Best Worst Weekend Ever

As lovable and occasionally awkward as teenagers themselves, this zippy series is like a clean-enough-for-tweens version of cinematic high school comedy capers like Superbad or Sixteen Candles. The setup is a familiar one: the adults are distracted, a major milestone looms, and the young cast has only a limited period of time to make something happen. The switch up here is that the "something" is meeting a literary/cultural icon instead of hooking up and/or falling in love -- these teens are so squeaky clean that there's not a red Solo cup'd beverage in sight at the big parents-out-of-town house party that anchors the first episode, and when they get together feverishly in corners, it's to talk about comic books, not to kiss.

There's also a sweetness that grounds the manic hijinks with a missing dog, costumed comics fans, and a pinata full of shrimp. That sweetness is crystallized in the second episode of Best Worst Week Ever when Zed explains in a voiceover that he became a fan of comic books after his dad died. Alone, his family in tatters, Zed's comics were his only friends, and he was reading one the day at the park when a couple of other kids noticed. They started a conversation with him, he shared his comic series with them, and they soon became, as Zed says, his new family. It's a line that will floor anyone who's felt alone but was able to connect to others through a fandom, through art doing the job it's meant to do. And the fact that it's in a silly kid's comedy is surprising -- and beautiful. This lightweight little show is deeper than it seems; help your kids discover it.