Pretty Smart is yet another one of those serialized American TV shows that attempts to fill the void left by Friends. It is about four roommates and the sister of one of them sharing a house, their minor wins and loses, and about finding love. Though the stories had nothing imaginative, I found the episodes to be fun to watch with the characters being cheerful – a welcome break for the pandemic year. Available on Netflix it gets my Ripe for that reason.
There are four friends living in a house in Malibu, each from a different background: Claire is a happy-go-lucky character who enjoys her job as a waitress in a local restaurant; Solana is a former lawyer, now a spiritual healer; Grant is a personal trainer at a gym; and Jayden is a social media influencer. This group is joined by Chelsea, the elder sister of Claire, who is a complete contrast to the others.
I enjoyed the acting of Emily Osment who plays the role of Chelsea, a well-educated and smart person who has nothing to show as success in life for her decades of hard work. Olivia Macklin as Claire was fine. The show would have come dangerously close to one of the pitfalls of modern-day television, which is the token representation of gay characters, if not for Michael Hsu Rosen’s inspired portrayal of Jayden, his effortless & brilliant acting managed to add substance to a role that in anyone’s else hands would have come off as artificial & shallow – I hope he gets many more roles in the future.
Quirky, if a bit uninspired, Pretty Smart is above all else a good laugh & I wish there were more episodes of this feel-good show.
Pretty Smart (TV series)
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