Last week's episode, "Into the Wild", seemed to herald an awakening to the notion that there isn't just one major glamor fox on the regular cast list (hello AnnaLynne) after the loss of that pretty deserter (hello Gillian) but two (hello Jessica, no, not Stroup, definitely not Stroup, you may go home, Stroup, on your moped Stroup, (with that helmet on in Season 2 just like a born spinster), goodbye Stroup, good riddance, Stroup) and this week "Hate 2 Love" continues the trend not to rely only on AnnaLynne by showing a lovely beach romance scene with our Jessica. Okay, so we don't like that guy, but, wow, Jessie-baby!
This review is about Jessica Lowndes. Lovely green-eyed brown-haired and nice long legs, that one. A standout even if her character was thoroughly a mean girl meaner than that MEAN GIRLS movie back in Season 1 before she got pregnant. A standout because one look at her and you can see in her eyes she's really a nice thing.
Regarding the rest of this show, before I continue with the main subject, let me just blurt something out. There are several little overfed garden gnomes in this show THAT NEEDED TO BE AXED and replaced with hotter, livelier characters. The very worst case is dorky dork 'Navid' who is such a dorky dork I long for ol' Brandon of the original. Michael Steger. Hell, who wants you, guy? Close second, the other dork. Dixon Wilson. Tristan the HatNan Wilds. What can I say about Tristan that is printable? I'm sure he loves his Mom and Dad. He is a Jay Z wannabe. He has also got to be the heaviest most overrated top-billed star in a highly vaunted TV show. What the freaking hell were they thinking? D - a - m - m - i - t... In third place, Shenae Grimes, the leading lady. Leading lady, you must be kidding. Really. Like the cartoon 'Beware Of The Dog' sign with a shamefaced dog hiding behind the sign when the nasty cat comes prowling by. 'Leading Lady' poof! Her foot in a fish-tin! Had it not been for AnnaLynne McCord (Naomi the queen bee), Jessica Lowndes and Gillian Zinser (as surfer chick Ivy), not forgetting Sara Foster (as scheming Jen), this show would have sunk without a trace. You will notice that only AnnaLynne of those four names were full time original cast members, as Jessica (Adriana Tate- Duncan) was originally meant to be an ill-fated story arc character dying after a drug overdose early on in Season 1. Fortunately, the producers spotted her potential, and salvaged her from her untimely death.
Lots of people thoroughly hate Adriana Tate- Duncan. Feel free to do so, it is your right, what you make of the story is your business. Love to hate them, part of the fun.
I would just like to point out that the actress portraying Adriana is a full-on dreamgirl who has been sadly overlooked, buried under the scorn reserved for ol' Adriana. Come on, so she slipped Silver some placebos instead of her much-needed anti-bipolar meds? Come on, it is a story! (And come to think of it, a crazy bunny like Silver wants to play Mommy and be artificially inseminated by the sperm of her gay friend? Hello, Child Welfare?). Okay, but that too is a story, so see how we shouldn't mix fact with fantasy?
Okay, Main Subject of review. Jessica Lowndes. After last week's episode, I downloaded, or tried downloading, the song she sang at the concert. "Snake Charmer", but was bummed to find it wasn't any longer available on VuClip. Got a one-visual-slide-only audio on Tubidy, bummer. Went back later after not being able to accept such a defeat and found a filmed-at-a-live-concert video, it was basic, but could serve its purpose amply, but the sound was weak, very disappointing.
One thing nagged at me. All those people distracting from her appeal by focusing on "hateful" ol' Adriana. This poor Jessica Lowndes is basically saddled with a bad rep. For playing a formerly nasty girl, since reformed into a... slightly wishy-washy little thing, I s'pose (well, gee, people, the scripts are basically tawdry rushes of getting from Point A to Point Far-Fetched B and then quickly on to have something of Point Far-Fetched C as well but now we get bored of this so let's rush on to Far-Fetched Point D, so if you get my drift...) But all of this is SO NOT THE POINT.
Here's a hot star and she looks like a Million Dollars and she can sing and she sounds like a Million Dollars and she gets bloody overlooked! Wake up America!
I say, forgive Adriana! It is only a story! Rescue stranded Jessica Lowndes!
Addendum, 28 December 2015. Okay, watched "99 Problems" today, and encountered the origin of the music video I downloaded from VuClip. So, it's all put together from footage shot for that episode. I didn't know that two weeks ago. Aside from that, nothing in my argument changes, there was more to that performance, Jessica Lowndes does that song beautifully, why wasn't it properly marketed?
