Ready Or Not: Crater Face

Remember when you woke up one morning as a teen and saw that you had a zit the size of Tokyo on your forehead? You knew that as soon as you entered the school grounds, all talk of parties, who was grounded, and whether Sally Bingham and Bobby Turner were really "doing it," would immediately stop and your personal Mt. Everest would become the topic of conversation for the duration of the day, especially after the photographers from Life magazine showed up. To a teen, of course, adolescent acne is not a laughing matter, and Crater Face, an insightful episode of the popular Showtime series Ready or Not makes that quite clearasil (sorry). The series revolves around the trials and tribulations of a pair of 11-year-old girls named Amanda and Busy. In Crater Face, Amanda's boyfriend Danny returns home from a summer vacation with a broken out face, earning the cruel taunts and jibes of his fellow classmates. At first uncertain, Amanda eventually joins the crowd and becomes interested in a superficial new boy named Doug (who prefers to be called Jake, and dreams of becoming a male model). Gradually, Amanda sees that obsession over appearances (she has her own insecurities on the subject of thighs) is ridiculous. One of thirteen new episodes from the series' third season (others include Tongue Tied, Three's a Crowd, Swear to God, and Nothing in Common), Crater Face is highly recommended for larger young adult collections. [Note: a series price of $1,495 reduces the per tape price to $115.] (R. Pitman)