TV Episode Set Review: "My Babysitter's a Vampire": Season One

Rated: TV-PG for violence
Starring: Vanessa Morgan, Matthew Knight, and Atticus Mitchell
Released: June - July 2011 (TV premieres)

Synopsis: After the events of the prequel telefilm, Sarah (Vanessa Morgan, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars) is now a fledgling vampire.  Benny (Atticus Mitchell) and Ethan (Matthew Knight) are still geeks...but, the three of them, along with the entire town of Whitechapel, find themselves in one supernatural predicament after another.  From a spell that inadvertently brings legions back to life, to a zombie plague that takes over all of the teachers at their high school, to a life-sized, talking version of Ethan's little sister's doll, these kids are in for the ride of their lives.
As seen on Disney Channel.

The Good: Though this wasn't actually made by Disney Channel, it has most of the makings of their live-action productions, which is a good thing.  Ethan, Benny, and Sarah show amazing resourcefulness and problem-solving skills in pretty much every episode.  There are also some very cute and funny moments, and a lack of profanity and explicit sexual content is good.  Even the violence is non-graphic...

The Bad: ...but it does get rather intense at times.  Even when it isn't violent, the mood is mostly dark and scary.  It's almost like the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films that were released around Y2K; instead of being someone in a suit, these ghouls and goblins are real.  Some of the themes border on occultic, especially the episode where a board game causes Sarah to be possessed.

Content Concerns:

• Sex: Kissing and flirting. 4/5
• Nudity: Cleavage; girls/women in short shorts and off-the-shoulder tops. 4/5
• Language: Name-calling. 4/5
• Violence: As mentioned above, the violence can be pretty intense at times.  Punches and kicks are thrown; people are bitten by vampires; vampires and other creatures are disintegrated by holy water, being impaled with stakes, etc.; blood is often seen, but not in a violent way. 2/5
• Drugs: A substance transforms people into zombies. 4/5
• Frightening/Intense Scenes: Also as mentioned above, the mood of this series is largely dark and scary, and many moments can be rather frightening.  This definitely isn't for younger kids. 2/5
• Other: A bit of bathroom/gross-out humor (i.e., a ghost vomiting green goo on two kids). 4/5

Conclusion: I don't normally do vampire stories, but, as this was shown on the Disney Channel, I felt I had to give it a shot.  It was better than I expected...but, I don't think I'll be bothering with the second season.  Fans of series such as Twilight may enjoy it; I did, to a degree...but, one season was enough for me.

Score: 3.5/5