"The WB Presents: West Wing, early years"

Since this is a blog about pop culture, I feel that I have yet to make due on that. Ok, thanks to Television Without Pity, endless WB commercials, and the expensive but worth-it AOL television, I learned about and got an "early preview" to the WB's new show, Jack and Bobby. The general premise, if you do not watch the teeney-bopper channel, is about two brothers where one will end up being President of the United States in 2041. The show is created by West Wing's Thomas Schlamme and Everwood's Greg Berlanti. So as you can expect, the show will pull on those heart strings while maintaining some sense of presidential appeal.

Now let's be clear, the WB and the show's creators claim that this is NOT about the Kennedy's. That statement is questionable since the original premise was supposed to be a documentary on the young Kennedys (poor Ted). However, due to Berlanti's influence, he both changed the overall direction of the show and which brother actually becomes President. The show premiers tomorrow, Sunday, September 12 at 9PM on your local WB station.

The show details the lives of older brother Jack and younger brother Bobby MacCallister and how their influences by their mom, played by Christine Lahti, Grace MacCallister who is a liberal local college professor. Also on cast are the Benedicts; Peter Benedict is the President of said-local college and foil to Grace and his daughter Courtney Benedict who will be the first lady. Courtney, as expected, is the cliched love-interest for Jack. The show also juxtaposes itself from "present" to "future" where we have members of "President MacCallister's" life talk about how he rose to the Presidency.

Jack and Bobby can't be any more different from each other. Jack is the "popular one" who is star on the track team, has an "entourage", etc. Bobby, on the other hand, is "weird"; he wants to start a space club, he's asthmatic, and his mom has groomed him for something more. So Jack is in charge of protecting his brother from the often high school environment of social Darwinism. Compound this with Grace, who's trying to relive her 60's glory days by smoking marijuana, and you can imagine the brothers aren't having the best of lives.

The relationship between the two brothers is key for Presidential grooming. "Without Bobby, Jack might have never learned compassion and without Jack, Bobby would have never gained strength".

So is the show watchable? Yes, but I have yet to add it into my repertoire but it will have 10 weeks to convince me otherwise (Alias begins in January).

Oh, in case you're curious, Bobby becomes President and Jack will die in the distant future.

Oh, also, Bobby is an independent, though he was a Republican at one time.