Remember the good old days of Hannah Montana?
You know, before scalpers were asking as much as $3,000 a ticket for her sold-out concerts. And before Vanity Fair was getting hammered for the “topless” pictures of her real-life alter ego Miley Cyrus. And before 15-year-old Cyrus was dating a 20-year-old underwear model.
Ah yes, the good old days.
The good news is you can bring ‘em right back with Hannah Montana – The Complete First Season on DVD. The four-disc set includes all 26 episodes that originally aired in 2006-07.
Hannah Montana, like most Disney Channel fare, relies on cheesy, derivative, and lowest-common-denominator writing. And yet, the show manages to be consistently entertaining, thanks primarily to a solid principal cast. (Who knew Billy Ray Cyrus could be funny on purpose?)
The show doesn’t take any time at all establishing backstory, instead introducing us immediately to Miley Stewart, a seemingly regular girl who has to balance her secret life as pop star Hannah Montana with her normal life in junior high. Fortunately, Hannah Montana is more focused on the hijinks that Miley and her friends encounter than Hannah’s music, which pre-pubescent girls adore, and most everyone else must find exceedingly grating. (You know how many secretly relieved parents there must have been when those Hannah Montana concert tickets were nowhere to be found.)
Miley Cyrus is not a bad actress, and she’s pretty winning in the dual role (although, more convincing as regular girl Miley.) The show gets a lot of mileage out of her willingness to do just about any gross-out gag. Nearly ever other show, she finds herself doused in some type of food product it seems. Real-life dad Billy Ray Cyrus is a welcome surprise too as Robbie Ray Stewart, a former Nashville country star who bears more than a few similarities to the actor playing him. Cyrus is incredibly good-natured through it all, gently poking fun at himself and looking like he really enjoys what he’s doing.
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