By Matthew Wood

If someone throws a fraternity party on an ABC Family show, can it really be a cool party? That’s the question they’ll be answering all season on the new dramedy GREEK, about a geeky freshman trying to make it at fictitious Cyprus-Rhodes University.

Rusty (Jacob Zachar) is looking to shed his nerdy image from high school, and considers joining a fraternity as the fast track to the cool kids. Standing in his way is his older sister, Casey (Spencer Grammer), who is next in line to be president of the prestigious Zeta Beta Zeta sorority and doesn’t want her dorky little brother ruining her reputation.

Much to Casey’s chagrin, Rusty goes through rush —  with poor results —  until he gets some advice from fellow rushee Calvin to “just be yourself … and if that doesn’t work, be whoever you want to be.” Armed with that knowledge, Rusty gets offers from two houses: the Omega Chis (but only to keep him quiet after he saw Casey’s boyfriend,  house president Evan, making out with another chick) and the Kappa Taus (the party guys who make him do a body shot off a hot chick — again with poor results).

Did I mention the president of Kappa Tau (the aptly named Cappie) is Casey’s old boyfriend? Yeah, just go with it.

Long story short, Rusty goes against better judgment and tells Casey about Evan’s indiscretions —  resulting in a bar fight and night in jail for our young dork-hero. Hey kid, you wanted a party? You got it.

He then joins Kappa Tau —  good choice; those guys are much more fun —  and begins the roller coaster ride that is freshman year.

ABC Family has been hyping this show for quite some time, and I was curious to see how they how far they would go in portraying real college life on their family-friendly network. Turns out they didn’t do too badly. There’s a guy running naked through a Kappa party — but just shown briefly on his backside. At the same party, someone hands Rusty a bong, but he doesn’t actually do anything with it. Rusty even takes a few drinks, but keeps spitting them out — always at inopportune times. Casey is shown without a shirt on after she hooks up with Cappie to get revenge on Evan. They even (gasp!) use the word “bitch” … twice! Oh, the humanity.

So, first impressions of the show are good. There are some pretty lame themes, such as Rusty’s roommate, the Southern hick Jesus-lover in the engineering program; nerdy stereotype overload. And, it looks like there may be a (seemingly forced) gay plot with Calvin. But, the main characters are likeable enough, especially Casey (did you know she’s Frasier Crane’s daughter in real life?). You can’t help but root for Rusty to survive his freshman year … or at least get laid before it’s all over.