Cruel to be kind

So as I said before, I've been watching, at first out of morbid curiosity and then out of genuine, I guess, not hating-ness would be the right way to describe the emotion, the ne 10 Things I Hate About You TV show. I was born between the years of 1985 and 1992, so obviously I think that 10 Things is the BEST MOVIE EVER. And also obvious when I heard about the show, I cried blasphemy from the rooftops. That was until I saw that Lindsey Shaw was plying Kat. I love Lindsey Shaw, seriously. I thought she was fantastic on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Do you understand how hard it is to be fantastic on a Nickelodeon show?

So I decided to give the show, and Lindsey a chance.

I did.

I'm not saying it's great. It isn't. There are a lot of problems. But it's cute, funny and harmless. Mostly, if you forget that it's associated with the movie (not that hard) it's worth a watch if you're bored.

There are a few things I can't reconcile though.

1. The character of Joey Donner. Joey is meant to be a smarmy too good looking, manipulative SOB. The TV version is a brainless second string jock.

2. Mandella in the movie is Kat's spunky, borderline crazy bff, not a weird overweight goth. This really bugs me, since I've always related to Mandella.

3. Kat and Bianca's mother is dead, didn't abandon the family. It kind of ruins a lot of Kat's character motivation. She doesn't want to let people in because she doesn't want to be left again.

I initially had a problem with the guy playing Patrick too, but I've reconciled that. It's not his fault he's not Heath Ledger.