Monday, June 16, 2008

"21 Jumpstreet" DVD Review - "America, What a Town"

21 Jumpstreet
America – What a Town

DVD Season 1

Valeria – TwoCents Reviewer
valeria@twocentscorp.com

As the title suggests, the third episode of the series deals with the greatness of America. Sort of.

Judy Hoff is put on a case babysitting a foreign student from The Soviet Satellite. Nadia seems harmless at first – mostly a know-it-all with more knowledge of the system of American Government than your average American (pop quiz: how many votes to override a Presidential Veto?). But after a trip to the local mall with Judy, Nadia is confronted with the capitalism and consumerism that is the American Way of Life. This is definitely something she could get used to. The next time Nadia appears, she’s rocking leather duds, and a Motley Crue hairstyle, and is quick to attach herself to any wealthy man with a sports car.

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1 comment:

  1. 21 Jumpstreet
    America – What a Town

    DVD Season 1

    Valeria – TwoCents Reviewer
    valeria@twocentscorp.com

    As the title suggests, the third episode of the series deals with the greatness of America. Sort of.

    Judy Hoff is put on a case babysitting a foreign student from The Soviet Satellite. Nadia seems harmless at first – mostly a know-it-all with more knowledge of the system of American Government than your average American (pop quiz: how many votes to override a Presidential Veto?). But after a trip to the local mall with Judy, Nadia is confronted with the capitalism and consumerism that is the American Way of Life. This is definitely something she could get used to. The next time Nadia appears, she’s rocking leather duds, and a Motley Crue hairstyle, and is quick to attach herself to any wealthy man with a sports car.
    Although by the episodes end, she and Judy have a heart-to-heart about the vast change in attitude; the whole storyline seems a little out of place. After all, what does a Communist Polish girl have in common with a Stolen Car heist operating out of the Northside High School Auto Shop; which is after all, the main story line of this episode.
    Personally, I think absolutely nothing. In fact, I think the only point of this story line was to give Judy and Harry a storyline in this episode. Harry, he’s adorable in his 80s garb and terribly underused. He needs more things to do.

    By far the high light of this episode has to be Tom’s outburst about the cruelty that is Car Insurance Companies. Tom goes undercover to Northside High, where he befriends Stevie and Mark – the two guys seen at the beginning of the episode stealing and stripping the car. Their work is done in collaboration with Stevie’s older brother, Marco – a used car salesman – in order to save up money to open a high class auto garage that deals with only luxury cars, has leather couches in the waiting area, brand new magazines, and sparkling white mechanic jumpsuits.

    The 21 Jumpstreet Gang manage to figure out that the stolen car scheme involves taking apart the car, re-buying the frame at an auction, and then putting the car back together, and reselling it legally for a hefty profit. The Auto Shop teacher is impressed with the ingenuity. In a humorous exchange with Tom & Doug in which they reveal to the two perps that they’re actually police officers – they chase them out to the entrance of the used car lot, before catching and arresting them (They know where we live, Stevie says wisely)

    As you can probably already tell, this series is still searching for its footing. The strong aspect of the show definitely lies in the ensemble of the cast when they’re playing off each other. The different cases still don’t tie in with each other, and in general, the show is scatterbrained. But no worries, it’s going to pick up soon!

    For next week, we’ll watch the next episode: Don’t Pet the Teacher.

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