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Finally, there's the teen boy as idealized by cable-political-news producers. The WB's Jack & Bobby (Sundays, 9 p.m. E.T.) follows two teen brothers: older, athletic Jack McAllister (Matt Long) and younger, asthmatic Bobby (Logan Lerman). Through a framing device--flash-forward excerpts from a political documentary--we learn that in 2040, Bobby will be elected President. But to get to the White House he must first overcome the smothering influence of his lefty professor mother Grace (Christine Lahti) and the stigma of being the biggest dork in his high school. Grace is idealistic but willful--really, she's the rebellious teen in the family, down to her pot smoking--and so Jack is forced to be the adult. Like The West Wing, with which it shares producer Thomas Schlamme, Jack & Bobby takes itself too seriously--the documentary interviews feel like Gravitas Helper. But it's also a smart, well-written show that constantly subverts our expectations, and it takes a rare demographic risk, reminding the WB's young viewers that cute teen boys, should they be so lucky, grow up to be paunchy old men.
Dude. What a bummer.