Maya and Darnell want to renew their wedding vows, and naturally crazy old Joan is asked to be a bridesmaid. Unfortunately, two worlds collide as Joan doesn't find Maya's ghetto fabulous wedding all that classy. As she continues to make suggestions for changes, Maya kirks out on her and calls her "classist and egregious." This is a theme recurring throughout the rest of the episode.

As Joan tries to come to terms with what's happening and apologizing, the situation gets worse and Maya kicks Joan out of the wedding. Eventually Joan gets through to Maya and everything ends happily. Or so we're led to believe.

The problem here is that there's quite a bit said between the two characters. Harsh things that can't be swept under the rug by the next episode, and the worst part is that they were. This episode is only brought up in passing later on, including in a similarly themed episode where Toni gets pissed at Joan and kicks her out of her wedding. How many times is this going to happen?

I had watched One on One (1o1) when it premiered in the fall of 2001, effectively replacing one of my favorite shows, Moesha. 1o1 showed promise, with its odd cast that had chemistry, and being set in Baltimore, part of the reason why I bothered to watch in the first place.

2001 was a serious year, including the horrific events of 9/11. The fall of 2001 also marked the start of my high school career, so One on One is sort of synonymous my freshman year. Because of this, I related more with the characters than I ever realized until today. But I'm reminiscing too much.

One on One was about TV personality Flex Washington, and his newfound task of raising his rambunctious teenage daughter Breanna Barns (hence the title, One on One). Like I mentioned before, the cast of 1o1 could be summed up as odd. Flex was the smooth and stylish host of his own sports show, the Flex Files, while trying to suppress his mack-daddy ways and damage control whatever resulted from Breanna's antics. Breanna was the sassy daughter of Flex, always chasing after boys and a career in acting. It was this offbeat duo that highlighted One on One for 4 seasons, but not alone. Duane was Flex's doofus-but-hilarious boy, while the offbeat and...eccentrically dressed Spirit was Breanna's best friend. The cast was rounded up with Arnaz, a music enthusiast and fellow classmate of Breanna and Spirit, and love interest of Breanna.

For four years we watched these characters grow. From Breanna and Arnaz's indecisiveness before pursuing a real relationship, to Flex's crazy woman troubles, and even the more hilarious personal achievements, like Duane finally moving out of his mother's basement. Unfortunately, Season 5 of One on One took that all away from us. While shows undergo change after awhile, these changes ranged from wild to wacky. The first mistake was effectively writing out more than half of the cast. Considering that there were only 5 cast members for the past 4 seasons, that was a huge blow. And when you have a cast like this that works, you'd expect personal decisions of the actors to lead them to leave the show. But not here. Due to someone's mindless thoughts of 'creativity,' One on One was "remixed" from the ground up, and this started with removing Duane and Spirit from the picture, handing Sicily and Kelly Perine pink slips they didn't deserve. Next comes the setting change. I mentioned before that one of the things I liked most was that it was set in Baltimore (where I was born and raised to this day) rather than something typical like Manhattan or San Fransisco. But Baltimore is tossed out the window as quickly as Spirit and Duane, and 1o1 is now set in California (because no show has been set there before...)

If that wasn't scary enough, the cast had to be expanded, and we now get to enjoy 4 new characters: Lisa, an Asian girl who is often ignored (a running gag) and portrayed as desperate for a man. Sarah, the more sensible of the new characters, and Cash, another odd character who aspires to make movies. And finally, "D-Mack," played by Ray J. Ray J's infamous reputation from Moesha as the widely disliked and annoying character "D-Money" follows him to 1o1, which is amazing how he was allowed to recreate such a cardboard character for a completely different show: a wannabe gangsta and mack-daddy.

Flex has survived the initial character cut, but being that he lives and does a show in Baltimore, he is phased out of the picture before the season is half over, removing the only person that may have been able to save 1o1 from this doom. Kel Mitchell also appears as "Manny," a former child star and landlord of the place Breanna and Arnaz are living with their new roommates. But Manny is a character that recurs early in the season, and, like Flex, is almost entirely phased out by the end of the season.

One on One has "remixed" itself into another show, and it painfully shows starting with this episode. The premise is no longer intact (and now the name doesn't work) because Flex is gone. The storylines generally revolve around Breanna and Arnaz trying to get their big break, while we get a little bit of insight on some of the new characters. Eventually Breanna and Arnaz's relationship becomes rocky, and they break up. The rest of the season revolves around both of them acting childish, trying to get at one another by attempting to get involved with strangers as revenge, and ending up doing things they live to regret by the end of the season, cancelled on a cliffhanger that put the show out of its misery.

How did it come to this? We'll never know, but One on One "remix" marks the beginning of the end for a once clever show.

A lot of tv shows for the young ones these days seem to forget that they're supposed to be entertainment - especially the ones that try to promote some amount of education. The Shapies is one of those shows that manages to do both.

The Shapies are a musical band of 10 toys that are modeled after, what else, shapes. Every episode encompasses them going on some kind of crazy adventure in the bedroom of their owner, Zack. The first season starts off with the Shapies arriving in Zack's bedroom for the first time, when they realize that therei s only 5 of them. Sarah Circle, Bob Oblong, Sally Cylinder, Paul the Ball, and Rex the Rectangular dog spend the rest of the season exploring Zack's bedroom and discovering their 5 missing Shapies friends: Tammy Triangle, Sammy Square, Starry Star, Connie Cone, and Perry Pyramid. In the middle of each episode, 3 musical scenes about each of the Shapies, mostly performed by themself, is played.

Each of the Shapies have their own personality, for example, Tammy Triangle is tough, competetive and independant, while Paul the Ball is an annoying clown. Of course, with 10 characters, some of them are going to get the shaft, and hardly get any spotlight at all. While each episode may send the Shapies on a new adventure, they usually learn a life lesson at the end.

The show sports a 3D flare. While the characters aren't overly detailed, it makes sense - they are modeled on shapes after all. The 3D effects aren't the best I've ver seen, but they can be pretty impressive for certain episodes, including the "Water World" episode from the second season.

Since music is a big theme of the show, with the Shapies being a band and all, alot of the show is dedicated to it. Like I mentioned before, each Shapie has a song of their own to sing in the midle of the episodes. Half of the songs I don't care for, but the other half I find quite catchy, my favorite being Sarah Circle's own song. The Shapies also perform their opening/ending theme.

Overall, if you're open to these kinds of shows, you should enjoy the Shapies. While it is from Australia, it does air on some PBS affliates here in the US, and a 3rd and 4th seasons are in the works. It's worth the trouble to find, as it's better than most cartoons on weekend mornings.