Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love’ on Netflix, in Which a 15-Year-Old with a PhD Lands a Steady Boyfriend

Netflix teen series Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love is the follow-up to The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia, technically “part two” of the series about a 15-year-old rocket scientist. Maybe the name change is a rebrand — or a reiteration of theme, considering the cliffhanger from the last batch of episodes put her at the Fall Ball dance, kissing her crush.

ASHLEY GARCIA: GENIUS IN LOVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Ashley’s uncle Victor (Jencarlos Canela) sits on his couch with a guitar, struggling to write a song about his girlfriend who recently left for Antarctica.

The Gist: Ashley (Paulina Chavez) glides in the door, totally stoned on the fumes generated when she kissed Tad (Conor Husting). Her elation counterbalances Victor’s sadness over his romantic interest traveling to the end of the Earth. The next day, Ashley asks Tad to go on a date, but he says he has to go clean out his ex-girlfriend’s gutters, which, you know, don’t even say it, because this is a teen show. He says his dad owns the gutter company and he’s holding true to a promise he made to Bella (Haley Pullos) before they split up for the zillionth time. Ashley says she trusts him, even though she really doesn’t, because Tad and Bella break up and make up with alarming frequency.

So Ashley meanders to Bella’s house to check up on Tad and, what with one goddamn thing and another, ends up stuck on top of Bella’s roof with her uncle Victor, because he showed up to check up on her. He mentions that he once had a night together with Bella’s mom, and never called her back. Whoopsie! Their vantage point allows them to eavesdrop on Tad and Bella’s conversation, and it turns out Tad didn’t kiss Ashley to make Bella jealous. No, Tad kissed Ashley because he really likes her. Ashley beams, but they’re still stuck on the roof, and Bella’s dog is lurking, and so is Bella’s mom, and Ashley totally lied to Tad about trusting him. Shit sucks.

Meanwhile, Ashley’s friends Brooke (Bella Podaras) and Stick (Reed Horstmann) are like totally going out now, and she wants to go to a concert with him but he’s agoraphobic and too self-conscious to mention it to her so he rehearses a bunch of dumb excuses then jumbles them all up into one blob of roaring bull that she sees right through. Will the truth come out in these HIGH-STAKES conflicts between teens who get bubbly about smooching each other? No spoilers, but every little thing that’s mentioned in this episode gets resolved, including how Victor apparently wham-bammed Bella’s mom, because this isn’t real life, and if the situations in situation comedies aren’t tidied up in 20-odd minutes, they cease to be situation comedies.

Our Take: The “part two” launch ep is heavy on the teen-love crapola and light on the teen-genius shinola. Soon, one must get in the way of the other, one expects, because that’s how these things always go, isn’t it? There’s a good chance the target demographic will give at least half a crap about Ashley’s well-being, because Chavez’s light ‘n’ cheery magnetism lends this episode’s canned-corn conflicts at least the bare-minimum level of charisma necessary to keep us semi-conscious.

To be fair, Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love is exactly what it sets out to be — a glossy sitcom starring teens but aimed at tweens, and populated with good-looking people who deliver lightly fizzy one-liners punctuated with the least-distracting laugh track this side of The Love Boat. I mean, this type of stuff is unflavored, non-alcoholic seltzer, but some people are content with a few bubbles and that’s all. It’s fine, but any adult viewers in the room won’t feel compelled to not leave that room.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: BOOKEND ALERT: Victor continues stumbling his way through his lamentation in song.

Sleeper Star: Among the supporting cast, Podaras is the one who reads her big, broad, obvious punchlines with less plastic tonality than the others.

Most Pilot-y Line: “This was one of the best nights of my life. Up there with getting my PhD. And starting my job at JPL. Oh, and the day I babysat a pug!” — Ashley catches us up with the premise of the show (and throws in a dumb joke about a pug)

Our Call: STREAM IT, I guess. This episode of Ashley doesn’t exploit the genius-slash-regular teen dynamic very much, but it sets the stage for some featherweight conflict in future eps. I wasn’t compelled by any of it, but those in the demo who are OK with some bullseye-marketed sitcom cheese won’t find reason to turn it off.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love on Netflix