6Teen

6Teen

     6Teen is a flash-animated TV show from a Canadian company that got popular in the states thanks to Cartoon Network, and coming form the same people as Total Drama Island (a survivor parody that as of late has just become more base and ridiculous). It is about 6 teenagers who work in a mall.

The Characters are as follows:

• Caitlin, the shop-a-holic pretty, popular girl. Well, assumed popular, we never see them in school, though she seems popular enough considering the number of boyfriends she goes through.
• Jen, the serious and straight-laced girl. She tends to snap rather easily when under stress.
• Nikki, angry punk girl. Not much more to say, angry punk girl pretty much explains everything.
• Jonesy, slacker, moron, Casanova, and all around un-hire-able guy. If something goes wrong, it is likely his fault.
• Jude, chill skater dude. Seems to be high most of the time, almost never leaves his state of calm/bliss.
• Wyatt, token black guy, music writer, singer, and coffeeholic. Had an extremely long and annoying arc about a girl he liked breaking up with him.

     Together, there are everydayish hijinks and Aesops... And two Christmas Episodes (at least, of the first 5 seasons). They actually run basically like normal episodes, thanks to the British culture of Christmas episodes being regular episodes in a series, which is actually somewhat interesting considering how much of a different feel they have from the standard American fare.

     The art-style can best be described as thus: South park if the creators tried to make something of value.

     I'm going to do them both in the same post, because they are relatively short, contain a lot of the same themes, and splitting them in two would seem like a cop-out.

The First Episode:

     The first one begins with Jen working at the Penalty Box (sports shop) where she is being overworked by last-minute shoppers. (I guess it must be a Canadian thing to go buy a lot of sports equipment for gifts... I can't imagine why a small sports shop would be swamped with people buying stuff on Christmas Eve otherwise. Though the guy buying a jockstrap has no excuse, he doesn't need to be buying that on Christmas Eve.) She then excuses herself to go scream in an elevator about how much she hates working during Christmas.

     After the intro, we cut to "The Lemon" (a smoothie shop that Caitlin works at, and is the frequent hangout spot for the group. I imagine that's because the relatively low number of layers in that area makes it easier to export.) where after Jen rages some more, now also complaining about how her and Jonesy's parents are dating, and how Jonesy has a large number of traditions she's expected to take part in (They involve competitions of the racing and eating variety). To try and quell her rage and restore Christmas spirit, Caitlin takes Jen to help her find her Christmas presents. Jude, meanwhile, is trying to wrap a basket ball. (The answer to this problem is relatively simple, though takes a bit of creativity: Take the wrapping paper and make sure it wraps around the ball Hotdog style, then take the excess paper on both ends, and bind them near the ball to make it look like a giant piece of candy. Simple! No tape needed.) Jude fails spectacularly with the wrapping; he gets wrapped up in the tape, and when he breaks free, he launches the ball some distance away, and comments that that was the third ball he lost. Then he reveals that he bought the ball for himself. (He's spacey, so I'm not inclined to call him a moron.) He is of course berated for this by Nikki, and told he's supposed to shop for other people (The guy buying a jockstrap sure wasn't). Jonesy then comes in and mentions that the Mall Santa was put out of commission (sick in some way, arteries or something) and that the job is up for grabs. So he goes for it.

     We then cut to Wyatt, who is in-line getting his coffee. He is incredibly weak, requiring his coffee before he can do anything. He finally gets it, but a careless shopper passes by him (At the front of the line mind you. Wyatt hasn't even taken a step away.) and knocks the drink onto his shirt. Wyatt curses the sky, but instead of buying another coffee (he's still at the front of the line) Caitlin and Jen drag him along to go see Jonesy as Santa Claus (along with Jude and Nikki) to their surprise however, Jonesy is instead a Santa's helper, tights and all. (It is at this point that I notice that their legs are longer than the entire top half of their bodies.)

     After some brief, somewhat banal antics, they all end up back at the Lemon with their gifts to each other all prepared, and Jonesy was fired (doesn't really matter how, he was going to get himself fired even if he did what he was supposed to). Caitlin remarks about how they all are so bummed and wants to cheer them up. Jonesy mentions that he could get them into a movie, and they do... (Never mind that the tickets for a matinee are only 6 dollars, meaning they could all pay their own tickets or one of them could pay for all, and they could get in legally and not have any problems...) But they are all thrown out after making too much noise. Then they wander around the secret passages of the Mall (What kind of mall is it where they have backdoor passages? I could understand loading and unloading of merchandise,  but these passages seem to be commercially available... So why did they make it like a maze?) after several hours, they end up back at the Lemon, where they discover their presents are gone (they didn't hide them, they were left in the open). Everyone begins breaking down, especially since they are locked in (alarms should be going off... or an exit should be open from the inside...). Caitlin remarks that she was working her ass off to make it a good Christmas, because she's never had brothers or sisters to celebrate with, while everyone else has a big family to enjoy it with. Everyone then calms down and problems are resolved (that's a recurring theme in the show... If they were to just talk to each other, they wouldn't have all these problems). Then Wyatt remembers that Jonesy has the master key to the mall, form when he worked with the rent-a-cop (Christopher Walken Expy. They don't quite get his speech pattern right). Their first thought is leaving, but then they get other ideas... (No alarms means FREE FOR ALL 5-FINGER DISCOUNT! EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED AT YOUR GRASP!) No, instead they decide to simply do party things, then leave.

      After the commercial break, we come back to find out that Jen won the competition against Jonesy and his brothers (her stomach had to have been screaming at her after that eating contest...) and we close out on the first holiday episode.

     The Second Episode:

     This episode takes place about a year after the first, though little has changed beyond Wyatt and Jude's place of employment.

     In this episode, Jen is once again super stressed about working during Christmas... Only this time it is directed at her boss, rather than with her family. Nikki, meanwhile, is trying to avoid her parents, who are taking her to a tropical area as a Christmas gift (she has zero interest). Caitlin has started a secondary business where she does the shopping for guys who don't know what to get their girlfriends (I always request a wishlist. I can never know what someone wants without one, and I have terrible judgement otherwise). Jonesy is finally doing something right, being a gift wrapper (he is surprisingly good). Jude gets the idea that he should make all his Christmas gifts to people (he actually does a decent job, and puts some actual thought into what his friends would like, though they all backfire in some way, or don't reach their conclusion.) And Wyatt... Wyatt barely does anything. He mostly just tries to get his boss at Underground video (and indie video renting store, likely went out of business with the advent of Netflix) to be more interested in Christmas, complete with a 2 minute abridged version of A Christmas Carol. That's pretty much it, there is no overarching plotline to this episode, it is a bunch of small plots that have a tiny bit of interaction with each other. Still, slightly better than the first one.

     Now, compare these to the "All Grown Up!" special... The All grown up special made me rage hard at the illogical, especially since the show was so melodramatic about it... This one is far more cynical, and yet because of that feels better than "The Finster Who Stole Christmas." These specials aren't really good but they aren't terrible. They aren't something I would want to watch again, but they aren't hair-splittingly bad. They are at the very least refreshing, and rather normal.

     To improve these episodes... Honestly there isn't really much one can do. It's like trying to improve Full House or Friends... Nothing would really make them better, since they are pretty banal to begin with. I'd just say improve production values; add some tints so that it isn't always mid-day white light. But I say that to every single cartoon, so it isn't anything to squirm over...

This has been Fixer Sue. Tomorrow... We see why Disney is obsessed with Tim Allen.