Shia Labeaouf seems to be a somewhat polarizing figure but I’m rather indifferent besides being teased as a kid that I looked like him. He seems to have his alternative projects going on for the moment but let’s go back to simpler times and we were just kids watching Even Stevens and how it is.
Stevens Family:
You have the Stevens family and each member has their own fun personalities. The mother Eileen is an American Senator and the father Steven is a Lawyer who was an athlete in his school years, both are quirky parents and while fun they don’t get much attention so the lack of much depth to them is ok. Donnie is the big brother, he’s a famous school athlete and really why wouldn’t he be since he is in High School yet looks like he’s in his mid 20s. He plays the role of the dumb jock and is for the most part a fun character. Ren is the sister and the second leading character in the show, she is high maintenance and an overachiever which makes her have interesting plots and also clash a lot with her brother. Louis is the main character, he has none of the successful traits that the rest of the family has well except that he’s the funny one. The thing about that is that his humor is really not funny at all, and while he’s supposed to be the guy you are rooting for, you really can’t since he is a huge jerk. Seriously they wrote him in such a way that he’s not only unlikable you question why anyone puts up with his crap and yet he’s supposed to be the one you relate to.
Friends and School:
Alan Twitty is Louis’ best friend, he’s supposed to be cool since he’s in a band and whatno though I never really liked him. Tawny is eventually the girl best friend and her character is great, she is portrayed as an outsider and somewhat of a goth stereotype at least at first, but her sarcasm is fun as well as her character as a whole. For some odd reason she seems to have a crush on Louis and eventually end up together. An eventual third friend Tom Gribalski, who first is only a recurring character but the writers realized how awesome he was so they included him a lot more on the next seasons and while it did cause his character to lose some of what made him cool it was still great seeing him more. He is the geek and they play up all the stereotypes with him in a fun way. Finally we have “Beans’ who joins the group in the second season, he is an obnoxious little fat kid who just shows up, man he is meant to be funny but he’s is very annoying and I never liked him. I mean he does have a funny face and I get what they were trying for since he is supposed to be annoying to the cast but ends up being to the viewer as well.
Ren has no luck since she seems to get new friends every season and sometimes after one episode..there are some girls who look up to her, her normal friend then another friend and well in the third season she has a more stable friend group. None of them are really worth talking about but they aren’t necessarily bad they fulfill their role. There was one friend introduced in season 2 Nelson who was Ren’s best friend as a kid, he’s supposed to be obnoxious but unlike Beans he’s actually entertaining, they set him up as a recurring character and he appears for a few episodes but sadly disappears just as fast as he came. Ren’s relationships aren’t much better either breaking up after one episode or there was this one time where they actually set up a story arc of Ren starting to go out with this guy only for her to break up off-screen, I really did not understand that.
Now the School also had some fun characters, the principal Conrad Wexler is also pretty quirky, you have the coach Terry Tugnut who is a loser and remembers fondly when Donnie was still at school, fun character. The rival of Ren and because of it hates Louis is Larry Beale, he is a great character sadly after Season 1 he mostly disappears and gets put on the sidelines for some odd reason and barely appears after that. Ivan is Larry’s Yes man and also a fun character that also goes goes the way of Larry and was underused like Larry Beale was, heck at least Larry got to appear more.
Now as you can see the characters for the most part have fun personalities, sadly the show never realizes their full potential, opting instead for generic or crazy plots with Louis, in fact the show has plenty of crazy slapstick humor like plots. There are definitely laughs and some interesting episodes but you also have to sit through a lot of mediocre ones as well. I really can’t say I’d recommend this show, yeah there is some fun stuff there, and hey if you’re nostalgic check it out again or if you’re under 12 you’ll have fun watching it, just don’t expect an amazing show. The show does have an ending which is as good as you’re going to get for it and it also has a movie that take place after the series, sadly its just another adventure and not another farewell, the movie is surprisingly long and while the plot feels like a regular episode stretched out to make a movie and not that interesting for some odd reason I was not as bored as I probably should have been.
Fun fact is that the show seems to take place over the course of one year, they mention Louis and Ren are starting 7th and 8th grade and there are no more mentions but they go to the same school, no graduation no nothing. So yeah the entire show takes place in one year, in fact its less than that with it only being a single school year since the movie begins at the end of the school year. Of course the characters aged 3-4 years during the show so Louis goes from a little kid to being taller than her sister, Ren and the others also end up looking noticeably older. It works since they only celebrate Hanukah and Halloween once. I should also mention that I was in love with Tawny Dean, oh my.
