Greek - Cross Examined Life

Exploratory Post 1

Greek - Cross Examined Life

Season 4 Episode 3  (viewed on regular cable television)

Characters:

Casey - The main character in the show. Former president of ZBZ, she just graduated from CRU and has come back after the summer to attend law school. Because of the lack money, Casey moves back into the ZBZ house and takes the position of house mother.

Rusty - Is the younger brother of Casey. Some say he's a scientific genius, enrolled in the honors engineering program and the inventor and grant winner of a self healing poli(something)wire. Rusty is a brother in KTG and current pledge chair.

Dale - Rusty's roommate and best-friend. Dale has been anti-Greek for the last three season, until recently where he has shown a great interest in rushing a fraternity. Dale is the token religious college student who has always been the voice of reason.

Cappie - The president of KTG and Rusty's big brother. Cappie is also Casey's exboyfriend, who she broke up with because he couldn't figure out his direction in life. He is still at CRU undergrad (year 5 now) without a major.

Spidey - The new KTG pledge.

Plot: 

A dramedy focused on the social aspect of the Greek system. The characters in the show try to find a  place to fit in at Cyprus-Rhodes University.

Content:

Dale is getting antsy because he really wants to find someone of marriage quality before he graduates. To find this perfect person, Dale has decided to give up on his values that are anti-greek and rush Omega Chi (KTG's rival fraternity). To convince Dale not to rush Omega Chi, Rusty comes up with a plan to allow him to rush KTG. To convince Dale of this Rusty throws a party to prove to Dale that there are other girls out there that aren't in sororities. To get Dale to attend the party, Rusty kidnaps him from a secret Omega Chi hazing event. Spidey assists Rusty in the kidnapping, but in the heat of the moment Rusty forgets to check and make sure Spidey made it out of the Omega Chi house. In the end Spidey is left behind and the Omega Chi's duck-tape him to the outside of a building on main campus. The party to convince Dale to date different girls backfires with Dale informing Rusty that the reason he is actually rushing is because he wants to be apart of something bigger and wants to be recognized for something other than a geek. Dale declines Rusty's offer to rush KTG and says he feels Omega Chi is a better fit.

Casey has just started law school and during her first class she finds out that her acceptance into the program has somehow become law school gossip.  Because of the scandalous way she was accepted, nobody wants to add her into their study groups. Apparently the class has over 100 case studies to summarize and Casey is freaking out. To try to fix the situation she confronts her professor and he tells her to suck it up. While all this is happening Ashleigh shows up and tells Casey that she got fired from her NY designer internship. Casey finds out that Ashleigh actually left without notice because she wasn't promoted to a paid position, but a girl from the show The City received the job instead. In the heat of the moment and frustration with life, Casey and Ashleigh decide to run away from Cyprus Hills. As they are about to leave, Ashleigh gets a call from her NY boss. Casey convinces her to answer the phone and during the call Ashleigh gets fired. In that moment they both realize that they can't run away from their problems. Casey unpacks the car and spends the night writing her case summaries.

Intended Audience:

The intended audience would be teen (late high school) to early 20's (college level). This is determined by the content of the show including sex, drugs, and other more complex social issues.

Educational Possibilities:

There seems to be a several important social aspect to the series.

(1) The underlining theme to Greek is acceptance. The show does a great job at showing how all the characters (from the smartest of geeks to the closeted gays) needs a place to be accepted and people to feel safe with. 

(2) Conflict resolution with those of different groups with conflicting ideas and values. As well as an idea of the outcome of relationships when conflict isn't resolved.

(3) Final educational aspect of the show is the bond between friends and siblings and how important it is to be a good base of support for those close to you.