TVSquad

(S01E01) Just as the new Parenthood series coming to NBC is a re-imagining of the classic movie, 10 Things I Hate About You is a very loose take on the film of the same name. And the film itself is a loose take on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The only real connection to that source is an early name-drop for the playwright.

If you let yourself get frustrated at how this doesn't even come close to mirroring some of the themes of Shakespeare's comedy, you'll miss out on what the show does offer, besides Larry Miller reprising his role from the movie as the sisters' father. Just think of it as a high school comedy featuring two very different sisters. In this one episode, we got pretty effective glimpses of virtually every social strata that exists in a high school. It's no My So-Called Life, but 10 Things does a pretty good job of being a family high school comedy. And isn't that what it's trying to be?

It's taken nearly 10 years, but the feature film 10 Things I Hate About You is being made into a TV show. Well, a pilot anyway. We'll see if it goes the distance. This project has a few things going for it:

1) It's on ABC Family, which has done a fabulous job with their programming. Have you watched the network lately? This is edgy stuff that's like the next step up from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel: Lincoln Heights, Greek, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager top the list.

2) The cast is great. Some you might have heard of, others not: Lindsey Shaw, Meaghan Jette Martin, Kyle Kaplan, Nicholas Braun and Ethan Peck. That's him, pictured. He's the grandson of Gregory Peck, and he kind of looks like him, doesn't he?