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A.N.T. Farm
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A.N.T. Farm is an American teen sitcom which originally aired on Disney Channel from May 6, 2011 to March 21, 2014.
Plot
Seasons 1 & 2
A.N.T. Farm revolves around Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain), an 11-year-old musical prodigy, who has just become the newest student in the Advanced Natural Talents (A.N.T.) program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California for gifted middle schoolers. On her first day, she meets Gibson (Zach Steel), the goofy counselor and tutor of the A.N.T. Farm, as well as Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick), a girl with an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), an artistic genius, but otherwise quite dim, who falls in love with Chyna when they first meet (although the running joke of the show is that no matter how obvious he makes it, she continues to be oblivious to it, or at least ignores it for a very long time). After becoming friends, the three proceed to go on multiple adventures, using their talents to their advantage. The school's it girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), is one of the teenagers who thinks that the A.N.T.s don't belong at Webster High School and views them as little kids. She proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's older brother, Cameron (Carlon Jeffery), attempts to avoid Chyna in high school as much as he can, afraid she will be an embarrassment to him. Lexi's best friend Paisley (Allie DeBerry) and Angus (Aedin Mincks), a computer prodigy who harbors a crush on Olive, are major recurring roles in the series.
Season 3
The third season takes place at a boarding school called Z-Tech after all of the A.N.T.s are accepted as students. The school is run by a big technology company, Z-Tech, owned by Zoltan Grundy (Dominic Burgess). The series ends with Fletcher winning an arts fellowship in New York City and moving there to follow his dreams.
Unexceptional Qualities
- In a way, it's a rip-off of Victorious, since both shows are about a girl who is trying to fit into a special high school.
- Chyna Parks is a rip-off of Tori Vega, but she’s a better character.
- Olive Doyle is a rip-off of Cat Valentine, though the intelligence levels are inverted.
- She can also be seen as a rip-off of Sam Puckett from iCarly, as Olive constantly abuse Fletcher to make herself look good.
- Fletcher Quimby is a rip-off of Robbie Shapiro and André Harris.
- Lexi Reed is a rip-off of Jade West, and Jade herself is no better.
- Cameron Parks is a rip-off of Trina Vega, and possibly Spencer Shay from iCarly, but he's likable.
- A lot of the characters are annoying, and some can just feel like nothing more than one-note gags. A great example of this is Fletcher, whose main gimmick is having a crush on Chyna...and that’s it.
- Gibson is the most unlikable character in the show, (thankfully he was removed after season 2) and being replaced with Zoltan Grundy (while a slight upgrade, he's pretty unlikable and annoying).
- Lexi is superficial and self-centered, caring only about herself and believing that she is the only person that matters in the world.
- Paisley is supposed to be her "Best Friend", but Lexi is often mean to her, uses her to do stuff for her, has stolen almost all of her boyfriends, as well as McKenna's, rarely thanks her for anything she does, and when Paisley had a broken arm, she writes a very cruel and sickening message on her cast, "Hope Infection Sets In, Love Lexi". Not to mention, Lexi then pretended both of her arms were broken, just so she could beat Paisley on getting the most signatures of her casts. She also often says "Shut Up, Paisley!", when Paisley bugs her in some way.
- Principal Skidmore is not a good principal. She locked Chyna, Fletcher, Olive, and Angus in the Ant Farm room in episode “confinemANT” and also, she made a lot of budget cuts at the school just to buy stuff for her office.
- While likable, Cameron is the butt-monkey of the series, as he always gets abused and bullied by others. The same can kind of be said about Fletcher, as he commonly serves as the butt of many jokes.
- Some of the acting is cringe-worthy.
- Weak, mean-spirited, and scatological humor.
- In one episode, there was an a.n.t farting in front of two other ants, which is just bizarre.
- Speaking of the humor, the laugh track plays after almost every line.
- Rather cheesy and poor writing.
- For some odd reason, these kids are allowed to skip grades. We can understand Olive, since her "gift" would actually be useful in school, but the other kids, no. We're supposed to believe that being good with music, art, or some other thing that has absolutely nothing to do with almost every subject taught in school, will get you to skip multiple grades. Maybe the better question is, why didn't they just set it in a 7-12 grade school and leave it at that?
- Overuse of high school stereotypes, such as the mean popular girl, the dumb blonde, and the nerd.
- The main characters are supposed to be tweens but look way more like teenagers.
- Sends poor messages to kids, like that you shouldn't stand up for someone when they're getting bullied.
- Season 3 changes the setting from a high school to a special boarding school for child prodigies run by billionaire Zoltan Grundy, thus leaving out many characters (namely Cameron, Mr. Parks, Principal Skidmore, Paisley, Violet and Wacky the Wolf).
- The relationship between Fletcher and Olive was extremely rushed as it only lasts for 3 episodes, and they broke up in the finale. It's also very similar to Sam and Freddie from iCarly.
- The opening premise of them having to fit into the school is quickly abandoned for sitcom shenanigans, and the school is hardly notable other than as a backdrop.
Exceptional Qualities
- The Parks family are a likable group of characters.
- China Anne McClain does a very good job at portraying the main role as well with Carlon Jeffery, and one of the only decent actors.
- Passable and catchy theme song.
- Funny moments here and there.
- The acting has slightly improved.
- Lexi became an A.N.T. in season 3. She did slightly improve in season 3, though that’s not saying much since she’s flawed in that season too.
- It’s also shown that Lexi could have a crush on Cameron, as seen in the episode "idANTity Crisis", she had a dream where she was attracted to Cameron.
- Some good/passable episodes here and there.
- The series finale, “The New York ExperiANTs” was a great way to end the series, although it leaves off on a cliffhanger.
- It can be so bad it's good to some others.
- Some of the songs are decent like "Calling All the Monsters", "Do Your Own Thing" and "Dynamite".
- The show was popular when it was on back then and it had a cult following.
- The designs of Webster High School and Z-Tech Prodigy School are pretty cool.
- The episode "scavANTger hunt" did a Star Wars reference.
Reception
A.N.T. Farm received mixed-to-negative reception from fans and the audience and is considered the worst Disney Channel show. The show has a 5.2 on IMDb.
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Categories:
- Disney Channel shows
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- Live-action shows
- Cancelled shows
- 2010s programs
- 2010s media
- Musical shows
- Mean-spirited shows
- Redeemed shows
- Rip-offs
- Shows for everyone
- Shows with bad morals
- Girl shows
- It's a Laugh Productions, Inc. shows
- Cult shows
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- Mediocre media
- Disney
- Shows that ended on cliffhangers
- Shows reviewed by PhantomStrider