Word Girl is a children's television show about a young girl who lives a double life as a superhero, fighting crime and teaching everyone new words. When I first heard of this show, my initial judgement was that it would be another boring attempt at educational programming. While vocabulary can be fascinating, it's not what immediately comes to your mind when you think of engaging, entertaining children's programming, but after watching a few episodes, I'm happy to report that the show is quite effective for its target audience.
Word girl is from the planet of Lexicon and when she cane to earth she was adopted by human parents who gave her the name Becky, but they don't know her true identity. The only one who seems to know about her double life is her pet monkey Bob. She tries to balance living a normal life with fighting crime in the city, brought on by various cooky villains, and she usually defeats them by somehow incorporating one of the words of the day. There are usually two new words that are defined in the show and they are explained and demonstrated throughout the length of the episode.
In an age when high school kids have trouble spelling basic words and the use of 'big words' are a source of uneasiness and even scorn, shows like this are really encouraging to see. We are in the information age, and yet our society grows increasingly more stupid. We should empower future generations with knowledge, not perpetuate ignorance and fear. Vocabulary is not indicative of a person's intelligence, but it becomes how one presents them self to the world. Lets have our kids 'dress' for success.
Wonder Woman is a woman from Paradise Island, an island that has been forgotten by the rest of the world, and by time itself. Wonder Woman and the women on Paradise Island are supposedly amazons from ancient Greece. They have super human strength and speed, the speed is used in an activity called bullets and bracelets where one person shoots a gun and the other uses their special bracelets to knock the bullets away. How a race that has been isolated for thousands of years not only knows what a gun is, but got a hold of one and developed a weird defense against it is beyond me. Wonder Woman is the daughter of the queen of the amazons, next in line to be exact.
The story begins with a German plot and American retaliatory actions during WW2. An officer, Steve Trevor, from the US army's plane goes down over the ocean, right by Paradise Island, and he washes up on its shore. Wonder Woman takes it upon herself to return him to his homeland (as there can be no men on Paradise Island) and returns him in her invisible jet (also.. how an ancient civilization managed this I'll never know). When she's there she eventually learns of the Nazis and decides that she had better stay where she is and help defeat the Nazis. She creates an alter ego for herself named Diana Prince, and works as the secretary of the man she saved earlier.
The pilot was very long and almost boring, with several parts dragging on and on, but the actual show is very watchable. It's not my favourite superhero tv show, but it's pretty good.
