Das magische Schwert – Die Legende von Camelot (1998)

Das magische Schwert – Die Legende von Camelot: Directed by Frederik Du Chau. With Jessalyn Gilsig, Andrea Corr, Cary Elwes, Bryan White. An adventurous girl, a young blind hermit, and a goofy two-headed dragon race to find the lost sword Excalibur to save King Arthur and Camelot from disaster.

“Iu0026#39;m 25, and a straight male, so Iu0026#39;m going to have to fake it here: u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; is one of the best new shows on MTV right now, which unfortunately in this day and age, does not really count for much. After a myriad of repeats of everything from u0026quot;Teen Momu0026quot; to u0026quot;Jersey Shore,u0026quot; itu0026#39;s nice to see a decent teen comedy show on the air once again.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI really mean it when I say that u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; is a decent show. No, correction: itu0026#39;s an above average show that manages to actually be very funny, in addition to being very raunchy. Think about MTVu0026#39;s other semi-good teen comedy series, u0026quot;The Hard Times of RJ Berger.u0026quot; Like u0026quot;Hard Times,u0026quot; u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; has been easily influenced by the recent wave of popular teen comedies at the movies, most notably 2010u0026#39;s u0026quot;Easy Au0026quot; (this showu0026#39;s premise borrows a central plot element from that film).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; is also heavily influenced by the films of the late John Hughes (1950-2009), that Brat Pack filmmaker behind such classics as u0026quot;Sixteen Candlesu0026quot; (1984), u0026quot;The Breakfast Clubu0026quot; (1985) (my personal favorite), and u0026quot;Pretty in Pinku0026quot; (1986). Using those movies as an influence for its plot basis, u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; tells the story of Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards), a virtual 15-year-old nobody at a posh Southern California high school. She narrates the show through her online blog postings.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s clearly established early on that Jenna is in fact, quite wise beyond her years, so obviously that has got to make her a target from the more popular students. Rickards is able to give her character a sense of humanity and vulnerability, and Social u0026quot;Awkwardu0026quot;-ness, that makes her seem like a real person and not a Molly Ringwald stereotype (a moment extremely late in the third episode really makes this clear). In fact, Rickardsu0026#39;s Jenna Hamilton and Ringwaldu0026#39;s bright-and-beautiful-but-socially-rejected John Hughes-era characters – Samantha Baker in u0026quot;Sixteen Candlesu0026quot; and Andie Walsh in u0026quot;Pretty in Pink,u0026quot; namely – are so close in age (and emotional maturity) that itu0026#39;s entirely possible that Jenna *could* be Ringwaldu0026#39;s offspring from those years.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDuring the summer, Jenna had a brief affair with Matty (Beau Mirchoff), the hottest hunk in school, and said affair ultimately resulted in her losing her virginity. The problem is that Jenna and every other girl in school is lusting after Matty, who does in fact appear to have genuine feelings for Jenna but does not want to take their relationship public, for obvious reasons. As the season begins, the new school year has just started and weu0026#39;re shown Jennau0026#39;s daily life as a societal outcast at her school, her promiscuous best friend Tamara (Jillian Rose Reed), and her overweight cheer-leading nemesis – and resident mean girl/queen bee – Sadie (Molly Tarlov).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBefore you know it, a freak accident one night in her bathroom results in a misconstrued rumor that Jenna had tried to commit suicide, and the rumor mill at her school goes ballistic with the news. A la Emma Stoneu0026#39;s social-climbing Olive Pendergast in u0026quot;Easy A,u0026quot; Jenna is thrust to the top of the high school social ladder – sheu0026#39;s the new u0026quot;itu0026quot; girl that everyone is talking about, for better or for worse – and she also has to deal with the common trials u0026amp; tribulations of being a socially Awkward teenager on the verge of adulthood.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; is a genuinely funny and entertaining show, if you have a thing for teen shows. Sure it rehashes a lot of what weu0026#39;ve seen in the past to the point that itu0026#39;s pretty much overkill. And Lord knows weu0026#39;ve seen enough teen comedies over the years to know what to expect from shows like this. But where u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; gets points is, I think, is its knowledge of its influences, namely the works of John Hughes. Hughes was known for complex, yet uniquely human portrayals of teenagers in his films and u0026quot;Awkward.u0026quot; appears to display some of the humanist complexities that Hughes had made his trademark back in the u0026#39;80s. You can see it with Jenna and how torn she is between Matty and another popular hunk named Jake (Brett Davern).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith this in mind, this series definitely shows promise, promise that I hope is not squandered on stupid sex jokes, humor, and raunchiness – although there is already plenty of that here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAwkward.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e8/10”