The Best Years

I wanted to like this show. Really I did.

College shows are notoriously hard to do. Personally I don't want to speculate as to why (at least not in this post). One of the few successful college shows I can think of was Felicity (which I never really liked). Undeclared was brilliant, of course it got cancelled way before its' time. I figured that The Best Years probably wouldn't live up to Undeclared, but maybe, just maybe, it might be another Felicity.

For those who don't know, The Best Years is about Samantha Best, a spunky orphan who's made it to the Ivy League through pluck and determination. We follow her as she navigates the perils of college, new friends, new enemies and greater freedom all competing with her need to keep her scholarship (after all she's a poor orphan, right? A poor orphan with remarkably nice clothes...).

As a premise I'd say it's a bit tired and thin, but I'm willing to go along with it. At the very least it offers up the ability to play off class politics, one of the things that made the first season of Veronica Mars so great. Of course Veronica Mars had some top knotch writing to back it up. My hope was that the writing on The Best Years would be equally good, after all the creator / show runner is no hack.

His name's Aaron Martin, and he got his start on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Personally I've only caught episodes here and there, but generally I've been impressed. The Degrassi name has a certain cache to it, and going from a high school soap to a college soap seems like a natural progression. He's also a graduate of the CFC PrimeTime program, which is a bit of a holy grail for me at this point in my career.

All of this led me to believe that maybe, just maybe The Best Years might live up to the shows that have come before. It could've been the next Undeclared. At the very least the next Felicity. Unfortunately it's neither. In fact, it's just plain bad.

The problem as I see it is twofold. The first is the lack of original characters. Samantha, the plucky orphan, is alright. Casting Charity Shea was a great choice, she's likable and brings a quirky charm to the role that elevates it. She's the high point.

The rest of the characters are laughable. We have the rich-bitch roomate (who's blonde in case you didn't guess). The basketball jock love interest. The Asian nerd we can't help but love. None of the characters provide a twist on the stereotype. None of them have a whiff of originality. They're flat out boring.

The second problem is a lack of (believable) complications. Samantha's overriding need is to stay in college. Her first obstacle? The fact that she can't afford her meal plan! Oh noes! Later on one of their drunken friends falls off the roof they're all hanging out on and plummets to his death. What do they do? Cover it up!

Um...say what? These are (supposedly) smart college students who care about this guy, and they cover it up? And then the next night they all go out clubbing! Now I'm not saying that people on TV have to make a whole let of sense...but that's going a little too far.

I could go on, but I won't. What I would like to say is that I'm really, really disappointed. Canadian TV is in dire straights. We need to have more successful shows like Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairies, and yes, Degrassi: The Next Generation. Given the creative talent behind The Best Years I was hoping that it might be able to join that pantheon. Instead we're given a show that's far from The Best.