Editor’s note: Krista also wrote about Greek for her Campus Trends blog. 

After watching the second episode of ABC Family’s new sorority/fraternity dramedy Greek, the only impression that remained was the feeling that at the end of my life I would want that hour of time back.

Greek follows the adventures and misadventures of characters at the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University.  While there are secondary characters who do not pledge for a sorority or fraternity, as the title suggests the main focus is on the Greek life.  Honors engineering student Rusty (played by Jacob Zachar) and his much older and more socially apt sister Casey (Spencer Grammar) are the main characters.

At the beginning of the second episode, Casey and her best friend Ashleigh discussed the recent infidelities of Casey’s boyfriend, Evan, who slept with a pledge at a sorority gathering.  However, as the contrived dialogue is quick to remind us, Evan didn’t just sleep with any pledge, he slept with Rebecca Logan, the prominent daughter of a rich senator.  The rest of the episode follows the conflict between Casey and Rebecca, including an unfunny scavenger hunt list involving a middle-aged panther and a half-naked faculty member.  Their conflict culminates with Casey using a video text message of Rebecca having sex with Evan as leverage to maintain status within the sorority.

On the other side, we follow the adventures of Rusty.  His conflicts this episode include scheduling dilemmas, a large problem set for his physics class, and his relationship with his very likable roommate, Dale, played by Clark Duke.

Creator Patrick Sean Smith tried to get some family dynamics going but exchanges such as, “Be realistic Rust,”  “Be my sister, Case,” fail to make up for the lack of chemistry between Grammar and Zachar.

 As a whole, Greek succeeds in perpetuating the stereotype of sororities and fraternities.  The episode featured bitchy girls, drunken frat members, a beer pong match, too much testosterone, and a little bit of hazing for good measure.  Every single character was a caricature excepting only Dale.  I was very sad to find that the creators labeled Greek a “dramedy”, finding it neither funny nor dramatic.

Next Monday at 9 p.m., you’re more likely to find me wrapped up in a linear algebra textbook than watching another episode of Greek.