GAME OVER
UPN, Wednesdays @ 8pm
[Official Website]

Basic story: In a similar animated family format to that of King of the Hill, Family Guy and the Simpson’s, UPN gives us Game Over. While this formula may be as old as the Flintstones it’ll be around long after we get the flying cars promised us in the Jetson’s. The members of the Smashenburn family do differ in that each of them is the lead character in their own video game and their hometown lies in the suburbs of Cyber-space.

Sample: Alice Slashenburn (Rachel Dratch, fifth season player on SNL) “Can we eat or do you want me to be anorexic like those anime basket-cases?”

Verdict: This show’s narrowed the viewing band down to anyone who grew up with a video game console as a babysitter and all 200 fans of Cartoon Network’s syndicated run of Reboot. The clips viewable from their not impossible to reach site are great even while the audience targeting seems to be aiming for both 30-something ‘boys’ and ADHD children (not too far separated I suppose). I’ll likely watch this, since I grew up with Nintendo-thumb and was one of Reboot’s 200 fans, but also because it genuinely looks like it might have a few original scenarios to play out.