counseling, as he's constantly giving advice to Rusty and others. But we'll see. And his relationship with Casey is like the Luke and Lorelei of this show (bonus points if you catch the reference... and you should), though not as drawn out and in depth as theirs. But it's still a great one, you always wanting them to end up together. Dale is another great character, as well, who really evolves over the course of the show. In fact, almost all of the characters evolve immensely over the course of the show. The only one that struggles with change or growth is Rebecca, as--again--it seems the writers weren't sure where to take her.

Alas, though, the series is being canceled. But I have to agree with Rachel, who says it's probably a good thing. I mean, they can't keep coming up with excuses to keep the cast in college forever. Sure, Rusty, Calvin, Dale, and Rebecca could last a few more years, but Casey, Evan, and Ashleigh gotta move on. And who knows about Cappie, who never wants to leave. I just wouldn't want him to end up the Tommy Oliver of the show (extra bonus points if you know that reference), where everybody else is moving on, the rest of the cast is changing, yet he's one of the only originals left simply for being the fan favorite. Fortunately, though, ABC Family is giving it one last mini-season to wrap up the storylines it has left. This rarely seems to happen these days. But yeah, we'll be getting a 10-episode Season 4 that will hopefully give closure to the show and the characters.

As for now, I ask that you give Greek a try. It's an amazing show that way too few people watch. And if for nothing else, watch it for Clark Duke and his break-out role, because it's a truly hilarious one.