The premise of My Life isn’t exactly Shakespeare. Jenny, a humanoid android “with the strength of a million and seventy men” built by mad scientist, and Albert Einstein look-a-like, Professor Wakeman, is programmed to do one thing; save the world from utter destruction. But being the teenager that she is, Jenny decides she’d much rather hang out at the mall and read fashion magazines instead.
In “It Came From Next Door”, brothers Tucker and Brad are playing baseball when their ball lands in Prof. Wakeman’s house. Little Tuck has to go inside the dark and spooky lab to get the ball and is greeted by a “hideous, blood thirsty” robot. Older brother Brad is skeptical and tries to prove to Tucker that he saw no such thing. After an awkward conversation with Wakeman, the siblings head off, disappointed.
Back in Jenny’s room, her “mother” gives her a lecture on what she is programmed to do, and how she should stay away from humans “especially teenagers!”. Jenny complains but Wakeman pays no avail. However, to Jenny’s surprise, Tuck and Brad sneak into her room to meet Jenny. After some initial strange looks, Jenny must make a quick rescue of Brad. After the thanks, Jenny is asked if she wants to hang-out. Jenny is thrilled and ignores the threat of an incoming meteor.
The trio engage in every day activities such as a water fight, playing Frisbee, and catching up to the ice-cream man, but of course, all of the events are uniquely different thanks to Jenny’s abilities. A distress calls forces Jenny to rush off with poor Tucker to destroy the meteor looming over head. With the use of a huge laser and several other contraptions, Jenny makes short work of the giant space rock. After witnessing her feats of bravery, Tucker is sold, and Jenny now has two new friends.
The second episode, amply titled “Pest Control” stars a bevy of genetically altered lab-mice, who for some reason, all have a Russian accent. Another lecture about responsibility and not playing the human boys causes Jenny to seek refuge in her room, while the lab mice lull her to sleep and eventually take control of her body to seek revenge on Wakeman and ultimately, take over the world.
Tucker finds Jenny’s decapitated head in her room, and in a somewhat touching scene, gives her a small burial using her stuffed toys, until she wakes up. Mr. Scruffles, the lead mouse, heads to Wakeman’s lab and cannot be stopped, not even by the proposition of cheese. In the end, the boys lend their remote control car and Jenny uses her wits to outsmart the mice, sending them into a pool while the mousy terrorists flee in a scene very reminiscent of Harrison Ford’s submarine thriller K-19. The day is saved, and the head mouse is headed for a fate worse than death; he’s being forced to wear Micky Mouse pants.
My Life As A Teenage Robot falls short in almost every aspect. The characters are not likable, the jokes aren’t funny, and not even Jenny’s seemingly limitless assortment of super powers can seem to save this poorly produced program. The animation is clean, but nothing awe-inspiring and the voice work is average at best. With unoriginal character designs and an endlessly lame theme song, My Life is only a slight improvement over other Nickelodeon trash.
My Life has only room for improvement but even that seems unlikely. It seems the show will follow the “new villain of the week” formula that has been done to death. How many jokes about the mall or teenage boys can you use until you start to cycle through them? Too quick for the kids, and too stupid for the teens, I’m not sure which audience this show is trying to capture, but it obviously isn’t one in the Nickelodeon demographic.
This review was originally witten by staffer Rei Hernandez.