Review: Clone High, "Anxiety Comes to Clone High" & "The Crown: Joancoming: It's a Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World" | Season 1, Episodes 3 & 4

Is there still room for the old clones in a show committed to a new dynamic?

Screenshot: Max

While the “binge release” structure may have been the most disruptive influence on the model of reviewing shows on a weekly basis, there are times when the “two episodes a week” model is actually more frustrating. With a binge release, it still feels reasonable to think of each episode as its own unit within the larger whole, but with two-a-week the episodes in question become inextricably linked together, which can make it harder to write about them individually depending on the show.

With Clone High, though, I’m realizing that it kind of works better to have two episodes to write about, because there isn’t really enough substance in a given episode to justify a full-length review. This isn’t to say that “Anxious Times at Clone High” or “The Crown: Joancoming: It’s A Cleo Cleo Cleo Cleo World” are bad episodes, but rather that this rethink of the show’s original premise has very quickly settled into a rhythm. There’s no paradigm shift here. There’s no conscious effort to build out the new characters, who have mostly just slotted into the show’s rhythms. There’s no ongoing struggle for the old clones to assimilate to the 2023 of it all. This is just a show about sexy teen clones of famous historical figures experiencing normal high school things like pre-midterms and homecoming.