Kid's Programming

There's a segment of my mind that refuses to grow up. It's stuck somewhere between the ages of 8 and 13 and just won't budge beyond that point.

It has its advantages and its disadvantages in life.

That's probably why I enjoy some of the more random programs I enjoy (like the animated version of "Avatar: the Last Airbender").

I spent this weekend about as animated as a houseplant. I was tired and staying in felt like a great idea. I alternated between entertainments. I had the myriad (and often sordid) distractions of the Internet as well as my insane collection of DVDs to distract me.

It was almost by accident that I found myself channel surfing and hit Cartoon Network. I was trying to catch "Sym-Bionic Titan" (Tartakovsky is a god of homage to shows I enjoyed as a kid). By accident, I caught the promo for a new show called Tower Prep.

Imagine if you will a teen melodrama set in a private school in some unspecified location. Add in elements of "The Prisoner" for shits and giggles. Mix in some X-Men. Just a dash. A smidge to make the protagonists seem interesting.

Then get weird. Rasping, barely-seen, robotic killer ninjas in a forest. Sinister academic schemes. Mysterious notes. Superpowers. Fight scenes. Good fight scenes (for a kid's show).

Pure win.

I'm not normally a fan of Cartoon Network's deviation away from animated offerings. I figure if you have a network name like "Cartoon Network", you should pretty much focus on cartoons and leave non-animated offerings to the six billion other networks out there.

It's a niche market for a reason, after all.

I absolutely loathe the life-action offerings in Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" segment. They're lazy-written, poorly-done, trash attempts at comedy as written by stoned college student wannabes, in my opinion.

The young adult/kid's life-action stuff on Cartoon Network has surprised me by being quite the opposite.

"Tower Prep" was quiet entertaining. It's on a par with "Unnatural History", a mix of high school melodrama, Indiana Jones, Scooby Doo, and MacGyver.

I suspect as long as I enjoy stuff like this, I'll never really "grow up". I don't consider that a bad thing at all.