Jack & Bobby

I'm a skeptic when it comes to new television shows. Usually the fall line-ups are full of the same crap, and the recent surge in reality television has not helped. I despise most sitcoms - Seinfeld made me chuckle once and a while but more often made me cringe - and dramas all seem to be the same these days. I swear 'CSI' is the most ridiculous piece of crap I've seen in a while. How can this actually be the most watched drama in America? Am I the only one who finds it completely ludicrous (not to mention disgusting)? Oh, well. I will admit, I will give CSI: New York a try, just because I am a fan of Gary Sinise.

But all of that isn't the point of this monologue. I just finished watching a really impressive drama on the WB (gasp?) called Jack & Bobby. It is, by far, the best television show I have seen in a long, long while. It was intelligent, witty, and somehow touching.

The premise is simple, one of the McAllister brothers, Jack or Bobby, will become the 51st President of the United States in 2040. This is the story of his youth - growing up with his brother and mother in the mid west.

The show was set in the modern day with occasional flash forward to interviews conducted after the McAllister Administration left office in 2049. The effect was good, and the writers left you hanging until the end of the pilot to see which brother is going to be elected President. What was great about the show was that it could have been very political, but instead focused on the central theme: how does a young man grow into a person that could be president?

The show was very well written, and the actors portraying the teenage brothers were fantastic. I think everyone should check this show out at least once to see if it's for them.