Sometimes Brooke and Sam squabble — as in a raucous cafeteria food fight in November — and sometimes they commiserate, as when they bemoan their newly ga-ga parents' frisky sexuality. The two also spend time hanging out with that spunky cast. Chief among Sam's geek friends is Sara Rue's Carmen, a full-figured gal with a gratifyingly complicated array of feelings about her weight. On the other side, there's Brooke's delightful status-monger, Nicole, played by Tammy Lynn Michaels with a campiness so feral, she suggests a frosted-blond version of Joan Collins in her Dynasty heyday. I've even grown fond of Popular's most cliched character, Sugar Daddy (Ron Lester), a roly-poly white boy who talks in hip-hop jargon; it's Lester's lovable performance that gives this would-be mack daddy his appeal. In general, Popular avoids stereotypes. Brooke, for example, may be a beauty queen, but she also pulls down straight A's; sometimes the pressure she places on herself makes her seem as if her saltwater-taffy self is about to snap.

Like That '70s Show, Popular has made much ado about when Brooke and Sam will relinquish their virginity — as on most of The WB's 382 other white-teen series, this is the Golden Fleece of plotlines. And as on That '70s Show, this question, supposedly so fraught with import to both series' adolescent audiences, is invariably the one that brings the comic momentum to a halt so as to deliver solemn yet mixed messages about responsibility while making jokes about condoms as "sausage wrappers."

Let's face it, on network TV you can't deal with the sex issue as forthrightly as you need to to make it a meaningful subject, so what's the point? My advice to these shows' writers: Drop this stuff. And don't question this wisdom.

Just do it. '70s: C Popular: B

[BOX]

The WB
Popular
8-9 PM
Thursdays

FOX
That '70s Show
8:30-9 PM
Tuesdays

Originally posted Dec 17, 1999 Published in issue #517 Dec 17, 1999 Order article reprints
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