Review of Wizards of Waverly Place

Since Disney unjustly canceled Phil of the Future, it's been digging its own grave canceling its hit shows and creating really bad ones, like "Cory in the House," "Shake It Up," "Austin And Ally" and others. I just want to wince when I see this one. I remember the TV show "Bewitched," and it was mostly about the husband and wife. I recall "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," and it was mostly a satire on teenagers. "Wizards of Waverly Place" has its origins as a pilot around Aly and AJ MiChalka as sisters, but since they're doing better at concerts than acting, the series has been retooled around several supporting Disney actors like David Henrie from "That's So Raven" and Selena Gomez from "Hannah Montana." What bothers me about this show is that it's not creative and it doesn't make sense. I've studied magic and the paranormal, and this series is just not getting one thing correct. It's making things up as to what people think magic is about, and sticking "Wiz-" in front of everything. "Wiz-this" and "Wiz-that." Now, Selena Gomez is cute and attractive, and I hear she has a singing voice as well, but her character is annoyingly grating, an obvious holdover from her character on "Hannah Montana." The effects are cheap and often not very convincing. I get the feeling Disney doesn't care much on creating decent family TV shows anymore, just churning out star vehicles as promotional spectacles to create pop stars. Has anyone noticed that each of their shows has turned out at least one insanely successful pop star? "Wizards of Waverly Place" doesn't need to be good or successful as long as Selena becomes a singing star off it. However, the show is kind of addictive. After one episode, I'm checking it out more and more and trying to catch it where I can, but the show is infantile and ludicrous in its execution, but it is harmless Disney fare. From the start, it lacks any true creativity and imagination, trying to making it up in spirit and fun, but toward the end, the writers and creators became especially lazy. Bad episodes, illogical plot points, ridiculous scenarios, idiot characters and the main leads became even more and more exaggerated. What's worse, the characters of Justin and Alex fail to stay consistent. The only one who stays remotely consistent is Max, and he's just the comic relief. Over all, I recall the potential this series had from the start, and it's a major shame it degraded so far without reaching it.