This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Danel: I'm not sure, but Alex doesn't seem to be that popular? For goodness' sake - the continual attacks are ridiculous... from the few times I've been unable to avoid watching this or continued watching in horrified fascination while channel surfing, I'm fairly certain that she's intended to be an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, since her behaviour goes above and beyond the usual Moral Dissonance thing where the main characters are 'special'. It's... interesting that they chose to do this with their newest young star, but at least gives her the opportunity to demonstrate that she has range... and she does, since she was singing some insipid song about fairies in a promo after the show, and I actually had no desire to see her receive a well-deserved comeuppance licketty-spit.
I have to say that the Internet arguments are rather silly, though I remember thinking something similar when I saw the first few promos. I wouldn't say it was a poor Harry Potter rip-off; it's loathsome and stupid, but in an entirely original way.
Insert Witty Name Here: My guess is that the show was intended as a rip-off of Harry Potter, but the writers Did Not Do The Research and it therefore ended up as a slight pastiche of the bits of Potter they absorbed through Popcultural Osmosis. And it's probably better off for it.
As for Alex, I do think she works fairly well as a Sitcom character if you accept her as an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, but it becomes a bit depressing when you consider that she will still be regarded as a role model by the show's target demographic and Disney has not tried to discourage this. Unless... Disney figured out their Idol Singers tend to sharply lose their wholesome image after growing up and they're hoping to make it so there's barely a ripple when that happens to Selena Gomez.
Danel: Ooh, conspiracy theory... another thing is how mesmerisingly bad the special effects really are, and I say this as someone who's seen the CSO Kitchen in ''Terror of the Autons'' and ''Underworld''. I can't imagine how they thought that the chandelier thing was... anything other than the worst special effect ever.
Insert Witty Name Here: Let's not forgot how formulaic this show is. I haven't seen many episodes, but most of them seem to follow this formula:
- Alex listens to Chekhov's Lecture about some new magical power
- Alex encounters an everyday problem which could be overcome with said power
- She creates a Zany Scheme to use it thus, typically applying some questionable ethics
- Hilarity Ensues when there's a karmic Magic Misfire
- Alex finds that once again she Can't Get Away With Nuthin', but fails to learn An Aesop
What really doesn't make her look good is the fact that the everyday problem is usually something pretty shallow, such as getting a boy or cheating at homework.
priopraxis: about Relationship Writing Fumble: are we sure that wasn't deliberate ? See the Genie Episode,the Horror Movie episode...and the fact that Alex is probably a You Suck audience surrogate..with Justin as the only (attractive )teenage male in the series.Also, The Lion King.On that note, probably Strangled By The Red String.
Anyone else consider Justin Russo Lawful Stupid? From what I seen he does?
Tricksterson: Lawful Neutral certainly, Lawful Stupid, not quite. For one thing he is willing to bend or even break the rules to help Alex (witness his turning the D Umbledore surrogate into a hamster to protect her. And people wonder why a Jalex ship exists?) by the same token Alex is certainly Chaotic Neutral verging on, but not quite falling into Chaotic Stupid territory.
As to Jalex I consider this another case of Disney Porn, a subset of Gettimg Crap Past The Radar that I haven't quite developed enough to write as a seperate trope. Summed up as "Wanting to present yourself as 'family friendly' and eat Miley Cyrus too."
I'm wondering as to the apropriatness of the Designated Hero trope. I'm wondering if, especially in the later episodes, Villain Protagonist or Anti-Hero might be better.
- Tricksterson: That's where Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist comes in. But I would have no problem with doing away with the Designated Hero trope, especially since it seems to have mostly been posted so one troper could bitch about Alex winning the wizarding contest in the movie.
- Cut the Designated Hero entry because while she's the main character, she's clearly not meant to be the Hero. Not to mention that most of it was natter.
- I couldn't find a "Bugs me" page (in a show about wizards? come on, there must be something).. but seriously, is everyone on this show retarded? Out of all the characters, Harper is probably the least moronic, only because she can't do anything really, really stupid like create a franken-girl then make it best friends with Alex. Also, are the people at their school retarded? They just let Frankengirl walk right into their school, and not notice that she's a literal "monster"? I've only seen the first 3 episodes of season, but it's enough to call them all stupider than Spencer from iCarly, which if you watch that show, is saying something.
- Tricksterson: If you feel one is warranted (and with all the bitching about this show that goes on, I'm surprised there isn't one too) then start one.
- Tricksterson: Since there's a character page, should we get rid of the character tropes here?
- Cilli: On the main page the character tropes are explained and exemplified, while on the character page the character tropes are just... there. Without examples and reasons. Well, not all of them, but most. So, I don't think it's such a good idea.
- Sandhi11 I agree with Cilli.
- sandhi11 But on a related note, since this already has a pre-existing Radar page, should we move all the radar examples over there.
- Tricksterson: Sounds good.
- Minsk: Wow, this show has more dangerous innuendo than some PG-13 movies. Disney is either blind or ignorant.
- Tricksterson: I believe neither. They know that tweens and teens are dirtier minded than most adults are willing to admit, not to mention a large peripheral demographic of adult pervs like myself but they also know that Moral Guardians would shut them down in a heart beat if they were open about it, not to mention that innuendo is both funny and fun to do.
- Minsk: So this is Disney's way of entertaining pervert teenagers. Today nothing is innuendo-free anymore. Plus, if some young kids watch the movie and observe the romatic vibes, they would get the wrong idea, like brothers and sisters could do those things. I mean, my best friend's little brother got the wrong idea when he watched Chronicles Of Narnia, thinking that Peter and Susan will marry or something, and there was nothing suggestive between the characters. I bet that if he watched this show, he would become convinced that brothers and sisters are aloud to get together. I understand if the show introduces innuendo once in a while, but they already crossed some boundaries. Even the fans have started asking the producers if Justin and Alex are going to end up together and... this is not quite normal, especially for a Disney show. At least they could change the script and say one of them is adopted so that they could introduce all the innuendo they want.
tricksterson: On Karma Houdini, isn't the point of the trope that the subject never gets punished? Sometimes she does. I think it's pretty much covered by Easily Forgiven, which is already listed.
Zerah92: She gets away many times. So we can talk about a potential Karma Houdini here, although this title is available only for some episodes.
