I can repeat myself, I think.
Wow.
Someone at Disney just got fired. I hope they didn't permanently cripple a franchise.
Disney is a machine, a combine, a manufacturing plant. It's huge and has resources the little people like you and me cannot imagine. This machine has the ability to promote shows far beyond normal network standards ~ adding snippets to each ad to build up to the event. It has a captive audience.
For the past three months, the Disney Channel has been promoting "Wish Gone Amiss" for it's top three television shows; Cory in the House, Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. The idea wasn't terribly bad, the execution was terrible.
Cory in the House has Cory making his wish to be President of the United States. Sure, we've all thought about how cool it would be to be the president. This episode painted Cory in the worse possible light! It's still Cory, but now with power. What does he do? He ignores all duty, blings out the White House, has bimbos salute him and squeezes every dime out of every citizen who visits the White House. How can they show the worse in Cory's character?
Simply horrible. We now know Cory has little value, is completely selfish and only cares for himself. Sure, we can all pretend it's a "dream sequence", a common convention in writing situation comedy - but the key is always to show our hero's true nature in new circumstances. A failure beyond belief. This show is doomed. We know Cory is shallow and a selfish ****.
Hannah Montana was not quite as bad, but again; the execution was horrible. Horrible! Hor-ri-ble.
The strength of the Hannah shows are always the main arc of the story and then a sub-plot featuring the other players (usually the wonderful Jackson and Robbie, but not always). This show was a little more clever in that it had Roxy playing a sort of angel (really just a ghost from Christmas Carol) who shows Hannah all the things she'd miss (family and friends), which she immediately does - trying to find a way to undo the wish. My question is: how can Robbie bring a cocoa-loco choco to Hannah (possibly the escape clause) and let his new trophy wife convince him otherwise? Even in dream sequences (or wish sequences) you can't have Dad failing in his love and belief in his daughter. Really. I felt sick.
The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, I don't have any major complaints about beyond that the show wasn't exceptional and worthy of the hype. Again, the strength of these shows are usually the supporting cast which are truly the talented ones - Brenda and Ashley. If you don't give them enough screen time, the show suffers.
Overall a huge disappointment. Let's be clear -- it was a LOT of hype.
My zeal for the Disney Channel is fading as is my faith in the franchise. I hate to say it but I don't feel like watching them any more, I rented Black Snake Moan (skip the intro on the website) today.