Telling It Like It Is: Robin Reed

Robin Reed began scrutinizing TV shows back in the golden age of The Cosby Show. “There should be more Rudy,” the 7-year-old Robin said of the show’s lone 7-year-old character. “And if that guy’s a doctor, why is his office in the garage?” She went on to astutely observe that the Transformers cartoon wasn’t as good as My Little Pony.

Twenty-odd years later, Robin was led into the Poptimal.com fold by her friends and sometimes co-writer Jaimie Campos and former writer  J.B. Perlow. Despite having her spirit broken by having to spend an entire summer watching and writing about So You Think You Can Dance (her reviews of that show alone add up to more than 60,000 words – the equivalent of Sophie Kinsella’s novel Confessions of a Shopaholic, and of roughly comparable quality), and falling out of love with her then-favorite show, House, once she started having to watch it closely for reviewing purposes (well, and the increasing prevalence of Olivia Wilde didn’t help), Robin enjoyed having an excuse to see movies she would’ve otherwise had to sneak off to (ahem, 17 Again and Wolverine).

In spite of the efforts of many to persuade her otherwise, Robin won’t watch Gossip Girl because she feels it’s unfaithful to the spirit of the original book (which was actually really good, she swears!), and she’s vowed never to pick up another Stephenie Meyer tome after she suffered through all 498 pages of Twilight (but she’ll nevertheless be at New Moon on opening night, because Robert Pattinson is heeee-larious).

Robin lives in Washington, D.C., where she works for a nonprofit women’s organization and reads a lot of novels about 16-year-olds.

Her favorite movie genres: Big-budget disaster movies, fantasy adaptations, period pieces with strong female characters.

Her favorite TV genres: Mythology-based epic dramas with really good casting, smart single-camera comedies that stay smart after the first three seasons, anything with brilliant writing and more-or-less brilliant acting and/or a startling compelling reality show contestant (e.g., Adam Lambert, Jennifer Carroll).

Her current coverage: 30 Rock, Mad Men.

In her own words – Robin’s thoughts on…

Why she’ll never watch another Joss Whedon show: Because looking back on it, Buffy and Angel were pretty uneven, and the tongue-in-cheek stuff was annoying as often as it was cool. Because he’s so proud of himself for being such a feminist but doesn’t hesitate to throw his hot actresses into skimpy outfits whenever he can find a way to make it work for the plot. Because he abandoned Buffy when it needed him most and as a result Spike transformed from the best badass on TV into a whimpery unwatchable puppy. I could go on, but I don’t think I should have to.

Why she owns Rent, The Phantom of the Opera (the 2004 version!), and all three High School Musicals on DVD: Because singing along with over-the-top lyrics and taking frequent breaks to giggle at embarrassing dialogue is the absolute best way to occupy one’s spare brain cells while assembling Ikea furniture.

Why she has to close her eyes when horror movie trailers come on: Because ever since I read the Scary Stories books at Girl Scout camp in second grade, I’ve been unable to tolerate any sort of fictional scary thing, no matter how entertaining the thing in question may be. Paranormal Activity looks like something I would absolutely love, if only I didn’t know it would give me nightmares for the next 30 years.

Her all-time favorite TV characters: Rayann Graff (My So-Called Life), C.J. Cregg (The West Wing), Connor (Angel), David Fisher (Six Feet Under), Summer Roberts (The O.C.), Season 2 Jim (The Office), Peter Petrelli (Heroes), Robert Chase (House), Tracy Jordan (30 Rock), Pete and Trudy Campbell (Mad Men), Rachel Berry (Glee).