True Jackson VP: Season 1 – Review

The Flick

A novice lucks into a job at a major fashion label and has to balance the demands of a high profile career and learning to handle jealous coworkers with the requirements of maintaining relationships and the stress of getting her crush to notice her.  Insert a shameful love affair and some outrageous parties and it sounds like The Devil Wears Prada or something else scandalous and equally sensational.  Wrong!  It’s Nickelodeon’s True Jackson VP—Season 1, not scandalous at all and questionably sensational.

True Jackson (Keke Palmer of The Longshots, Jump In!, Akeelah and the Bee, and a few of the “Madea” movies) starts off selling sandwiches in the garment district, but when she makes a splash in the Mad Style lobby by rocking some Mad Style duds updated with her own personal touches, she is immediately hired as Executive Vice President of the teen fashion department at the major label.  She brings her best friends, LuLu (Ashley Argota) and Ryan (Matt Shively) along for the ride as her assistants who often cause trouble and get her into deep water with her coworkers.  Max Madigan (Greg Proops) is the eccentric president of Mad Style who takes True under his wing, along with the company’s receptionist, Oscar (Ron Butler), a guardian angel of sorts.  Amanda (Danielle Bisutti) has always been the apple of Max’s eye, and she will do whatever it takes to keep it that way when True arrives on the scene to steal Amanda’s thunder.   Jimmy (Robbie Amell of Picture This and Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins), the mail-room boy and aspiring musician, gives True some eye candy.  Most importantly is Kopelman (Dan Kopelman, a producer and writer for shows including True Jackson VP and Malcolm in the Middle) who is my favorite part of each episode!

At the beginning of the season, I lost interest halfway through every episode, but like most premier seasons, the show picks up later on, after you get through episodes upon episodes of character introduction and plot set-up.  The format of each episode remained the same from beginning to end of the season:  a guest character is introduced at the beginning of an episode, he introduces a challenge, True competes against Amanda, or sometimes just her own expectations, and comes out victorious in the end out of sheer luck!

The concept is great.  Nick’s target audience is pre-teens, and what “tween” girl can resist a show with hot guys, stylish duds, and an empowering female lead.  To reel in the male audience, there is bathroom humor… lots of bathroom humor… too much bathroom humor, as well as some physical comedy.  The characters are obnoxious, though, and a little overdone.  LuLu is no Sam Pucket as the super sidekick best friend, and comes off as ridiculous instead of as comic relief.  Amanda Cantwell, the 30-something coworker and nemesis of True, stoops down to the teenagers’ level too many times to be believable.  While other shows on Nick are a little corny but witty and original, nonetheless (iCarly rocks according to me and every single kid I babysit, boy or girl!), Teen Nick may have missed the mark with True Jackson VP.

The DVD

Audio/Video

The audio was sufficient for a TV on video release, and the video was crisp and clear.

Special Features

The standard Behind-the-Scenes, Blooper Reel, Screen Tests, and Previews are on this disc, but the feature that stands out is the Barbie Fashion Show that provides the viewer with a look at what goes on behind the runway curtain. Overall this disc is pretty packed, if only the show would have connected with me like most of the Nick shows do.

The Flick: Rating:

The DVD: Rating:

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