A.N.T. Farm

I cannot see how this show even passed the drawing board. I know Disney has had poor taste lately but this just adds to the idea of failure. Basically, the show is a bunch of pre-teens who are in an advanced program set at their local high school. One of them is a musical prodigy even though it is blatantly obvious that she cannot play any of those instruments. The other is a person who can memorize everything they see and hear. That is not exactly likely. The jokes are cheesy and overdone. I cannot see that plan even passing in the real world. Where do you get enough geniuses to create this program? The acting is lousy and very overly dramatic. Just skip A.N.T. Farm.

When I decided to attempt to give everything on Disney Plus a try, it was the show's like "ANT Farm" that I was particularly concerned about. There appear to be endless, witless, crappy, canned laughter shows like this, that I'm going to have to have a shot at. I watched two episodes before deciding that life was too short, which equates to just over 3% of the shows complete output.

11 year old music prodigy Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) joins high school early, as part of the advanced natural talents (A.N.T) programme. There she meets Olive (Sierra McCormick) and Fletcher (Jake Short) fellow wunderkind who warn her about the tribulations of the older kids at the school. These include Lexi (Stefanie Scott) the schools head cheerleader who immediately takes against Chyna, but also her older brother Cameron (Carlon Jeffery) who isn't keen about sharing a school with his younger sister.

I am miles away from the target audience for something like "ANT Farm" and had it not been for my stupid quest to watch stuff blind, would never have come across it. Though there's potential in some of the cast ultimately I can't say that I enjoyed it. I'm not going to criticise the kids for their stageschool overacting (any further than just mentioning it there). I'm sure it's what they were told to do and depending on the character performances run from promising to nails down a blackboard. I will throw some shade in the direction of Zach Steel and his character of Gibson, the student councillor. He's spectacularly awful, a gurning unfunny jackass. It's a hugely broad style of comedy, that I'd imagine might appeal to kids of that age. Silly, slapstick style humour that I felt got old pretty quickly. I should say that each of the two episodes I watched, did raise a smile in me at some point though.

I feel like, though I didn't care for "ANT Farm" much I fear that further investigation of shows available on Disney Plus may end up with me looking back fondly on it.

This show really needs to be reworked. It seems to be a Hannah Montana knock-off. The lead character is a singer (without the secret identity). Since the show began I have come to seriously dislike the Chyna Parks character she is constantly bossing her friends around insisting that they do what she wants with little concern for their feelings of ideas. The show would be much better if she went from a lead character to a costar and they elevated the other characters to equal status. The two cheerleaders Lexi and Paisley are good though they should make Paisley a bit smarter (she is in High School after all). And Lexi's schemes always make me laugh. The Angus character just needs to go away he is absolutely useless. Since the show began he was only useful in one episode. Finesse Mitchell is hilarious as the dad (Darryl) but I think that there are some Cops out there that may not care for him. Overall if they tone down Chyna and spotlight the other characters this show will be a really good show.

Update: After watching pretty much every episode I think I have figured out the basic storyline for each episode.

The show opens with one or more of the cast members either wanting to do something not wanting to do something or doing something.

Enter Chyna. She sees what is happening and she either doesn't want the cast member do something, wants them to do something or wants to do it herself.

She comes up with a plan to get her way; regardless of what her "friend(s)" want.

She drafts her "friends" into helping her. Her plan fails. She sings a song.

Chyna's "friends" apologize.

I put "friends" in parenthesis because she doesn't treat them like true friends. Also they are still using the autotuner for Chyna's songs. This is usually used for people that do not sing very well. So its use confuses me since I cannot believe that Disney would have somebody sing if they really can't

Advanced Natural Talent, that's what an ANT is in the world of high school Magic Kingdom style. Some of these kids are stretching the boundaries of what might be talent. One young lady has a photographic memory, another kid makes robots, one is an aspiring gymnast. But our protagonist young Chyna Ann McLain only sings beautifully. All the kids are too young for high school and none of them really fit in, nor do the others try. In fact one of them is Carlon Jeffrey who is Chyna's older brother and he's more of a traditional misfit.

ANT Farm is neither the best or the worst of Disney's juvenile comedy shows. It's like Hannah Montana in that it really only comes alive when a very talented young lady like Miley Cyrus opens up and sings.

This is definitely in the top 3 worst Disney Channel sitcoms. What an obnoxious, loud and unfunny show. Also, this show was Disney trying to create another Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana with China Anne McClain and it flopped miserably.

They even model the characters after the one on Hannah Montana

China = Miley, Olive = Lilly, Fletcher = Oliver, The Dad = Robbie, Cameron = Jackson, Lexi & Paisley = Amber & Ashley

This show's premise is idiotic and makes zero sense. You have these 11 year old's' who skip all the way to high school because they're talented in singing and painting? What??? How are these valid reasons to skip a grade. What a lame idea for a sitcom.

The acting is terrible! Everybody obnoxiously overacts, chews up the scenery and screams their lines. Sierra McCormick obnoxiously yells at her lines and China Anne McClain is a horrible actress with weak comedic timing. I despise that low and high voice thing she does when tries to make a sarcastic joke. Ugh....

The characters all SUCK! China is a Mary Sue who can do wrong, is the best at everything, and everybody loves her except Lexi. I hate her singing. She over sings and thinks she best ever!She's selfish, manipulating, mean, egoistic. Olive is an annoying know it all, Fletcher is a wimp who has a creepy obsession with China, Angus is the annoying loser fat kid, Lexi is a mean girl jerk, Paisley is her dumb side-kick, Cameron is the loser older brother who sucks at everything, the dad is an idiot, the mom is irrelevant, Gibson is the idiot man child guidance mentor, the principal is bitchy old fart, Violet is little girl with anger issues. Poor underdeveloped characters that are obnoxious, detached, and cartoonish.

The plots are stupid and shallow. The "jokes" and comedy are lowest common denominator of childish.

I hate this stupid trend of putting the shows title into the name of the episode. Some of the episode names are (Ballet DANTser, Slumber Party ANTics) So stupid!

They make China's character dress and act older than she is. Why is that? Oh and China Anne McClain has to sing in every single episode just so they make money off albums.

They've completely white washed this show. KC Undercover and That's So Raven are black shows. In this show China and her brother are tokens on their show and are surround by a mostly white cast.

Bottom Line.... this show is utter garbage and a failed attempt at trying to create another Hannah Monatana and iCarly! The only episode I liked was when China lost her voice. We didn't have to hear that obnoxious brat's insufferably annoying singing.