| It’s a good thing that the Alice I Think (Fridays at 9 p.m.; Comedy Network) show sampler I received contained three episodes and not just one. Because if I was to write this review based solely on the pilot, I would have been hard pressed to resist the juvenile urge to refer to it as Alice I Stink – the soon to debut episode is that bad.
Based on a critically acclaimed trilogy of books by Susan Juby, Alice is a new Comedy Network series that tells the tale of 15-year-old Susan MacLeod (Carly McKillip), who struggles to retain any semblance of dignity in the northern British Columbia town of Smithers. Alice is a social outcast due in no small part to the fact that she’s the offspring of a fiercely opinionated activist mother (Calgary native Rebecca Northan) and a bumbling slacker father (Dan Payne).
Episode one stumbles mightily by relying on that most tired of teen entertainment clichés – a bully story. A not-so-convincing rocker chick who belches with a poorly dubbed in "braaaaack" sound torments Alice. Lowlights include a slapstick street fight between Alice’s mother and the denim wearing bully, and a subplot where Alice’s lame dad gets hooked on Tetris.
And that’s just the first episode, kids. The series gets more amusing when Alice attempts to date a verbal diarrhea-prone Prince George boy in episode two, and defies her staunch vegetarian mother by attempting to eat a big and nasty steak in show three.
Alice I Think still has a long way to go before more than a very select few will consider it a must-see show. |
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