Guys, I have to tell you about the Jonas Brothers’ new Disney channel show. It is called JONAS. I have seen one episode. Here is the premise: The 3 famous Jonas brothers play the famous Lucas brothers. They are rock stars but also go to a private school. They live in a fire station (unexplained). They don’t seem to have parents, but there is an adult wandering around who they call Doug. Also, Bonus Jonas plays their little brother (Bonus’s real name is Frankie, but Bonus Jonas is just too good). He is 8, so the no parents thing is really pretty weird.
In the episode I saw the A-plot was about Joe’s old friend coming to visit. But the old friend, Carl, is too excited about the Jonases being rockstars. He thinks it’s all parties and chicks. He lets the paparazzi in, he puts spray cheese on the walls, touches their guitars, breaks their fancy Cher-in-Clueless-style closet, etc. The boys decide to show him what it’s really like as a rock star. Rehearsing loudly at night, answering huge piles of fan mail, sorting stuff animals (?), and getting mauled by girls volleyball teams. Carl learns his lesson and goes back home with his tail tucked between his legs. He leaves a sad note, though, so our heroes feel bad and throw Carl a party so he can be popular at his school. Then they perform at the party.
There is also a subplot about their school friend who buys a potato chip that looks like Joe. And another one about them playing hide and go seek with Bonus, but forgetting he’s hiding for days and days.
This is basically any Disney channel show, except it’s incredibly weird and also pretty funny. That is an exaggeration, but obviously I expected it to be zero funny, so. Here are some jokes / plot elements I enjoyed:
- In the cold open, the boys really want to watch a leprechaun based tv show. They have leprechaun hats they wear while doing this. (This bit is oddly similar to one on the Sarah Silverman show, where the Silverman sisters watch Cookie Time together.)
- There are too many remotes, though, and one of them cues confetti.
- While rehearsing loudly at night, Joe Jonas plays a tambourine in a pretty hilarious loose-hipped way.
- Joe reads Carl’s sad goodbye note aloud. Kevin repeatedly thinks Joe is expressing his own thoughts. “You are annoying sometimes, Joe.” “Don’t say that, you have great hair!”
- At one point, the boys are startled, and scream. Kevin’s girly scream goes on for like a minute longer than everyone else’s.
- While messing with the Clueless closet, Carl comes up with a Hawaii/Alaska outfit. Joe says, “While I know I could pull that outfit off…”
- While they try to come up with a plan to teach Carl a lesson, Kevin says, “I’ve got an idea!” Nick (the youngest and strangely most serious Jonas) says, “Can you explain your idea without using any of the following words: pie fight, trampoline, time machine?” “No.”
- Also Nick: Carl does a bit where he pretends to be a robot repeatedly running in to Nick. Nick hates it in a way that is very funny, like even real Nick Jonas hated it for real. Kevin claps with glee when Carl does this.
- When they play at the end of the episode, they begin with “Hello, living room!” in the style of “Hello, [name of city where concert is being held]!”
- At one point, Doug goes over to the kitchen sink, opens the cabinet under it, and hands Bonus his mail. Everything about that is “?”
Apparently the “critics” (there are Disney channel show critics? Hee!) liken the show to The Monkeees, and that is totally right. I am impressed that it’s kind of absurd and silly. I was expecting it to be really terrible and to be more Jonas-ego-inflating. They are not afraid to look like idiots, though, and I appreciate that. Compare with, say, NSync or the Backstreet Boys, who had basically no sense of humor about themselves, and were clearly afraid to look like dorks.
After watching a lot of other stuff this next generation really likes – Twilight, High School Musical, Paramore music videos, etc. – I was really bummed out. Sentence I’d never thought I’d write: The Jonas brothers give me hope.
By the way, the show is not good, that is definitely not what I am saying. I do not recommend it unless you are me. I am going to keep watching it. I totally love it.
Posted by rotablog 
Posted by rotablog 
Posted by rotablog 