Truly Outrageous...in which I hate on Jem.

Yesterday, Ragnell was telling me how she found the pilot of Jem and the Holograms. It reminded me that, while I loved the show as a mini-kalinara, Jem is one cartoon that I regretfully admit I haven't been able to sit through as an adult. And I LIKE 80s music.

I think my biggest issue was in the entire premise. Okay, first. Why couldn't Jerrica just front a band as Jerrica? Was there some clause in her ownership of the company that I'm just not remembering? If so...why? Jerrica Benton inherited half of Starlight Music from her father, right? The same man who invented the holographic computer Synergy and set up that nifty little hideaway for them. When they first find Synergy, they find her in a hideaway with costumes and instruments and other nifty things.

So we're supposed to believe that the man who'd set all this up for his daughter would have some inheritance clause about her not being able to perform AND head up his company?

If someone who's watched the explanation episode more recently than *counts on fingers* 18 years ago can remember and clarify this for me, I'd appreciate it. :-)

I also don't quite understand why Synergy was necessary to begin with. Okay, say Jerrica DID have a clause where she couldn't perform and head the company. It's not like Jem's facial features were any different. And none of the other band members really looked any different. You'd think someone would have said "Wow, it's interesting that the holograms consist of a purple haired African American with the body of a supermodel, a blue haired Asian-American with the body of a supermodel, a younger red head and...that other girl that joined later. Isn't it funny that Jerrica Benton's foster sisters are a purple haired African American girl with the body of a supermodel, a blue haired Asian American girl with the body of a supermodel, and her younger sister is redhaired and in the band?"

Not to mention that their goal was to save the Starlight House, and all that.

I know that 80s cartoons are cheesy, but I always appreciated how in the case of He-Man for example, I totally understood why no one figured out his identity. (They may share the same height/weight/hair-style, but He-Man appeared to be very mediterranean to Adam's germanic coloring. That sort of thing is hard to fake. Heck, when his mom figured out, I distinctly remember there was something weird about the lights/colors of their location. And Cringer was distinctly smaller/younger looking than Battle-Cat.)

Jem...really didn't make sense considering that Jerrica was the ONLY one who was in disguise.

Also, can someone tell me why, in certain episodes, there'd be a frantic search for the star-earrings and she couldn't be Jem without them...why couldn't she just wear a wig?

For that matter, I remember one episode where she loses the earrings because she gets golden heart earrings as a gift and feels obligated to put them on.

Which okay. Fine. So why couldn't her holograms that defied any sort of plausible explanation anyway make those pink earrings look like gold hearts?

Also, don't get me started on the Rio/Jerrica relationship. He was a jerk, two-timing one for the other, and she was even worse because even though she knew he was getting close emotionally to her alter ego, she never could come out and TELL him she was Jem.

Yes, dumbass, he probably will be angry about it, and he has every right to be. You're lying to him. And the more you keep quiet about it, the more he's going to be angry. So either dump his ass or tell him the damn truth.

The music was cute though. And I find myself having this weird sort of fondness for Eric Raymond (eeevil manager of the Misfits) in my old age.

Odd.