A Man. And His Blog.

Wow, an 80s-style episode. As surprised as I was, the episode couldn’t have been more boring though. One lame storyline after another, one predictable twist after another, and it wasn’t fun to watch the episode, since I haven’t develop any interest in any of it.

First up the whole virgin thing with Savannah (Ashley Tisdale). First she doesn’t want to have sex before marriage, and suddenly she considers to have sex with Dan (Matt Barr)? Not just did that go to fast, but her virginity could have been mentioned in an earlier episode to make it more believable. Like every other episodic storylines, it was mentioned in one minute, and done in the other, without being mentioned ever again. But I liked some of the moments with Dan and Savannah, though I think that her running away is a bit exaggerated.

Alice’s (Heather Hemmens) “football wife” story was boring too. It was nice that Jake (Ryan Kennedy) got a bit of screentime for a change, but first, the two don’t fit together; second, the writing of this couple is extremely lame and riddled with stereotypes; third, I don’t even know why the writers even go that storyline. Is it because they don’t have other ideas of writing the series, especially since the whole drama around Travis.

Oh yeah, there is Travis (Ben Cotton) and what he is bringing for problems in Marti’s (Alyson Michalka) and Morgan’s (Craig Anderson) lives. Morgan arrives in manic-mode, tells her that his laptop is stolen, and she has nothing more to say than “meh”. And of course her laptop gets stolen too. But since the camera didn’t show the face of the perp, I’m even thinking that Morgan might behind it. After all, nothing smells good like a predictable twist, which shakes up the story. Furthermore I believe that the legal drama of a cheerio show is kinda out of place. Again, don’t the writers have some better ideas to keep the show alive, instead of having rely on themes, which have nothing to do with cheerleading, or even the life in college?

The episode was boring, but thanks to the 80s style of it (and The CW having a series unlike SUPERNATURAL, which plays 80s songs in an episode) I won’t forget it fo a couple of days. 5.5/10

The 80s blast: Hellcats doing their anniversary

The virgin blast: When everything doesn't come to this point

Sometimes I believe the production team doesn’t really want to have “awesome” cheerio performances in the show. Or they already burned through them during the first couple of episodes, because it seems like it is getting boring, when it comes to the performances. Though I like it that the series is all about the members of Hellcats, but maybe I’m expecting a bit more performances. On the other hand: The Sectionals episode is coming soon, so I’ll wait for that.

It was a solid episode in HELLCATS standards, but the stories were a bit lame. The whole auction event was more awkward than somewhat “cool”, thanks to the awkward persons who bid for the Hellcats (like the old guy, who bet for Lewis [Robbie Jones], or how Alice [Heather Hemmens] convinced her quarterback boyfriend to raise the stakes, and give more money). Furthermore I was a bit annoyed of the always repeating music, and how the event was actually running during those five minutes or whatever – because the whole scene felt way too awkward for my taste.

But the dates resulted in the auction were somewhat interesting. Savannah (Ashley Tisdale) can talk to Noah (Tom Stevens), and vice versa, which brings Savannah back to her mother. It is nice that the story was cut from the series right here, since HELLCATS didn’t need such a mother/daughter drama. And I’m glad that Savannah found something out about herself, which could basically strengthen her relationship with Dan (Matt Barr). The final scene was nice.

Marti (Alyson Michalka) and Morgan (Craig Anderson) pretty much had a good chemistry during their date, and when they were looking for their person of interest, but I can’t understand why Marti was so willing to let Morgan into her secret. For now it looks like Morgan has the hots for Marti (I already see relationship trouble between her and Lewis coming up), but maybe the writers can surprise a bit here, and bring more than just another lover for Marti. Like… troubles in law school – that would be cool. By the way: I don’t really know anymore what to think of Marti and Lewis. Somehow they don’t fit together anymore, and judging from possible storylines to come, their status of relationship could change rather sooner than later.

Well, here I am, waiting for the Sectionals episode to get some action into the show. 6.5/10

God said to Savannah: "Drink booze"

Marti and Morgan are working. Kinda.

This is how the characters will look like in the show.

Being a guy in a cheerleading squad must be a dream come true for any straight guy. And this for many reasons: 1: You are surrounded by 15-25 girls every day. 2: If your flyer (which is usually a girl) falls, there is no way of telling where your hands catch her. 3: Many stunts (if you are a back spotter) require placing your hands on the flyers’ ass to push her up into the air. 4: A chair requires you to put your hands between the girls’ legs. 5: There is no laying on other boy (like in wrestling). 6: Girls can’t get mad at you for catching them in a bad spot, if they fall out of a stunt. 7: At cheerleading camp you have to sleep there and you sleep in the same bunk as 15-25 girls. There might not be enough beds, so you might have to share with someone. So, where are the TV shows and movies about male cheerleaders? Are they only in the porn genre or what is going on? And yes, it was just a stupid joke to open this review of the Hellcats pilot episode “A World Full of Strangers” with, but while the Hellcats cheerleading squad has a male member, the question rises: Why not putting a male character into the focus of a show like this, to put more drama into the story, or at least way more clichés about the sport?

I am placing the bottom line on this review on the top for a few reasons, mainly because you will continue reading: Hellcats is not the qualitative disaster, which The Beautiful Life: TBL was last year on that same spot. Even though elements are similar, the producers might have known about all the mistakes TBL did a year ago and actually learned from the past mistakes. Maybe it’s because Tom Welling is a better producer than Ashton Kutcher, maybe because cheerleading has more storylines to offer than modeling, maybe because the characters are actually more interesting than the models were back then. I am almost ashamed to say that I liked the pilot for what it was. I expected nothing, but I got a few nice moments, which reminded me of so many other things.

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