So while Greek: Chapter Three starts off the second season of the show (apparently the DVD's are coming out in half-season segments), I can safely say that the series isn't completely inaccessible for newcomers. It took a few episodes for me to get the roster down and understand all of the intricate relationships. Apparently, the previous season had a lot of boyfriend/girlfriend swapping as relationships broke up and formed anew. But it didn't take me long to get the main cast down.
The focus of the show seems to be Freshman Rusty Cartwright (Jacob Zachar) who attempted to get into one fraternity (Omega Chi Delta), but after beating up his sister's boyfriend and one of the house's leaders, Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman), he got kicked out and ended up rushing with the exact polar opposite of Omega Chi's preppy future lawyers' and senators' house. So we come into this season with Rusty as a pledge of the party-heavy frat, Kappa Tau Gamma.
Meanwhile, Rusty's sister, Casey (Spencer Grammer), is the acting president of the number one sorority house, Zeta Beta Zeta, and after some rough breakups with both Evan and the Kappa Tau president, known only as Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), has decided to put all of her resources into securing a place as an official ZBZ chapter president. Supporting her is her best friend Ashleigh (Amber Stevens), but it seems the house's former president, Frannie (Tiffany Dupont) has no compunctions about causing problems for Casey, and when news gets out that Frannie is now dating Evan, what little friendship the two had left goes completely away.
ZBZ has one other member of note, and that's Rebecca Logan (Dilshad Vadsaria), who is a pledge with some note since her father is a senator. Unfortunately, a scandal involving her father has caused Rebecca to go a little overboard and frequent public drunkenness and even an online video of some spring-break partying has caused the national organization of ZBZ to frown upon Rebecca's membership.
There are a couple of other characters important to the series - one is Rusty's roommate, Dale (Clark Duke) who is uber-religious and a fellow Honors Science student, while the pair's other friend, Calvin (Paul James), is a pledge for Omega Chi. One of the main themes of Greek: Chapter Three is Rusty, Dale and Calvin trying to keep their close relationship together while Calvin and Rusty attend rival fraternities and Dale isn't in any.
A lot happens to the characters in these 10 episodes (the first half of the second season). Not only does Casey lobby hard for an attempt at being a legitimate chapter president, but she and Frannie's rivalry does all but come to blows while the rest of the ZBZ's deal with the turmoil. Rusty has some serious second thoughts concerning his major, and their floor gets a new RA in senior Max (Michael Rady), whose sheer intellect and massive number of participation certificates for everything from NASA to a history society makes him an inspiration for Rusty (as well as makes Dale a bit jealous).
And, of course, this season is filled with it's own massive amount of relationship twists as some characters break up and others start up, much like the previous season. And while a lot of this felt like a much better acted and written The Hills, it still had that petty feel to it that comes off really shallow at times. Since the focus of the show is between these three Greeks (Omega Chi, Kappa Tau and Zeta Beta Zeta), the relationships start to feel quite incestuous, so that when new characters like Max enter the scene, his realization of the web of relationships causes his head to spin a bit (especially when he finds himself dating Casey and finds out about her past boyfriends).
The chapter wraps up with Hell Week where Rusty, Calvin and the other pledges have to go through some of the toughest trials yet in order to finally join the fraternities. But the ride from the start of the Spring Semester to that last week has got quite a few ups and downs in there for all of the characters. As for non-pledges, elections (especially for ZBZ) finally come around and exactly how those new offices turn out causes quite an uproar.
Greek: Chapter Three doesn't offer a whole lot in the way of special features. Besides cast interviews and bloopers, the only thing this DVD offers is some audio commentaries. Needless to say, if you are going to get the DVD, it isn't for the extra stuff.
While Greek is billed as a "dramedy," the amount of comedy in the mix is far less than what I expected and hoped for. The characters get to be pretty interesting, especially as a few of them evolve a bit and don't seem quite as two-dimensional (i.e. Casey), and I found that it wasn't too long before I really got into the show and wanted to know what happened next. While coming into the show in the second season isn't optimal, it is far from impossible. If you've seen the show before, and liked the interaction between the characters, then you are sure to enjoy this chapter, but it's kind of hard to suggest to a new viewer that they start with Greek: Chapter Three (even though the "Previously On Greek" segments do a pretty good job of getting you caught up).
