Diary of a Future President S1 E1 "Hello World"

Diary of a Future President. Produced by CBS Studios for Disney+.



Many people are familiar with the likes of Marvel superheroes and space-based antiheroes gracing their screen after they pull up the streaming service Disney+. For others, it may instead show former television hits such as Boy Meets World and Smart Guy or perhaps even the studio’s legendary animated tales. However, a show that truly captivated me starting on episode one when watching was CBS Studios’ Diary of a Future President.


At the time the only original show on the service not made by the in-house studio, Diary comes from the creative mind of Ilana Peña and stars Tess Romero as the titular protagonist. While I was originally going to simply start by reviewing the series as a whole, I instantly realized that doing so would be a disservice to the amazing writing of this Miami Glades-based series. That being stated, I decided to individually review each episode of the series upon rewatch, beginning with the first episode “Hello World” in this review.


For starters, every moment of the opening scenes was enticing, and Elena’s character truly resonated with me, as someone who is naturally curious and loves going the extra mile. Furthermore, the character’s explanation of middle school is especially relatable, from misguided opinions to obsessions with friendships. The story that this show tells truly starts off strong within this first episode. Also, as someone who obsessed over their grades and academic standing throughout middle school, the character’s personal breakdown truly was understandable on several levels.


While everyone experiences change throughout life, that is no different for the Cañero-Reed family, where the widowed family matriarch Gabi (played by Selenis Leyva) is now dating coworker Sam Faber (Michael Beaver), obviously without the family having knowledge of this.


Without giving away the magic of this episode for those who haven’t seen it, I would like to highlight the work of actors Carmina Garay and Harmeet Pandey as Melissa and Jessica (not Jessie, to be clear) for their performance as Elena’s current and former best friend on the show. Truly seeing their complicated relationship with each other within various points of the episode truly highlights the middle school experience and brings extra dimensions into all three characters. This can truly be highlighted with not just their traditional acting styles, but also with their mannerisms and nonverbal communication.


While not getting a lot of screentime, I’d also like to note that Charlie Bushnell, who plays Elena’s older brother Bobby, stole every scene that he was in, and it truly helped tie together this initial episode.


Overall, “Hello World” was a great introduction to this magnificent series, and I truly can’t wait to get further into this series in my reviews over the next several weeks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Next for Diary of a Future President?

Personal Note from the Writer: Almost two years ago in August 2021, I made my initial post to this blog, announcing new blogs focusing on television shows and movies that interest me. Despite this, I have only published a handful of these articles, thus far touching on  Diary of a Future President , The Facts of Life , Jeopardy! , and Lopez vs. Lopez . Starting today, I hope to try again with this foray into blogging. Let's begin! Article: Produced by CBS Studios, Diary of a Future President  first released January 2020 on a weekly schedule on the relatively new platform Disney Plus. Though, on the release date of the premiere season's penultimate episode, the world changed forever when the incoming COVID-19 pandemic closed down society. Over a year after the first season completed, a second was released to the platform on August 18, 2021, which was ultimately its last. While fanfare was provided to promote the season's release, I personally could not help but wonder if the...
Read more

Streaming Television, Safe Haven No Longer

 Remember when streaming services were an alternative to traditional broadcast television? A safe haven from commercials, gimmicks, limitations. Well, the idealistic world that sites such as Netflix has accustomed many of us to has now gone to the wayside before the new year hit, ending the fantasy that streaming companies were vastly different from their predecessor companies within the field. Up until almost a year ago, streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max were defined by the concept of having no commercials, an ever-growing library of content, and would be home to bundles of original content, both past in present. Furthermore, these sites, primarily Netflix, stood out as ones that would save content from its death on linear television, ensuring each story is told to its fullest extent and is given a proper conclusion. However, these concepts met its end within the past couple months, with HBO Max and Disney+ launching ad-friendly versions of their platforms, cu...
Read more

My Television Viewing Throughout the Years

 Throughout my life, from the early days to now, television has always had a major role, and has greatly helped shape who I am today. While these past several years have primarily been spent watching network sitcoms from both the past and present, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my viewing habit evolution. Before I begin, it is important to note that while I have done my best to recall many of the past events a part of my life, these dates and information are relative to how I remember them, and should not be taken as exact points in time. From the earliest days of my childhood, I was viewing children television shows such as  Sesame Street . By the time that I was four, I was already in love with the Nickelodeon preschool show Blue's Clues , mostly favoring the host at that time, Joe (Donovan Patton). [No worries, I liked the previous host, Steve (Steve Burns), too!] While I was not necessarily watching the shows at the time, some of my earliest memories are of m...
Read more