The Latest Buzz

Apparently I'm falling into something of a TV-reviewing rut at the moment but you know something? Fuck it. I saw something I wanted to write about and I'm going to god-dammit. So anyway I was watching ABC Kids this afternoon and good old The Latest Buzz came on and the "soft target" alarms immediately droned in my skull.

"But what is The Latest Buzz?" I hear you ask. Well, Infinite Possiblogitonians (aka loyal fans) cast your minds way, way back (probably about 100 posts ago) to the time I reviewed a truely insipid show called Zoey 101. Well imagine Zoey 101 where the kids write for a magazine and add a laugh track. There you go, The Latest Buzz. As you may or may not recall I applied my usual cynicism to the show and made a general point about how these tween, Disney Channel clones are re-churned, out of the cocain-addled minds that dictate what we watch, every time the young stars are seen to be behaving in any way resembling a normal human being and not merely a larger version of the Officially Licenced Dolls. Sentence too long and confusing for you? In other words they axe the show when the kid is photographed topless and they replace it with what is essentially the same show with a brand new, squeaky-clean cast. And that's exactly what The Latest Buzz is like, as if it rose from the ashes of Zoey 101. It's the same old characters you know and love (or not) from Lizzy McGuire, sure they look different but I promise that after a few seconds you'll be predicting their lines. I've provided a visual aid to help illustrate my point.


See what I'm saying? Yes I know there's no apparent nerd character in The Latest Buzz's cast picture BUT in the episode I saw just now there WAS a nerd character, so suck on that! But, to it's credit, although I could never call The Latest Buzz good, it's not really bad either. When I watch it it just doesn't lacerate my brain the way Zoey 101 used to. Funnily enough it's points that I'd usually consider to be bad that I think save it. The laughter track and the way the show is so self-aware it feels like it's nudging and winking at you somehow save it from being as BAD as Zoey 101, which is interesting. I guess it's mainly because Zoey 101 felt like it took itself so damn seriously even though it was completely rediculous. The Latest Buzz just feels like stupid, harmless fun and when compared to Zoey 101 actually looks decent, which says a lot more about Zoey 101's quality than about the quality of The Latest Buzz.

P.S. I forgot to mention how The Latest Buzz's theme song is *massive sigh* sung by one of the actresses, but I'm sure my cleverclogs readers would probably of guessed that anyway.