There were four episodes of State of Georgia on last week and I sat down for two hours and watched all four.  I thought for awhile about recapping each episode, but figured you wouldn’t want to read that and, honestly, neither would I.  What I have been thinking about, a lot, is how certain TV shows make it and certain TV shows don’t.  What it takes to make it beyond a season or even a few episodes?  What makes a certain show get picked up after the pilot is aired and how some shows just never see the light of day even though they may be better shows than ones that are actually on the air.

Let’s look at one of the episodes from the four that aired last week as an example. The episode titled “Mo’ Honey, Mo’ Problems” gives us Georgia and Jo thinking Aunt Honey is broke (they saw a bank account statement) then they get all Intervention on her while simultaneously making us miss Biggie & Ma$e.  It later turns out that Aunt Honey isn’t broke, but just put her money in an account in Barbados.  This episode was written by two people who I am sure thought they were writing a great story for Georgia. I get it. I’ve written scripts that I thought were great until someone else read it and said otherwise and I’ve also received good feedback.  The difference between them and me though is that they are getting paid to put this stuff on television.  Are there certain standards to which we should hold writers to? Well, duh, but who OKs this kind of storyline?  Someone obviously said, “Yes! This is exactly what we need! Aunt Honey will be the chairperson for a charity called The Poor Women Outreach Resource Network, aka PWORN, pronounced like porn! LOL’ing y’all!”  The thing is I don’t think anyone was really LOL’ing at least not as indicated by the amount of viewers it has had.  At this point I can’t imagine this show getting a second season.  I could be wrong.  Worse show have received a second season. (I AM LOOKING AT YOU HAPPILY DIVORCED).

If the script was written better could it actually be a better show?  I kind of doubt it and I think that comes to its star.  Raven-Symone is just not that good of an actress and I know I have mentioned this before it just seems really odd that she is playing an aspiring (over)actress.  I love Loretta Devine, but even her character, while fun & campy, is just too over the top and preachy.  There is always a lesson to learn with her.  I never watched Roswell so I can’t tell you how Majandra Delfino, Jo, was on that show compared to this one, but I can tell you the writers have made her too quirky.  I actually think she’s the best actor in this show (don’t get me wrong here I think Loretta Devine is amazing, but in the context of this show is what I’m talking about).

I would love to know what the executives of ABC Family saw when they watched the pilot?  Did they actually see a real future for this show?  Did they think maybe this was going to be an adult That’s So Raven? Would Raven’s audience grow up with her and move on to her next show?  I think what is more likely is that her audience grew up and moved on.  There’s only so much bad physical comedy and facial acting that people can tolerate in an ‘Adult’ program. 

I will be looking forward to seeing Raven in a independent movie playing against character in the next few years, but for now I will be reviewing State of Georgia until the end of the season.  Don’t miss an episode (Wednesdays on ABC Family) and we can discuss it over on Twitter where I will be live-tweeting each episode.