Cher Horowitz is clueless when it comes to matters of the heart. Actually when it comes to matters of pretty much everything else as well.

Cher’s a high school senior that spends her free time to matchmaking, usually with disastrous results. She’s convinced that she knows what’s best for everyone around her, when in fact she doesn’t even know what’s best for herself, and manages to miss even the most obvious clues. She is unaware that her best friend Elton likes her, or that Christian, the guy she likes, is gay. When new girl Tai arrives at the school, she immediately takes her on as her new “project”. She remakes her wardrobe and then spends her time throwing Tai at every guy except the one that Tai really likes, lovable stoner Travis.

Her ex-stepbrother Josh is the polar opposite. He’s honest, hard-working, and interested in politics and current events. He would never fake a broken heart to appeal to a teacher for a better grade. Yet he is somehow inexplicably interested in Cher. Cher is quite the hottie, and we can understand him having a purely physical attraction for her. But we can’t see him seriously considering a relationship with his former stepsister, who knows nothing about life beyond her own small little world and clearly doesn’t care to. As for Cher, she thinks Josh is just a book-loving nerd, but when he comes to the rescue of her friend Tai, and Cher begins to suspect that Tai’s crush on Josh is reciprocated, she suddenly decides that Josh is the one for her.

When Cher finally gets out of her own way, and everyone else’s, things do actually work out. Tai and Travis finally get together, and somehow Cher and Josh connect as well. Yet we can’t see these two lasting too long. True, Cher and Josh are not related, or even step-related any longer. Yes Cher is trying to become a better person, to learn more about the world outside of Beverly Hills, and to get more involved. And yes, the two both have a clever, sarcastic streak that provides for some interesting banter. But they still feel more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend, which makes them becoming boyfriend and girlfriend a bit icky. Cher’s interest in Josh simply feels like a case of wanting what she thinks she can’t have. And we think it won’t be long before Cher’s foolishness starts to wear on Josh’s nerves. Pretty soon he’ll head back to the library and she’ll head back to the mall.

We think we’d have to be pretty clueless to think that Cher and Josh are The Reel Thing.

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