n-mo

Judy Blume has been oft-derided for her extremely pessimistic and hyperrealist (sometimes) conceptions of late childhood and early adolescence. Her "Fudge" series suffered from another unforgivable flaw: lack of sympathetic characters (except, perhaps, for Jimmy Fargo and his father). Fudge himself was a total brat; Peter was a self-righteous and disrespectful pomp; Shiela was, even from her own perspective, completely dishonest, pretentious and unconvincing; the Hatchers were overindulgent dupes (and the mother quite possibly a tranq addict).But the "Fudge" T.V. series turned all that around. Fudge is still an annoying little brother, but he's a witty and well-meaning kid--sure, he busted the antique table, but all he wanted was to wrestle with his brother; and sure, he extorted money to buy his parents an anniversary present, but COME ON! He's a little kid. There are enough cute moments that we get the idea that even Peter, in between bouts of annoyance, is somewhat charmed.Peter, for his part, is headstrong but less bitter, a vast improvement over the Peter of the books. He even has a generous side--he gave up his precious duck to console his poor plush-monkey-deprived little brother. So does Shiela; she's gone from a completely facetious know-it-all to a girl next door who may be slightly bossy and nerdy yet is also earnest and serious--and appears to nurse some genuine affection for Peter.And the parents... well, anything could have been an improvement over the books, but at least they appear to exercise some sort of sense now and then, and that is always welcome.I no longer watch any TV and I only caught an episode here and there, but as TV shows go this one was pretty decent and redeeming, especially contrasted with the downright depressing anti-humanism of the books. Kudos also on having a network show (and a children's show nonetheless!) set in New York City rather than the cultural wasteland that is Southern California. There are definitely worse wastes of your time (c.f., South Park, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). (And thank you for getting rid of the distracting and totally unnecessary additional little sister, "Tootsie."

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